The Wall Street Journal puts it perfectly:

If nothing else, we now know what it takes to make a Democrat go nuts. One word: "appeasement." Read the editorial

Yesterday we got a clear picture of just what the Left has in mind for America in both foreign and domestic policy.

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM: CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT REDEFINES MARRIAGE. On the domestic side, the California Supreme Court re-opened the issue of same-sex marriage with its 4-3 decision substituting its will for the will of the people on the matter (vote for Proposition 22: 61%). This is certainly an emotional issue for many people, and understandably so. Yet, Republicans can agree that it is not the role of the judiciary to fundamentally redefine the basic tenets of society. That is a function appropriate for the legislative process, and Governor Schwarzenegger has consistently vetoed bills aimed at reversing Proposition 22. (See today's Wall Street Journal editorial.)

It will be interesting to see how Barack Obama tip-toes around this issue. Make no mistake: the activists behind his campaign insist on rewriting the definition of marriage as a beginning, rather than an end point, on their agenda of social engineering.

When we witness judicial activism, it's worth noting that the legislative branch -- that closest to the people -- is outlined in the Constitution's Article I, while the branch most removed from the people, the judiciary, is described in its Article III. The judiciary is intended to interpret laws, not make them, as the California Supreme Court in his case has chosen to do.

Significantly, the state Republican Party has already endorsed the November constitutional amendment ballot initiative that would reverse this court decision by putting Proposition 22 into the state constitution, as other states have done.

IN ISRAEL, PRESIDENT BUSH DECRIES APPEASEMENT, OBAMA ASSUMES HE'S TALKING ABOUT HIM. On the foreign policy side, yesterday we witnessed Barack Obama's bizarre overreaction to President Bush's comments before the Israeli Knesset where the President rightly articulated the dangers of a policy of appeasement, noting that "the false comfort of appeasement" has been "discredited by history." He's right, of course.

Barack Obama, apparently inferring that the President must have been talking about him and his own stated goal of negotiating with state sponsors of terrorism, lashed out and attacked the President.

Having watched the speech, it's clear the President was making points that are important, appropriate, and principled -- but not new. To assume President Bush "must" have been talking about Obama is another reason why a growing number of Americans see Obama as arrogant and elitist. (Text of President Bush's speech)

Later, Senator McCain made the case very clearly as to why Obama's foreign policy worldview is naive, questioning Obama's desire to negotiate with state sponsors of terrorism, like the Iranian leader, who wants to see Israel wiped off the map, and even denies the Holocaust. Watch Senator McCain in this excellent ABC News clip.

To most people paying attention, it’s been evident for some time that neither the DNC, nor its Chairman, Howard Dean has any credibility on a wide variety of matters.  If you’ve ever wondered why that is the case, though, an item posted over at the DNC blog today is in and of itself an excellent indicator.

The post in question claims that “Bush made some outrageous comments that ‘Democrats are in favor of  “appeasement” of terrorists in the same way U.S. leaders appeased Nazis in the run-up to World War II.’”  Here’s a screenshot of it:

Presumably, the blogger believes this occurred this morning in the President’s much analyzed speech to the Israeli Knesset (though you can’t exactly tell from the way the blogger has written the post—a separate issue).The problem is, though, the President didn’t say the words the blogger puts in the quotation marks and attributes to him.  Seriously, go take a look at the transcript over here and do a search for the word “Democrats” if you don’t believe me.  Nothing—literally nothing-- shows up.

The President did say:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (emphasis mine)

But that’s not the same thing as what the DNC is claiming.  And the fact that the staff there can’t check a transcript properly and/or think that misdescriptions repeated at left-leaning blogs like this one qualify as being as credible as actual verified quotes included in, say, actual reporting of the speech says a great deal about how seriously they, as an organization, should be taken—i.e., not very.

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a new Web video today, titled "Carter-Obama Taxes. As American families face higher prices at the pump, Barack Obama opposes immediate relief and lower taxes on fuel. Instead, Obama has proposed new tax increases that will reduce oil production, increase dependence on foreign oil, and hurt American consumers...

As Republican leaders and candidates need to have a clear understanding of issues facing California's diverse communities, I today announced the appointment of the first in a series of advisory committees.

The Jewish Republican Advisory Committee will meet regularly with Republican Party leaders, elected officials and candidates to discuss issues of concern in California's large Jewish communities, and advise candidates on effectively addressing those issues.

Members of the Advisory Committee include:

Howard Epstein of San Francisco is the Republican Jewish Coalition's Northern California chapter President, and serves as the Chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party. He is a small business owner by profession, having owned 2 small businesses, and now is dedicated to GOP causes. He has lived in San Francisco his entire life, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Small Property Owners of San Francisco.

Dr. Joel Geiderman of Beverly Hills is the Republican Jewish Coalition–s California Chairman, and sits on the RJC national Board of Directors. He is also a Presidential appointee as the Vice Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council & Museum in D.C. Originally from Chicago; Joel is the Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, in Beverly Hills, CA.

Larry Greenfield, Esq. of Los Angeles is the Republican Jewish Coalition–s CA Director. Previously, he worked professionally in law, business and philanthropy. Larry also served in the Armed Forces of the United States in Naval Intelligence Reserves. He is a Lincoln Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship & Political Philosophy and lectures widely on American politics & foreign policy, and national security issues. Larry graduated from UC Berkeley in political science as Class Speaker, and he picked up his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He sits on the Resolutions Committee of the California Republican Party.

Jerry M. Haleva of Sacramento is active with Republican Jewish Coalition–s Sacramento chapter and nationally. Professionally, he is a political consultant and formerly served as chief of staff to the CA Senate Republican Leader. Jerry chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee of the CA Highway Patrol and was appointed by Governor Wilson to serve on the CA Film Commission.

Michael Rosen, Esq. of San Diego is the Republican Jewish Coalition–s San Diego chapter President and also the Secretary of the San Diego Republican Party. Michael is a Harvard trained attorney in professional practice, and he writes political columns for TechCentralStation.com

Richard Sherman of Los Angeles is the Republican Jewish Coalition–s Los Angeles Chapter President. He is a gubernatorial appointee to the CA Board of Psychology. A licensed psychologist in private practice, Richard was President of the CA Psychological Association and is a frequent media commentator on mental health issues.

Mitch Silberman of Thousand Oaks is the Republican Jewish Coalition's Chapter President in Ventura County and active in his community. Professionally, Mitch is a wealth management professional for high net worth individuals, and is himself a former child actor.

As a Georgia native I can tell you first-hand, the failed tax policies of the Carter presidency are far from fondly remembered - even by his fellow Georgians.

Today the RNC released a new web video, “Carter-Obama Taxes.”  Take a look:

 

Yesterday, John McCain was in my home state of Washington, talking energy and the environment at a roundtable discussion at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center.  PolitickerWA covered the event and has a good (and fairly lengthy) write-up.  Here’s an excerpt:

At the roundtable, the participants discussed issues like federal subsidies, carbon cap-and-trade systems, nuclear power and sustainable communities. McCain tended to moderate, asking questions of those on stage with him about their experiences and how he could help as President.

“I loved seeing them balancing, trying to figure out a balance of the ideas," Pflug commented. "Having someone from REI, Sally Jewell, talking about the brass tacks of good intentions and economic consequences, that is important because ‘sustainable' is not just an environmental word, it is also an economic and a budget word.”

McCain told the gathered crowd that he had become a strong believer in global warming based on trips he had taken, on the taxpayers dime he admitted, to places like Antarctica, Greenland and the Great Barrier Reef where he had seen the drastic changes in the landscape.

“These are the miner's canaries," he warned.

On climate change, McCain supports a cap-and-trade system that allows for a market-based system to draw down carbon emissions rather than a government mandate.

“The Europeans have a camp and trade system," he reported. "We're not inventing the wheel here. We're trying to put free enterprise market based incentives.”

McCain also addressed the climate change deniers. He suggested that even if skeptics are correct, moving toward more sustainable and renewable energy production measures is a good thing. Besides, he figured, with American ingenuity and innovation, creating new systems would only be a boon for the economy.

“I just firmly and steadfastly reject the notions that this is somehow going to be harmful to our economy," McCain said.

“Do I have some passion about it? Yes. Yes, I have some passion," McCain asked himself before adding that he knew America's youth agreed with him.

As Glenn Reynolds might say, indeed-- though I’d add that I agree with Washington State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser’s assessment that McCain’s concern for the environment is also going to appeal to independent voters in Western Washington, and I’d add irrespective of their age.

Each morning I receive an update on what the President and members of the Cabinet are working on that day, along with news clips and related information.

Today's update focused on President Bush's visit to Israel, having arrived in Tel Aviv this morning for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the country's founding.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans have been exposed to just a fraction of the security measures Israelis have had to live with since the country's inception. Ambulances pre-positioned near shopping districts during alerts, heavily armed soldiers regularly patrolling populated areas, metal detectors at the entrance to McDonald's, and many other security measures punctuate daily life. Even today, rockets continue to be fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

President Bush is not just visiting Israel, but continuing a major diplomatic push for a peace deal that will enhance Israel's security.

Highlight from the DNC blog today:

Blogger evidently looking to complain about the supposed lack of media scrutiny of John McCain describing McCain as “the only candidate who has media scrutiny.”

There’s been a lot of discussion of this post in the blogosphere since yesterday, so I’m linking up to it, too.  Ten word synopsis: Megan McArdle finds a lot to like about Bobby Jindal.  Excerpts particularly worth noting:

Jindal and the legislature passed anti-corruption laws that in a surprising turn of events actually seem to have done something about corruption--suddenly the state is getting the best scores in the country. They pushed through disclosure rules for all government officials--state and local, appointed and elected. He got a law passed that forbid legislators from doing business with the state. And he took on a tax and regulatory structure that had been built around the notion that companies couldn't go anywhere, and could hence be bled dry.

[…]

Louisiana seems to have been very lucky in getting a governor who is actually focusing on institution-building which will--if it works--give the state vastly more economic and political flexibility for years to come.

Well, yes.

The past few years have given rise to a disturbing and categorically false narrative: That conservative ideals and policies aimed at environmental protection are mutually exclusive.

With John McCain’s speech on climate change at the Vestas Wind Technology training center in Portland, Oregon today, however, that notion was put to bed just a bit—as was the notion that one party has a monopoly on the best ideas when it comes to addressing global warming.

We need to draw on the best ideas of both parties, and on all the resources a free market can provide. We need to keep our eyes on big goals in energy policy, the serious dangers, and the common interests of the American people.

No matter what we call it, “climate change” or “global warming,” we’re all left dealing with the same startling set of events: the dramatic disappearances of polar ice sheets, sustained drought in the Southwest, and high incidence of extreme weather conditions. The manner in which we approach this situation is of vital importance and the circumstances call for urgent action by Washington-- but also the right action. High taxes and crippling regulation are not the answer; “cap-and-trade” as outlined by McCain can be. In addition to delivering reduced emissions, the McCain plan would avoid hampering economic growth, prioritize international cooperation, and work to spur innovation and technological advancements. In McCain’s own words, the US government cannot simply “summon… talents by command,” but must employ the “free market [to] draw them out,” a free market and the resultant strong and growing economy being “essential to all of our goals, and especially the goal of finding alternatives to carbon-based technology.”

It looks like one key environmental organization might agree, or at least view McCain’s proposal as equally meritorious to what Democrats have to propose. This year, the Sierra Club might refrain from endorsing a candidate (it has endorsed Democrats in six of the past seven presidential elections, and declined to endorse in 1988)—much to the chagrin of Obama, I’m sure.

Team McCain is out with a new ad today in Oregon, this one with an emphasis on climate change.

 

More to come on McCain’s common sense approach to climate change, which has earned him praise from Democrats including Barack Obama and Senator Clinton.

Over at TIME’s Swampland, Michael Scherer notes that the DNC is playing “spending chicken” with John McCain. 

Perhaps.  I think a more accurate game metaphor might be “high stakes poker,” though, given that the DNC is attacking McCain on a signature issue and one on which I strongly suspect more Americans agree with McCain than not.  To McCain’s “house,” the DNC is playing the gambler who’s gone “all in,” hoping for big winnings against all the odds—that much is clear from this off their blog.  Not only have they simply slapped up undistilled, unfiltered research material (and a lot of it).  They’re also proverbially playing with their hearts, not their heads, and putting themselves further in the hole by—you guessed it—sticking up for earmarks, and more importantly, the actual practice of earmarking.

It’s good to know that Howard Dean and his staff, and presumably Barack Obama by extension, have zero problem with federal money being allocated and spent in a distinctly non-transparent fashion, which neither entails nor allows for even minimal oversight or public scrutiny at the time such spending is proposed.  I wonder whether anyone else finds it amusing and ironic that Democrats are sticking their necks out to stand up for a process that patently looks so undemocratic.

Perhaps this is all a ploy to get the media and sadly uninformed swing voters who may be passing by the DNC blog to focus in, in a roundabout way, on a more specific point that seems to be being pushed, by virtue of certain specific earmarks the DNC chooses to make an issue of.  It looks suspiciously like the DNC might be trying to covertly pre-empt all the heralding of John McCain as a forward-thinking leader on the environment that is likely to take place when he puts that issue front and center next week. 

More below the fold.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal featured an interesting piece about Barack Obama and taxes, which argues that “Going back to the tax rates of the 1990s doesn't mean that households will pay 1990s taxes. Because the tax brackets haven't risen along with incomes, average taxes would be significantly higher, and grow each year.”

How so?  In short, bracket creep.

Read the piece for a full, and number-packed, explanation.  For now, suffice it to say that when Obama says "I would roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans back to the level they were under Bill Clinton, when I don't remember rich people feeling oppressed,” that’s not the full story. 

Last night we launched CanWeAsk.com – much to the chagrin of Barack Obama, who we all know prefers his waffles over substantive questions, from reporters and voters alike.

Can we ask Barack Obama why he voted “present” 130 times in the Illinois State Legislature avoiding decisions on issues including abortion, crime, and guns?  Can we ask how he proposes to pay for $660 billion in new spending?  Can we even ask if he intends to raise taxes on families and small businesses?  Yes we can—and, indeed, you can:

 

We’ve given you an opportunity to pose your questions to Obama in either text or video form thanks to YouTube, whose political blog, CitizenTube, incidentally notes the GOP’s previous successes using new media.

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee(RNC) today launched a new Web site encouraging voters to ask Barack Obama questions about the important issues facing America . CanWeAsk.com provides Americans with an opportunity to submit text or video questions for Barack Obama regarding the issues he has failed to address or refused to answer...

One of the DNC bloggers linked to this item over at The Hill yesterday in an effort to prove his point that “the health care system would be put on ‘life support’ under McCain.”

What he fails to mention is that the author of the piece is a Democratic strategist, who worked for John Kerry in 2004—and that it’s really not news that someone fitting this profile might not like John McCain’s proposed solutions on health care very much.  

Next thing the DNC will be referencing Howard Dean’s clips and attempting to pass off his opinions expressed therein as weighty and neutral.

Last night, John McCain stopped by The Daily Show. Disclosure of his Secret Service code name and announcement of his running mate were on offer. Check out the clips from both segments: