The great "girl groups" and a few other ladies!

Like most baby boomers, I'm a huge fan of those "girl groups" from the 1960s. They were great. They had great harmonies. I won't say anything about their hairstyles.

Let's start with the biggest "girl group", The Supremes. At one point, Diana Ross and her two friends from Detroit competed with The Beatles for the top of the charts. My favorite was "Come see about me":

The Marvelettes had a great name and some big hits like "Too Many Fish In the Sea", "I'll Keep Holding On" and "Don't Mess With Bill". My favorite was "Beachwood 4-5789", a catchy tune and one of the greatest song titles of all time:

The SHIRELLES were a very close second to The Supremes. They recorded songs like "Soldier Boy", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", "Dedicated To The One I Love" and "Mama Said". I did not know this: The Shirelles were the first all girl group of the Rock and Roll Era to score a number one record! It's hard to pick one but I liked "Foolish little girl":

The Shangri-las were from Queens, New York. They were sisters Betty and Mary Weiss and twins Margie and Mary-Ann Ganser. They met at Andrew Jackson High School. These girls had a very unique look. Their biggest hit was "Leader of the pack":

The Ronettes were also from NY City. Their biggest hit was "Be my baby" but I liked "Walking in the rain":

Leslie Gore was not a part of a "girl group". She had songs like "It's my party", "Judy's turn to cry", "She's a fool", "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" and "That's the Way Boys Are". Most of her songs were about "teen boy-girl" issues. My favorite was "California Nights", a song recorded at the end of her career:

Let me say a word about Petula Clark. She was my favorite female vocalist from this period. My parents enjoyed her songs because they were so polished. Petula Clark had an amazing voice. She had hits like "Downtown", "My love" and "I know a place". My favorite song was "Kiss me goodbye":

Let me add Carole King. She was a great songwriter in the 1960s. In 1971, she released her own album called "Tapestry". She recorded several songs in the 1970s. My favorite song was "Sweet seasons":

Barbara Lewis was a hit machine. She recorded "Hello stranger" and "Baby I'm yours". My favorite was "Make me your baby":

Let's go back to the Supremes. As I wrote before, they were the top girl group. This is "Stop in the name of love":

The girl groups were great. They were one of the most interesting chapters of the pop-rock era!

BO's supporters are politically tone deaf

Take note of BO's supporters and their reaction to the latest outburst from the pulpit. This is what they are saying:

1) Obama is not responsible for crazy clergy in his church.

2) Obama is not responsible that some of his political friends tried to blow up buildings. He just hangs around with them when he is seeking public office.

3) Obama is not responsible that people cheer racist statements in his church. He just sees these people every Sunday!

After all, BO is just a member of the church. He just sat there for 20 years! Doesn't everybody wear ear plugs to church anyway? How can we expect someone to actually listen to what they are saying in his church?

Sorry. It doesn't add up.

We can choose our church. We can choose to walk out and find another church. Also, we don't have to contribute $20,000 to that church.

Why didn't Obama go behind the microphone and blast his fellow congregation for cheering these racist remarks?

Is he afraid to confront people? Isn't this man tough enough to stand for something? Again, who is looking out for the young people of that church?

What we are seeing here is another example of political tone deafness. BO's supporters can not hear what so many people find offensive. Can you say West Virginia and Kentucky?

I guess that this is what happens when you spend your entire life hanging around with left wing ideologues!

See Rick Moran's OBAMA’S RADICAL POLITICAL ALLIANCES:

"Furthermore, it is evident that in return for their support, Obama used his position as state senator and board member for the Woods Foundation to funnel public and private money into the coffers of these radical groups thus cementing a relationship that is still paying dividends for Obama to this day.

The New Party, ACORN, and the Arab American Action Network are not by any stretch of the imagination mainstream political or social organizations.

They are radical anti-capitalist, pro-Marxist, and in the case of the AAAN a group supporting the terrorist activities of the Palestinians."

Who said what about WMD's in Iraq?

Scott McClellan's book has reopened the old case about Iraq and WMDs. Therefore, let's set the record straight. As they say, just look at the video:

In the meantime, let's thank former Sen. Dole for writing this about the book and its despicable author:

""There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning.

"No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

Bob Dole is a war hero. He was a great senator. We thank him for writing this about McClellan.

Gov Richardson is right about Mexico

Mexico needs help to fight cartels. They are not asking for US GI's. We are simply talking about providing Mexican soldiers with better equipment to fight a terrible war.

Therefore, it was refreshing to hear that Gov. Richardson of New Mexico is calling on his party to get something done:

"Richardson said Mexican President Felipe Calderon deserved support in his aggressive fight against drug cartels, including deploying 25,000 troops to hotspots across the country.

He said Mexico was in critical need of more resources for that fight, noting a string of attacks against police that have left several top commanders dead.

"It is important that the Senate and House resolve their differences because it would be disastrous if Plan Merida went down the tube," Richardson said in an interview with The Associated Press."

We always appreciate Dem sanity whenever we see it.

It's nice to hear a Dem talking about doing something other than issuing a subpoena for Karl Rove, "taxing the rich" or starting impeachment proceedings against Bush or Cheney.

Gov. Richardson is a border governor and he knows the mess that the US-Mexico border is.

All you have to do is look south for a minute and see that there is a war going on! (The Drug Wars' Body Counts Continue To Mount in Mexico By Allan Wall)

Good job Gov. Richardson. At the same time, good luck trying to change your party because they are in the pockets of the trade unions!

Down in Mexico, Pres. Calderon, and brave Mexican soldiers and policemen, are fighting a very difficult war.

Up here, Obama and Clinton are telling Ohio and PA voters that Mexico stole their jobs.

Drill here for oil

Look to the left. You will see a blinking message:

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.

As Newt Gingrich demonstrates, this is an energy crisis created in Washington.

We have made it impossible to drill for oil, to build new refineries or to start nuclear plants.

The Dems are now demonizing oil companies. They are blaming everyone but the real culprit, the extreme environmentalism that dominates our energy policies.

Yes, we want to protect the environment. At the same time, we want to continue growing.

Yes, we want alternative energy. At the same time, gasoline is the only thing that will run your car in the near future.

Let's increase our supply by drilling here.

Obama does not have a clue about Iraq!

The Obama campaign is now trying to explain what he said now and what he said before.

At the end of the day, we are seeing two problems with Obama:

1) First, he can't admit that things are going well in Iraq. Why? The left will turn on him.

2) He has not been to Iraq since 2006. He has not talked to any of the commanders on the ground.

Obama is slowly demonstrating that he is not suitable for framing!

O'Reilly and Hayes nail McClellan!

Bill O'Reilly has the best line on this book: "Wow. What a difference a year and cash can make"

Stephen Hayes wrote "No kidding":

"We weren't interested in a book that was just a defense of the Bush administration." Peter Osnos, founder of PublicAffairs books and publisher of Scott McClellan's new book. More here."

The angry left is out of control. They are emboldened and see blood in the water.

Last, but not least, they are going to go after Pres. Obama if he fails to deliver on their agenda.

Just wait: Wait until a Pres. Obama tells this crowd that he can't withdraw troops from Iraq as quickly as he promised them.

Trust me. It's coming: "Obama lied, people continue to die"

Just wait: Wait until a Pres. Obama tells them that he can't "tax the rich" without throwing the US economy into a massive recession.

The Dems have brought this on themselves. They've cultivated this culture of irresponsible Bush bashing and intolerance.

In the end, the angry left will consume the Dems!

P.S. This is why I keep telling my Dem friends, specially those who are not part of this angry left:

Pray for a McCain victory.

At least, you can sit in the bleachers and blame everything on Pres. McCain.

BO: Ready to do what on Day One?

Dean Barnett fills in for Hugh Hewitt from time to time. He is the fellow with that wonderful New England accent. It's always so easy to tell when Barnett is doing the show.

Today, Barnett analyzed BO's campaign "confusion" regarding meeting with some of the world's bad guys:

"It’s rather amazing that Obama can’t distinguish between direct presidential diplomacy and sending a Bill Richardson-type shlub to chat with a dictator.

It’s even more amazing that as wrong as he is, he still thinks he’s the only person out there with a proper understanding of this corner of diplomatic history."

Yes, it is amazing. Aren't we talking about this guy running for president of the US?

Josh Hamilton and those 450 ft homers!

Albert Chen's story on Hamilton is called Super Natural.

Like Roy Hobbs, Hamilton came back from the dead to play major league ball.

Let's see if Hamilton can lead the Rangers to a pennant like Hobbs led the NY Knights in that great movie, The Natural.

It was such a great movie that I bought the VHS copy.

In fact, it was such a good movie that I had all of the kids in my baseball team watch it back when I coached Little League. The kids and the fathers loved it. Every kid wanted to chop a tree and make his own bat like young Hobbs!

This is how Chen starts his article on Hamilton:

"During his darkest hours -- after he had been banished from baseball in 2004 and was doing coke, downing a bottle of Crown Royal a day and burning through his entire $4 million signing bonus -- Hamilton had recurring dreams that he was "fighting the devil, an awful-looking thing," with a stick or a bat, swinging but always missing."

It's a lot different now. We heard all spring about Hamilton's titanic home runs. He is the most exciting batting practice hitter since McGwire and Canseco used to play with the A's.

Like Chen writes:

"Three hours before game time at Rangers Ballpark, fans are already gathering in the stands to watch the home team take batting practice, but the show doesn't really start until it's Hamilton's turn to step to the plate."

I have not seen any of Hamilton's batting practice shots yet. I will. However, I have seen a couple of his moon shots on TV, such as the one against Houston two weekend ago. It went over 450 feet!

So far, so good! Hamilton has come back from the dead and his bat is as hot as any bat in recent memory. Best of all, he has put his problems behind him!

How in the world can Obama still be a member of this church?

Obama has conveniently distanced himself from Rev. Wright. However, his church has not distanced itself from insane remarks and politics from the pulpit.

This is Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest in the Chicago area. He is saying some rather amazing things:

"Pfleger argues that whites must give up their 401(k) money in order to have any hope of atoning for the sins of their ancestors.

He also maintains that Hillary Clinton's unhappiness over losing out to Obama is specifically related to his race.

In other words, Clinton would have been less distraught had, say, John Edwards bested her. In this account, of course, Clinton is a racist." (Power Line)

First of all, the Chicago-area Bishop needs to sit down with Fr. Pfleger and bring him down to earth. Priests are not supposed to say these things. This is absurd. Do you remember the late Pope John Paul II getting in a priest's face in Nicaragua about political comments? Somebody has to do the same with Fr. Pfleger!

As a Catholic, I am appalled that a priest would say this. I have never heard such words from a priest before!

Second, who is looking out for the kids in that audience? Should they be hearing this garbage from the pulpit?

Who is looking out for the kids at Obama's church? Obama isn't.

Third, why is Obama still a member of this church? What in the world is he going to say now?

Check the video. This is what the kids are hearing at Obama's church:

The book that will make Scott McClellan a quick dollar!

Before you go out and invest $27 to pre-order Scott McClellan's book, please consider this:

1) Remember the Greenspan book hype; and,

2) This book will be "on sale" for $3.99 in a very short time.

In fact, it will probably be a "giveaway" soon if you contribute to Moveon.org's next ad against McCain!

Or, it will be a "giveaway" if you renew your NY Times' subscription! The NY Times is desperately keeping every subscriber! They had a pretty big drop in circulation last year!

Trust me: Save your money. Take your wife out to dinner. It will be a far better investment. She will appreciate it more.

Besides, why support a left wing publisher hyping a wimp's book in the middle of an election? (McClellan's Publisher a Liberal: Advances Soros & Slams Limbaugh)

A few months ago, we were treated to a weekend of "publisher hype" about the upcoming Greenspan book that was supposed to blow up the Bush administration.

A lot of "anti-war suckers" pre-ordered the expensive hard cover edition and learned that the hype and the book were not the same thing.

These are probably the "fools" who are now selling "used editions" on Amazon at whatever they can get.

In fact, Greenspan turned out to be a strong supporter of the war. Go back and watch the "60 minutes" interview!

Hang another one on Bush Derangement Syndrome.

It's amazing what some people will do just to get their dose of Bush Bashing!

Some of these people will drink poison if you tell them it's a new drink called "I hate Bush" Cola!

First, a word about Pres. GW Bush. The good news is that he is a very decent man who is loyal to the bone. The bad news is the same as the good news.

His dad had the same problem. Very loyal and often betrayed by people who stabbed them for a quick dollar.

Bush, like his dad, will have the last laugh. The senior Bush's library at Texas A&M is a big hit. The current Bush's library, soon to open at SMU in Dallas, will be a big hit, too.

The critics, who burned loyalty and went for the quick dollar, will be desperately trying to make up.

Second, a word about McLellan.

He replaced Ari Fletcher, a pretty good press secretary. Unfortunately, McClellan turned out to be a failure on the job.

For a couple of years, most of us blasted the White House for allowing McClellan to do these daily news conferences. McClellan looked out of his league everyday. He looked like a AA hitter overwhelmed by major league pitching!

Eventually, he was fired and replaced by Tony Snow, an excellent choice who left early because of health reasons.

Third, a word about making money. I'm a capitalist and free market person. Yet, do you make money by stabbing a friend? I don't think so.

Scott McClellan will have his 15 minutes of fame. For a couple of weeks, McClellan will be an expert on everything, from foreign policy to presidential history.

The left wing media loves books about former Republicans bashing the boss, even if they do it because they can't find work and need a quick buck!

Read Scott on the Rocks By George Neumayr!

The left wing media loves to tell you that Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq. They always forget to tell you that Bill Clinton and Al Gore looked at the evidence and came to the same conclusion. In fact, Pres. Clinton even ordered a 4-day bombing of Iraq to destroy Saddam's WMDs! Read the speech or watch the video. Clinton sounds a lot like Bush or Bush sounds a lot like Clinton!

Here is the truth: McClellan will be the darling of the left and make an appearance on left wing shows like Keith Oberman.

The bad news is that Oberman will promote every anti-Bush angle.

The good news is that no one watches Oberman or MSNBC. (FOXNEWS #1 For the 77th consecutive month... )

The left will eventually throw him overboard when the book is released and reality does not match the hype. Also, the media will dispose of McClellan when he turns out to be wimpy guest who can't speak well or present a coherent argument.

Again, why do you think so many of us wanted him fired in the first place?

Sadly, he has walked away from the people who stood with him and supported his career. (Ex-Colleagues Ask, 'What Happened?')

Furthermore, is McClellan telling the truth? JAY NORDLINGER raises a few doubts! My guess is that a lot of people will raise these questions as the facts catch up with McClellan's desire for a quick buck!

Who is proud of Scott McClellan this morning? I am not.

In the end, McClellan turned out the wimp that we thought that he was all along. He looked wimpish in front of the press. He did not have the guts to tell anyone in the White House about his alleged misgivings.

Again, I am not very proud of Scott McClellan.

Moral of the story: Don't keep wimps on your staff. They will eventually wimp out on you for a quick dollar!

Just watch this great video:

I'm still hoping for McCain-Romney

According to historians, LBJ was critical in JFK's very tight victory in 1960. After all, JFK beat Nixon by 114,000 votes out of 76 million!

Did LBJ help JFK in Texas? Probably. Did LBJ help JFK in Chicago? Probably, although Mayor Dailey played a big role in Chicago's controversial vote count!

Outside of LBJ, has any other VP nominee helped the candidate? I can't think of any.

Why Romney?

First, he is a the credible president. It helps a lot to be seen as a man who can assume the office.

Second, he is a conservative. It helps McCain to do that.

Third, he has the kind of private sector experience that will play well in a year when people are looking for outsiders.

McCain-Romney should propose domestic policies like these:

1) Keep the Bush tax cuts. Are the Dems seriously going to run a campaign based on "taxing the rich"? They should talk to Mondale before doing that.

2) School choice. It's time for the Republican party to line up with inner city families and break up the public education monopoly.

3) Justices who respect the constitution rather than rewrite it. Can you say same sex marriage in California?

4) No more earmarks. The "spending culture" must be blown up.

5) A balanced budget amendment.

6) Family values.

Romney will also bring some youth (he's 60) to the ticket and connections in the private sector.

Give me McCain-Romney. I called for this ticket back in July 2007! This is Gov. Romney's great speech before CPAC in March:

Josh Hamilton is what baseball (and young kids) need!

Major league baseball is still recovering from the drug scandals. And now Josh Hamilton comes to the rescue of the game.

Baseball is always lucky. There is always something that comes along and saves the game from the stupidity of the owners and the players' union.

In '81, the strike nearly killed the game. However, the Yankees-Dodgers series got us to think about baseball again. NY had defeated LA in '77 and '78. The Dodgers had a great comeback and beat NY by winning the last four games after starting 0-2!

In '94, the strike killed the season but Cal Ripken saved baseball the following season.

Hamilton will be on the cover of the next Sport Illustrated issue. I'm sure that Commissioner Bud Selig must be smiling. (Texas Rangers' Hamilton getting national coverage)

Hamilton's story is something out of a Hollywood black and white movie.

In '99, Hamilton was the # 1 high school player in the country. He was drafted by the Rays and soon got into serious drug abuse problems. He was suspended. The Rays eventually let him go and the Rangers picked him up last season.

Today, he is hitting home runs and telling kids to stay away from drugs. He is also an early candidate to win the first triple crown since Yaztremski did it in 1967!

God must love baseball because he always sends a guardian angel to save the game for the fans! As the father of 3 sons who idolize sports stars, I'm very happy to see Josh Hamilton come along!

Is BO afraid of seeing success in Iraq?

McCain is hitting BO very hard:

"“Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost,” the GOP nominee-in-waiting told The Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator’s last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.

“He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time,” the Arizona senator added.

“If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn’t had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly.”

BO has not been in Iraq for a couple of years. On the other hand, Dem and Reps continue to go and come back with success stories.

Why won't BO go to Iraq and sit down with our military commanders?

The answer is two fold:

1) He is afraid of seeing success. He is afraid of having to admit that he made a mistake by not supporting the surge. (Iraq violence falls to four-year low, U.S. says)

2) He is afraid of losing the left wing ideologues if he sits down with a military man.

The bottom line is that BO can not continue to talk about an Iraq that he has not visited. At some point, he is going to have to sit down and see it for himself. In the meantime, he should listen to this lady who served in one of the medical units taking care of the troops:

Enjoy this McCain moment!

Senator McCain was in Denver and ran into a couple of predictable idiots. These are the people who believe in free speech as long as you agree with them.

During Sen. McCain's presentation, a couple of anti-war clowns started to yell whatever they were yelling.

McCain stopped and told them: I won't surrender in Iraq! We are winning!

Well done McCain!

P.S. Why don't you see conservatives behave like this at Obama's rallies? Ed Morrissey has a good thought:

"Maybe because conservatives can put together coherent arguments rather than mindless chants and mishandled banners."

Translation: We understand the evil in the world. They are still counting votes in Florida!

Obama's foreign policy: Everything is Bush's fault

BO's "everything is Bush's fault" foreign policy needs to do a little fact check.

We should remind BO that Bush was the governor of Texas when Hugo Chavez came to power. It wouldn't be a bad idea to remind BO that the Iraq War was overwhelming supported by Dems in 1998 (Clinton) and 2002 (Bush).

Question: Did you hear any Dem stand up in March 2003 and denounce the war?

Yesterday, BO blamed everything on Bush and the Iraq War again. Listen to BO's latest speech:

"Since the Bush Administration launched a misguided war in Iraq, its policy in the Americas has been negligent toward our friends, ineffective with our adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in peoples' lives, and incapable of advancing our interests in the region.

No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum. His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past.

But the United States is so alienated from the rest of the Americas that this stale vision has gone unchallenged, and has even made inroads from Bolivia to Nicaragua."

Blaming everything on the Iraq War is nonsense.

Latin America's problems have nothing to do with our invasion, or our lack of, Iraq.

Latin America's problems are rooted on bad economic policy, such as Mexico's refusal to allow private investment in its energy sector. Overall, Lat American leaders have shown little knowledge of economics. Blame Lat American demagogues. Don't blame the Iraq War.

Is Obama saying that Mexico would have created more jobs or have been more open to foreign investment if Bush had not invaded Iraq?

Again, who believes this garbage? The "yes we can" screamers do.

At the same time, BO is going to be very disappointed when he finds that Lat Am presidents are a lot angrier with his anti free-trade talk than Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Tom Bevan of RCP took the time to respond to BO:

"Chavez was elected in December 1998 - two years before President Bush took office - running as a Marxist demagogue, and it was clear from the outset what kind of leader he would be.

By July 1999 he had forced through a rewriting of the Venezuelan Constitution that restructured the government, vastly expanded his authority, and increased his ability to pack the court system.

I remember this period fairly well, because at the time I lived in Miami and worked with a young woman from a well to do family from Venezuela.

Her parents, along with the rest of the business class in Venezuela, were petrified by Chavez and were scrambling to try and find ways of sheltering and/or protecting their assets before Chavez seized them - as he'd promised to do.

Again, all of this took place during the Clinton administration in the year and a half preceding George W. Bush's election, and a full four years before the Iraq campaign began.

Though Obama would like to argue Chavez is somehow a monster of George Bush's making, the truth is that he was a bad actor from the beginning, and would have remained so regardless of who was occupying the White House."

It won't be long before BO blames the Iranian hostage crisis on Bush. Why not? Isn't everything Bush's fault.

BO's hometown Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908. Isn't that Bush's fault too?

Here is a little friendly advice to BO and my Dem friends. You will need something more than blaming everything on Bush.

P.S. Someone at the BO staff should read John Hinderaker's Are We Safer?.

John goes through a year by year review of terrorist attacks against the US. He comes to the concluion that terrorists wre more likely to attack the US before we invaded Iraq. As John writes:

"No doubt there are officials inside the Bush administration who could better allocate credit among these, and probably other, explanations of our success in preventing terrorist attacks.

But based on the clear historical record, it is obvious that the Bush administration has done something since 2001 that has dramatically improved our security against such attacks.

To fail to recognize this, and to rail against the Bush administration's security policies as failures or worse, is to sow the seeds of greatly increased susceptibility to terrorist attack in the next administration."

Jewish Americans are very concerned with BO

Sen. Obama went to Florida and found very skeptical Jewish Americans.

Jenniffer Rubin wrote this:

"Many Jews have real concerns about Obama’s toleration for Wright, his willingness to provide an international publicity platform for the world’s most prominent holocaust denier, and even his close association with Palestinian activists who defame Israel.

To win voters over, he will have to be honest in assessing and addressing their concerns.

Then he can try to articulate why it would be in our national security interest, and in Israel’s, to talk without preconditions with Ahmadinejad.

That’s the basis for a real dialogue with the Jewish community on matters of foreign policy."

BO made a huge mistake by saying that he would talk to Ahmadinejad without preconditions. It was a stupid remark because it's not in our national security to talk without some preconditions.

Based on early results, his remarks are not helping with Jewish Americans, a critical voting bloc in Florida.