I was about to write about the help we are receiving from around the world for Katrina, butCommon Sense Junctionalready has the list up. Check it out to see all of the nations that are generously pledging to help all the U.S. victims. (It shouldn't take you too long to scroll it.)
Great move. As much as I dislike governments interfering with free markets, I think this move is necessary. Oil traders have been bidding up oil prices on sentiment and momentum as much as fundamentals - to the potential devastating impact to the U.S. economy. The opportunity by President Bush to slow down the price spike will be welcomed.
John Hawkinspoints to a post at the favorite blog of liberals, Daily Kos. The post explains that Hurricane Katrina is all Bush's fault and that black people were left behind on purpose to die.
I hope stories like this get picked up by the MSM because they are so outrageous. Just as outrageous as saying that Saddam had no terrorist connections or had no capability to build chemical or biological weapons.
Socialized Medicine is Killing People - Literally!
Socialized medicine is demonstrating to us once again its serious flaws. In the UK, it's been well publicized that often those who need an immediate MRI, or a hip or knee replacement, or even a heart procedure will have to wait years before the procedure is done, due to a lack of resources. Now it appears that the infamous NHS is removing the life support from an 86 year old man who according the The Daily Mail,
was sitting up and eating last Friday before the doctors sedated him.
If this is true, this is outrageous. The Daily Mail goes on to explain, one doctor said that Mr A had a chance of recovering and could live at home with medication to control his ailments, however a judge has decided that the man has no chance of recuperation. Furthermore, according to Mr A's son, there appears to be a policy of not giving dialysis to people over 80.
Now I do have some sympathy to the euthanasia argument for those in extreme pain or for those who have legally stated their desire to die in the event that a terrible tragedy might occur. But when judges start deciding to override some doctors, while listening to others, this can get tricky.
The NHS has a horrible reputation for care and has often been known to allocate resources to those based upon age. I seriously hope this isn't what's happening here. The Herald and Guardian have related stories.A similar story(sorry - all I have access to is first paragraph) publishes some FRIGHTENING statistics that ageism does exist in the health system in the UK. Please have a look here.
Europeans Use Katrina to Bash US on Global Warming
The Germans have decided that once again, it's theU.S. faultfor force majeures. According to the environmentalists, Katrina was caused by irresponsible U.S. companies and consumers and it's justified that we face our own punishment.
We also probably caused the tsunami disasters last year, but just haven't been notified yet.
Dennis Prager at Townhallasks just one useful question for all those who still oppose the Iraq War: "Do you believe we are fighting evil people in Iraq?"
If opponents of the war cannot answer this question in the affirmative, their moral compass is so far off base that it's not worth wasting any more breath on them.
Hanoi Jane and Mr. Oil for Food bribe taker, UK politician, George Galloway will be touring the US in September. Little Green Footballs has the dates here.
We all know Jane's never ending support for communism, which began when she supported the commies in Vietnam. Galloway, likewise stated, "The worst day in my life was the day the Soviet Union fell." These two losers will team up together, beginning in Boston on September 13th. To call them losers, I suppose has to be an understatement. Communism, once the darling of all liberal ideologies, and once a threat to the world, is now, all but dead and abandoned. It's one of the biggest failures of the 20th century, but these guys are still yearning for the yesteryears of communism and all the goodies it once inflicted upon the world: murder and poverty.
But are they really communists or do they just talk a good game? Smells of hypocrisy to me. After all, Fonda has to have a net worth somewhere near a $ billion smackeroos, after her marriage to Ted Turner. Galloway, while a man of more modest means, also does pretty well for himself. Annual MP salary of 100,000 dollars, plus he receives a salary for writing a column approximating another 135,000 dollars. He has also twice sued newspapers for sums upwards of 150,000 dollars, and he owns two companies and two homes. Nothing wrong with any of this, except one thing - THIS ISN'T COMMUNISM! The only wealth-makers under communism were the elite people at the top: the murderers, and the abusers of the system. The other 99.9% of the population were dirt poor.
So let me get this straight. According to hypocrites like Fonda and Galloway - hey - communism is great for you and the rest of the world, but when it comes to actually living the ideology which they've long supported, this ragtag duo is nowhere to be found. Too busy living the high life.
A UK-based secondary school hasdecided to allow its students to use the F*** wordin class, so long as they don't do it more than five times during the class. The teacher will keep a running tally on the board so students can know how many swears they have left for that particular class.
This is ridiculous - but something that the Left will surely embrace as a great example of "tolerance."
Mark Steyn lays out the Iraqi scene according to the U.S. media: things are a disaster with the Constitution and now everyone can celebrate the U.S. "failure:"
The constitutional wrangling in Baghdad is par for the course in Iraq's nation-building -- at least as filtered through the Western media. As the deadline approaches, we read that the whole magilla's about to go belly up, there's no agreement on the way forward, Washington's going to have to admit it called things disastrously wrong and step in to salvage what it can by postponing the handover to an Iraqi administration/the first free elections/the draft constitution/whatever.
Unfortunately for the MSM (aka the anti-war Left), none of their predictions have turned out to be true so far - and the Constitution draft will likely be no different, despite what the media says.
Chris Hitchens - Top 10 List Reasons why Iraq War Justified
Christopher Hitchens has an articulate reasoning of the positive attributes of the Iraq war and why it's justified. Here are his top 3:
(1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.
(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
Wow, do you mean that in the United States of America, people actually believe in free speech? I'm stunned. Really.
Coming on the heels of the public outcry overCode Pink: Women for Peaceand their cronies protesting outside Walter Reed hospital, this is clearly more Lib posturing. It's ok, see, because most people back our right to protest.
Yes, but having a right to protest, and having the good sense to know where you should protest, are two different things. You don't see these headlines, do you:
But of course, according to Code Pink, it's a "vigil" to show support. Oddly enough, most "vigils" I know involve things like candles and ribbons - not nasty signs and makeshift coffins.
Less than three weeks before more than 170 nations' leaders meet for a major world summit in New York, media around the world are reporting that the Bush administration's point man at the United Nations has thrown plans for the gathering into disarray.
One of the issues on the table is the enlargement of the permanent members of the security council from five members to eleven. Of the nation members mentioned as part of the enlargement, many have voted against the U.S. more often than not. Enlarging the council will only make the organization more anti-U.S. and less effective.
When it came to votes on "key issues," South Africa and Nigeria voted with the U.S. position on average 20 percent of the time between 2000 and 2004, India 19 percent, Brazil 35 percent, Germany 64 percent and Japan 66 percent of the time.
John Stossel at Townhall explains how private charity does the job of helping poor people much better than does the government.
When you rely on the government to help those who need it, you don't practice benevolence yourself. You don't take responsibility for deciding whom to help. Just as public assistance discourages the poor from becoming independent by rewarding them with fixed handouts, it discourages the rest of us from being benevolent.
Ask Vietnam veterans the worst thing they experienced and many will reply that when they returned, they faced hostility from U.S. citizens upon their return.
Another MSM headline (Financial Times headline) is very misleading once again: "US General Sees Significant Withdrawal in Iraq."
The US is expected to pull significant numbers of troops out of Iraq in the next 12 months in spite of the continuing violence, according to the general responsible for near-term planning in the country.
When you take the time to read General Lute's comments, however, you will reach a very different conclusion from the headline. What Lute says is that, based on factors on the ground and the continuing buildup of Iraqi forces, the U.S. would like to adjust its own troop levels at some point in the future. This is common sense and is no different than what our leaders (including President Bush) have said all along.
But, alas the media spin is that we're going to run from Iraq with our tails between our legs because the situation is an unmitigated disaster. Even if it belies the facts, the media has to spin this as a U.S. failure.
President Bush should tell every military leader to answer any question about troop withdrawals with a simple: "When we feel we can withdraw troops, we'll withdraw troops." Period.
Welcome to Pam from Iraq War Today who has volunteered to guest blog, as my time commitments during the day have increased recently. I'm looking forward to her posts and insights - and I'm sure it will be a welcome voice of reason and a break from all of my rants!
DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff , as reported in theNew York Times, said that Americans are “rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel we do not have the proper control over our borders.”
No, really?
He went on to say that DHS plans to go beyond the simple answer of more border patrol agents, to add cameras and fences, and expedite deportation.
Hopefully, we’re finally going to get tough on this issue. It’s unfortunate that it has to come as a reaction to Democrat posturing on immigration, but maybe it’s the wake up call the Right side of the aisle needed.
You know it's slow in Washington when every media station in the country picks up on Pat Robertson's comments that the U.S. would be better off if we assassinated Hugo Chavez. First of all, Robertson is correct. Chavez is trying desperately to bring Latin America down into Cuba's form of repression and if assassination were a possibility, it should be done. (Who wouldn't have advocated for Saddam's death during the 1990s? - that is, until Bush actually did remove him from office, when he became the Left's martyr...)
Secondly, many people on the Left have said the same thing about assassinating President Bush and the media simply yawned. Funny how that works - "protect the communists" is still a popular rallying cry.
DC-based conservative talk show host Michael Graham has been fired from his job at WMAL for remarks he made about Islam. Joel Mowbrayexplains that the radio station buckled under PC pressure from Muslims.
Michael Grahamhas his own piece on his firing. What a shame - all he had to do was say something negative about Judaism or Catholicism and everything would have been fine. But Islam is untouchable - even though it is a terror organization.
The National Geographic Channel tonight broadcast "Inside 9/11." This was the first time in at least a year that I have seen any footage of the worst terrorist attacks in American history. It was extremely well done and is a necessary reminder that, to terrorists, it's not about Palestine, Iraq or oil. It's about killing anyone who isn't a radical Muslim.
It should be required viewing for every student in the United States - just like the Holocaust or the Civil War. Unfortunately, the ACLU, the NEA and most of the media would rather show the Abu Ghraib photos as the requirement.
Little Green Footballs also has good things to say. Unfortunately the Leftie sites probably won't watch - reality is just too dramatic for them...
Documents detailing the work of a top secret military intelligence unit that identified lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta before the 9/11 attacks have disappeared, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency's liaison for the group, code named Able Danger.
It's likely the same reason Sandy Berger stole documents from the National Archives and "accidentally shredded them."
It doesn't surprise me that many in the media downplay the seriousness of the Chavez/Castro influence in Latin America, while trivializing the U.S. role to prevent it. The American Thinkerhas more on Donald Rumsfeld's latest visit to Paraguay and Peru, while the NY Times scoffs at it.
If Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) were in charge of World War II, the entire world would be speaking German today. In language that you would expect to hear from Ted Kennedy, Hagel compares Iraq to Vietnam and uses defeatism to explain that we are losing and actually doing more harm than good.
"I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."
That's right - the U.S., rather than radical Muslims, destabilized the Middle East. Perhaps Hagel is right in one respect comparing Iraq to Vietnam - certain political leaders in our country have absolutely no fortitude to do what is right, but rather what is politically expedient.
Chris Wallace interviewed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and asked about today's high gas prices. Richardson took the opportunity to denounce Bush's policies and his lack of putting forward some ambiguous "Marshall Plan" for energy consumption in the U.S. - filled with the usual soundbites: ethanol production, alternative energy means, technology,...(I'm not sure if Richardson noticed the gargantuan energy bill that just passed Congress.)
Wallace then pointed out to Richardson that while he was Energy Secretary in the Clinton Administration, he failed to take ANY steps to encourage energy production (nuclear power, coal power, ANWR drilling) and actually made it more difficult to build any new power plants. Richardson realized he was backed into a corner and quickly backtracked by saying that this was a "bipartisan issue," where both parties have failed to address the issue properly.
Sorry Governor, but you and the Clinton Administration failed and President Bush is simply undoing your mistakes. Just another Clinton official trying to rewrite history...
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have notched another Democratic issue on their belts: global warming. After a brief trip to northern Alaska, Senator McCain, with his little boy sidekick Lindsey Graham, along with Hillary Rodham and Susan Collins, are now convinced that global warming is caused by human factors.
Wow - what great research they must have conducted. Go to Alaska and the Yukon, talk to a few people (Canadians, no less) - and boom - you're an expert on global climate change. Nevermind that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) still attributes any climate change to cyclical geophysical forces.
I wonder if McCain also believes Potemkin villages are real.
Joe Scarborough, host of "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC, is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate. Scarborough would challenge Katherine Harris for the Republican primary in an effort to unseat Democrat Bob Graham in Florida.
As much as I think Katherine Harris would make a great senator, Joe Scarborough would be fantastic and has a greater chance of unseating Sen. Graham than does Harris. Although he is still considering renewing his NBC contract, I hope Scarborough runs. He would also be a much better senator than a talk show host (and let's face it - MSNBC's ratings aren't blowing anyone away).
Larry Kudlow is appalled at New York City's plan to subsidize a new corporate headquarters for none other than investment banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs.
According to reports, New York will provide roughly $1.6 billion in special tax exempt bonds, a sales tax exemption on building materials, another break on energy costs, and still more tax breaks for retaining 8,000 or 9,000 jobs that were never in question of being lost...
Goldman is a great global bank. It is also highly profitable and if it wants to build a new headquarters, than go right ahead and build it. But not by feeding at the public trough.
Why not give these tax breaks to small and medium businesses throughout the city? Or better yet, why not reduce exorbitantly burdensome tax rates for all New York taxpayers?
I agree - does anyone really believe that Goldman would give up its New York address for one in nearby Hoboken because of better tax treatment? Come on...
UN: "Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem"
The UN, supportive of the Palestinian infitada,bankrolled the productionof banners, tshirts, bumper stickers and mugs bearing the slogan, "Today Gaza and tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem." Meanwhile, terrorist groups are celebrating Israel's withdrawal, which show the world that terrorism works as a great negotiating tool in the eyes of the UN.
If anyone believes that violence against Israel will stop because they pulled back from Gaza settlements, they're crazy. They will get nothing in return and the withdrawals will be seen as a clear sign of weakness. But according to nutcases like Cindy Sheehan and the UN, Israel should give up all of its land and march into the sea.
Sen. Lott Complains About Frist, Bush Bringing Him Down
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) says in his new book, "Herding Cats, A Life in Politics," that Sen. Bill Frist, Sen. George Allen and President Bushall helped play a rolein Lott's losing his Majority Leader position.
Senator Lott has only one person to blame for his fall from grace: himself. Although I like Sen. Lott a lot (no pun intended), he was the person who resigned rather than fight. He stepped down rather than point out the blatant hypocrisy from people on the Left who had done things far worse than make a few comments about a fellow senator (hint: one Senator from WV was actually in the KKK).
Lott could have stayed to fight, but instead he tried to do something no Democrat would ever do: resign his position. It's his own fault.
Washington Post Will Not Sponsor "Controversial" Freedom Walk
For the anniversary of 9/11, many Americans plan on participating in a Freedom Walk to help commemorate and honor the sacrifices that U.S. troops have made for our freedom. But after criticism from the left that this is nothing but "9/11 propoganda," the Washington Post, who agreed to sponsor the event, decided to pull its sponsorship lest it compromise its neutrality.
That's right - only on the left does supporting U.S. troops compromise objectivity. No wonder so many Liberals want us to lose in Iraq - they've got to stay "neutral" about their country.
First New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Now Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has declared a state of emergency in four counties that border Mexico. The balance has tipped and the illegal immigration problem is finally getting some attention.
Thank God for the Minutemen project, which started the ball rolling.
"I desperately wish that I had been president when the FBI and CIA finally confirmed, officially, that bin Laden was responsible for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole," Clinton tells New York magazine this week. "Then we could have launched an attack on Afghanistan early."
"I always thought that bin Laden was a bigger threat than the Bush administration did."
This comes from a man whose policy towards Saddam's Iraq was "regime change," but he was too gutless to enforce it. Bin Laden laughed at Clinton after Clinton's decision to send a cruise missile into an empty training camp in Afghanistan. And we all know that Clinton actually had been given the opportunity receive Bin Laden on a silver platter, but he refused.
Democratic New Mexico governorBill Richardsonrealizes that not only is illegal immigration harmful to border states, but that the U.S. at large knows something needs to be done. He will also meet with the Minutemen. He is one of the few political leaders to raise the issue - and guess what? He's hispanic.
It's not just Democrats that are going soft on our Iraq mission. Today Armstrong Williams states his belief that we should get out of Iraq. Nevermind that he thought it was the right thing to do at the time. Now that Iraq has not turned into 100% of its citizens waving American flags in the streets and it has proven difficult to beat the insurgency, he wants out.
It's easy to change one's mind when a result doesn't turn out as as quick as expected, but Williams' shortsightedness is surprising. Fortunately, President Bush will not listen to a weak-kneed Armstrong Williams any more than he will listen to John Kerry or Dick Durbin.
Mark Steyn artfully lays out what many of us have known from the beginning: the 9/11 Commission was completely useless. It's not surprising that many of Bush's advisors were opposed to the Commission from the start.
The problem pre-9/11 was always political: that's to say, no matter how savvy individual operatives in various agencies may have been, the political culture of the day meant that nothing would happen except a memo would get typed up and shoveled into a filing cabinet. Together with other never fully explained episodes -- like Sandy Berger's pants-stuffing at the national archives -- the Able Danger story makes one thing plain: The problem is still political.
Anti-war political hack Cindy Sheehan is achieving her objective. She's using her son's death as a political tool to let people hear her political views: push Israel into the sea, impeach Bush and the world will be hunky dory. She also claims she will not pay her 2004 taxes.
The White House needs to be sensitive to her because she lost a son - I do not. I hope the IRS throws the scumball in jail. I no longer have any sympathy for her. And she brought it on herself.
Michelle Malkintakes Dems to task for their hypocratic claim that we should focus on "ideas." Yet when it comes to conservative women (remember Condi Rice's hearings?), Democrats are free to criticize over appearance.
If this is all they can come up with on Harris, it's pretty pathetic. After all, should the party of Hillary Rodham, Barbara Boxer and Nanci Pelosi really criticize the appearance of any female? I view it as the same approach Democrats have taken with all popular conservatives (Reagan, Bush, etc.) - "they're stupid; they're dumb, they're ugly, blah blah..."
Liberals Should Be Worried About Population Trends
The demographics of the U.S. arenot looking good for Democrats. Of the top 25 conservative cities in America with populations over 100,000, there was a net gain of 329 thousand new residents. Of the top 25 liberal cities, there was a decline of 175 thousand residents.
Unless the Democrats can continue to find new dead people to vote, they will find themselves in an even more difficult situation in 2008 - maybe that's why many people would love to see open borders with Mexico and Canada.
You have probably seen tidbits of the Able Danger story about Gen. Shelton identifying Mohammed Atta's Al Qaeda cell back in 1999.Ace of Spadesprovides a brief summary for those who have missed it.
I have said all along that having Jamie Gorelick on the 9/11 Commission is laughable; it's almost like appointing Bill Clinton to investigate Whitewater. Don't you think there might be just a few facts conveniently left out?
The moonbats are gushing over their new hero, anti-war activist and mother of fallen soldier, Cindy Sheehan. Yet Cindy's family are telling her to shut up already.
The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son’s good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
It appears that the "freedom" museum (read: the Why America is Evil museum) might not make it into the final plans for the World Trade Center. George Soros and the ACLU are surely going to be disappointed.
Christopher Hitchens, writing for Salon, asks the following question of "humanitarian" groups on Iraq:
The United States is awash in human rights groups, feminist organizations, ecological foundations, and committees for the rights of minorities. How come there is not a huge voluntary effort to help and to publicize the efforts to find the hundreds of thousands of “missing” Iraqis, to support Iraqi women’s battle against fundamentalists, to assist in the recuperation of the marsh Arab wetlands, and to underwrite the struggle of the Kurds, the largest stateless people in the Middle East? Is Abu Ghraib really the only subject that interests our humanitarians?
John Hawkins points out that these groups couldn't care less about the lives of Iraqis - they only care about hurting Bush. Many liberals stated this publicly before the election: if many Iraqis and U.S. soldiers have to die in order to defeat Bush, then so be it...
You might have noticed that my blogging has been somewhat lighter during the workday recently. I just haven't had the same flexibility 24/7.
On that note, I am looking for anyone who would like to guest blog occasionally (perhaps a post or two a few days a week). The only requirements are literacy, respect for my ideas of free markets and free people, and a logical train of thought (which generally means you will be on the conservative side of the aisle). It's easy and fun - and would help out with my time constraints. Just contact me if you have an interest.
On The O'Reilly Factor tonight, Dolores Kesterson, mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, was interviewed about her meeting with President Bush shortly after her son's death last June. She reiterated a lot of the anti-war nonsense from the Left, such as Iraq being no threat, the people of Iraq not being free, the cause being fruitless, etc.
I can forgive a mother who lost her only son to war, but I think she does her son a major disservice by opposing his son's belief that he was acting in a noble cause. And she does the nation a disservice by saying that President Bush has "no conscience" and the war has had no positive effects on the world. (This, despite the fact that Bush met with her in private, at her request, because she said she was a "family of one" and didn't want to meet Bush with her ex-husband.)
Another sad, but pathetic performance by an anti-war, anti-Bush liberal woman with an agenda.
Democrat Paul Hackett, who lost an off-year election for the House to Republican Jean Schmidt, touted his loss as a victory for Dems:
Hackett said his run for Congress proves two things: that no Republican is safe; and that the DCCC will be a "key player in seeing that Democrats take full advantage of Republican vulnerabilities."
Hackett said he is proud that his race for Ohio's second district seat in Congress "can serve as a template for how we win seats across the country in 2006."
For those not familiar with Hackett's campaign, he showed clips of President Bush in many of his ads, claimed to have supported the Iraq War by fighting there, but also thought the war was "wrong." Basically, he was an anti-war candidate who believed his military background gave him all the credentials he needed. We have seen this strategy before in the guise of John Kerry. The only reason Hackett performed better than Kerry was because he obfuscated his true beliefs better.
He is right about one thing, however: if you campaign as a conservative (even if it's not what you believe), you have a much better chance of winning. That should be the message to Dems and the GOP alike.
The preachers of the "religion of peace" won't condemn Bin Laden and don't believe that Muslims committed the London attacks. 8 of 10 Australian imams say that they don't have enough information to know whether Bin Laden was related to the 9/11 attacks.
They're so 'open minded' in their views - liberals must be very proud of their brethren in ideas.
Thomas Sowell points out at Townhallthe reason the MSM believe we are not winning the war in Iraq (at least according to the NY Times). The reason is that "the military, the White House and the culture at large have not publicized their actions with the zeal that was lavished on the heroes of World War I and World War II."
That's right - it's Bush's (and our) fault for reading story after story, day after day, of the Iraq "quagmire" and not concluding otherwise. I have no doubt that if our media existed during WWII, we would never have reached Europe and would have pulled out in 1943 after multiple failures in North Africa. And the world would all be saying "Goedendag" to each other.
It seems as though any time Justice Stephen Breyer opens his mouth, he is discussing how to interpret foreign law rather than the U.S. Constitution. Breyer recently told an annual meeting of the American Bar Association that judges should increasingly look to foreign law to help decide cases.
“Their judges have a job somewhat similar to mine,” he said. “Why not on some occasions see what they have to say? Why not learn something?”
Notice his selectivity in just "some cases." I wonder if Breyer will point to Ireland's law outlawing abortion the next time the subject comes before him.
The American Thinker examines the question of voter fraud in U.S. elections and points out which party is most responsible (despite media reports). It shouldn't be surprising to anyone who listened to Democrat operatives before the 2004 election say that Bush must be defeated "at any cost."
Blue State Conservatives explains why it's been a tough couple of days to be a liberal (hint: UN disasters, Corzine's shady real estate transaction, Hillary's new opponent, the non-Karl Rove story).
Then again, when was the last good time to be a liberal?
I hate to label the mother of a fallen U.S. soldier in an ugly way, but Drudgehas the real goods on this partisan anti-Bush hack. I feel sorry for her loss, but I call it like I see it. She's a Bush hater looking for attention.
Sources at Debka claim that uncoded messages show that Osama bin Laden is heading to Iraq for an all out fight to the finish.
There's a good reason Saddam Hussein listed Osama as an Iraqi intelligence "asset" back in the late 1990s. And if the story is true that he will soon be in Iraq, the rest of the world will again have to thank to the U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces for smoking out the terrorists from their shadows.
While the Bush Administration has been unable to get the message out that supply-side tax cuts are responsible for an economy with soaring tax revenue and a 5% unemployment rate, it goes out of its way to hail the pork-laden Energy and Transportation bills.
The two bills, both above Bush's requested amounts, will do the absolute minimum to help energy and transportation concerns for the U.S. and instead waste money on congressional pet projects.
For an Administration that's supposed to be keenly focused, it is spending way too much money on wasteful bills and not enough time on convincing America that the tax cuts that saved our economy must be extended.
Five hundred radical Muslimswill be deportedby the British government.
Let's hope that the countries to whom they are returned will do something with them, rather than let them roam free to preach violence elsewhere. Or maybe they can just send them to Fallujah, where our marines can help them feel at home.
If you think government-funded socialized medicine would be great for the U.S., just readthis storyabout a British boy whose mother decided to take him to India for an operation rather than wait for years to get an appointment with British doctors. (Pay attention Hillary.)
Eliot Spitzer hasopened a probeinto "inappropriate" loan transactions to Air America. According to the NY Post, Spitzer's investigation was instigated by "Internet bloggers and Republican critics" for not intervening since an investigation by the New York's Department of Investigation started last month.
I can see the NY Times headline now: "Republicans destroy Air America."
Harvard researchers are testing the hypothesis that minority students who do well academically are accused of "acting white." Unfortunately, they found a clear negative correlation among good grades and popularity.
I guess it's time for minority parents to convince their kids that being popular should not be their goal.
It's always the liberals that are afraid of "offending" Muslims (the only people they couldn't care less about are Christians and sometimes Jews). Liberal Democrats in London warned that Britain's new measures to crack down on Islamofascistsmight alienate the majorityof law abiding Muslims.
I think most people couldn't care less if some Muslims are alienated. If Britain's "law abiding" Muslim society can't control (or even condemn) radicalism, then control must be imposed for the protection of society at large. If some Muslims are offended, perhaps they will actually lift a finger to prevent radical clerics from preaching jihad.
Gateway Pundithas a post linking to a video that shows how U.S. Marines took Fallujah. The video is approximately 4 minutes long and should not be watched by liberal, anti-war activists.
The U.S. is considering denying a visa to newly elected Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to speak at the UN Assembly. I have no problem with this - whether he was culpable of participating in the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis or not. If he did participate, then there is no doubt he should be denied to enter the U.S. If he did not participate, he still should be denied entry. And the same goes for Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il, Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chavez, or any other dictatorial tyrant.
Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ), is in the midst of a major scandal, whereby he lent $470,000 to a local union President, with whom he then had a brief affair. He forgave the loan and then they "broke up." (Hat tip:Blue State Conservatives.)
No matter that this scandal is far worse than any of Tom DeLay's improperly documented travel abroad. The media still doesn't seem to care when a scandal involves a Dem.
The NCAA has finally capitulated on banning the use of "offensive" mascot names (basically whatever the liberals running colleges find inappropriate). Beginning in Feb. 2006, any college using "offensive" mascots will be barred from participating in NCAA playoffs.
I don't think the NCAA will ban my Penn Quakers - despite the fact that many warriors find pacifists "offensive."
The morality of Truman's decision to drop the bomb and end WW II? That's an easy one in my opinion, and that of then13 year-old Tomiko Morimoto West:
"If it was not for the atomic bomb, we [Japanese] were in such a mental state, we would have fought until the last person," said West, who was taught as a little girl how to fight with a sharpened bamboo stick in the event of an invasion.
The same question will persist about Iraq for years to come. Meanwhile, if anyone bothered to ask the Iraqis themselves, they all give the same answer...well, except for Zarqawi and his thugs, who the MSM would use as their interviewees.
From its disastrous ratings to its questionable accounting and financing methods, Air America is in some deep trouble. Hugh Hewitt wonderswhy, after the media did so much promoting its debut last yer, the media now refuses to touch the story.
Air America's failure should come as no surprise though. It's a bit like selling fake snow to eskimos - when the target customer can look around and get a product wherever they turn, why would they possibly need another similar but less reliable and less interesting product?
This was one of the best scenes I have ever scene from CNN. After being cut off by both James Carville and CNN's moderator, Ed Henry, Bob Novak screamed, "That's bulls***" and walked off the set. He has been suspended by CNN.
CNN shouldn't worry too much about offending the audience because they don't have many viewers anyway.
According to a state run North Korean website, Kim Jong Il is a bit of a superman - he has an amazing memory, is a jet fighter, produces movies, and is one of the greatest golfers around. He once shot 11 holes-in-one in a single round of golf.
What a guy. Yet John Kerry thought that if we just sat down and showed a little trust with Kimmy, everything would be ok.
John Bolton made his debut at the UN today by urging Syria and Iran to help stop the flow of terrorists into Iraq. The UN adopted a resolution condemning the recent violence in Iraq, while Russia criticized the media for glorifying terrorists (ABC in particular, who aired an interview with a Chechen leader). I guess that makes 2 positive developments.
One hundred sixty-six US soldiers serving overseas were granted US citizenship. Just another small reason why it would be a shame if illegal aliens get the same treatment simply by breaking the law and coming across the border undocumented.
The government is paying compensation to the families of those killed in the 7/7 terrorist attacks. Based on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, each life lost is worth 11,000 pounds. Extrapolating to the entire English population, the government estimates the worth of the entire country to just 660 billion pounds, or roughly 95% of the nation's GDP.
That's a pretty cheap price for the entire country. .
Australia's Young Liberalsadopted a motionto call on the government to train "hit squads" to track down and kidnap or kill those responsible for the terror bombing in Bali.
I don't think American liberals would ever consider something like this - maybe the Aussies will switch with us.
In what Democrats ridiculously called a "bellweather for 2006," the GOP retainedan Ohio House seat in a special runoff election. Red State points out acouple of key factsabout the race - namely, that this Democrat did not run on a Democratic platform and had to show pro-Bush ads to even keep things close.
The Democrats will say that Republicans need to "watch out" because of the close race, but when a Democrat tries to run as a pro-military conservative (read: a Republican), I think we know what works and doesn't work in U.S. elections. Dems can't win unless they try to be something they're not.
On the lighter side of news, a North Dakota man paid a $120 speeding ticket by giving the judge a bucket filled with 12,000 pennies. The judge made the man wait until the pennies were counted.
Too bad the judge didn't make the man count and roll them himself...
British Police To Remove Shoes When Entering Terrorist Home
When British police raid the homes of suspected terrorists, they are told to "remove their shoes, not use dogs, and not mount pre-dawn raids because at that hour people might be spiritually busy."
Ha! No wonder why we alienated Muslim terrorists when U.S. troops went into Iraq and Afghanistan - we completely forgot to take our shoes off...
The American Thinkerhas a great post on the latest CIA leak that divulges parts of a National Intelligence Estimate report regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions. According to the article in today's Washington Post, Iran is still a decade away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, which contradicts earlier U.S. and international evidence stating otherwise.
Apart from some of the problems that American Thinker points out, including the release of only selected portions of the report, I have another question:
The media has blasted U.S. intelligence for its lack of information both leading up to 9/11 and the Iraq War (not to mention North Korea's bamboozlement of Clinton's failed containment policy, which the media likes to forget), why would anyone listen to a few sentences leaked from an intelligence report?
Pennsylvanians are sure to be outraged when they find out about the new pay increases that the members of the legislature granted to themselves - pay hikes of 16 to 34%, cars, pensions, automatic cost-of-living adjustments and other juicy benefits. Finally, every time Washington officials grant themselves a raise (which is basically every year), Pennsylvania legislators will also receive a raise.
Jimmy Carter sounds smartest when he's silent. This weekend, he took the opportunity to again blast the U.S. for "unnecessary and unjust" detentions at Guantanamo. I think we can use the same terms to describe his Presidency.
`I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.,'' he told a news conference. ``I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts.''
Unfortunately, the worst President of the 20th century is doing more to foment terrorism than anything the U.S. has ever done (yes, that includes Abu Ghraib) by making an issue out of a non-issue. But then again, he has never been very smart on issues involving Cuba...
Robert Novak, against the advice of his lawyer, is so fed up with his name being trashed by inaccuracies regarding Valerie Plame that he wrote a piece this morning discrediting CIA official Bill Harlow's latest remarks.
I don't blame Novak - when the only voice the public hears is the lying Joe Wilson, he has every right to respond, regardless of the investigation.
For once, I agree with the French. Maurice Levy, the head of leading French advertising agency, Publicis, tells it like it is -France has a very large problem. .
Howard Dean recently railed against "Bush's right-wing Supreme Court" and its decision in the Kelo case. Unfortunately, Dean got the sides backwards.
“The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is ‘okay’ to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is."
Someone should tell Mr. Dean that it was the conservatives who opposed the decision and the liberals who decided it was OK. Just another day for Ho Dean.
