The Other Corner

radiation levels

2011-03-15T12:22:00.001-05:00

Love you Drudge, but you're not helping adding to the hyteria.

in reference to: DRUDGE REPORT 2011® (view on Google Sidewiki)

Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson: extend the tax cuts

2010-09-10T04:38:00.002-05:00

Ben Nelson, U.S. Senator for Nebraska: Nelson: Extend Tax Cuts For Nebraska Families and Businesses: "“I support extending all of the expiring tax cuts until Nebraska’s and the nation’s economy is in better shape, and perhaps longer, because raising taxes in a weak economy could impair recovery."

You don't say!?

And NOW their outraged

2010-09-05T06:37:00.001-05:00

Democrats add fiscal austerity as a campaign issue: "The [Democratic] candidate was outraged - just outraged - at the country's sorry fiscal state."

Democratic Desperation

2010-09-05T06:15:00.001-05:00

Gateway Pundit:

"With hypocrisy so thick you could cut it with a knife, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against the promotion of the “Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders” book by Reps. Eric Cantor of Virginia, Kevin McCarthy of California and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. In addition to the book they have a promotion tour and released a video."

More Moderate Muslims - Andrew C. McCarthy - National Review Online

2010-08-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

More Moderate Muslims - Andrew C. McCarthy - National Review Online:

"[The Fall Church, VA mosque] Dar al-Hijra was established in 1991. Not so coincidentally, that is the same year American leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood wrote an internal memorandum to their global headquarters in Egypt, explaining that they saw their work in the United States as a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.” Echoing imam Abdul-Malik, the Brotherhood said its tactic would be “sabotage.” (The memo is here, with the English translation following the original Arabic pages.)

The memorandum elaborates that every city should have an “axis” and “perimeter” from which this jihad-by-sabotage strategy is headquartered. That axis, it adds, will be known as “the Islamic Center.” Islamic centers — just like the one at Dar al-Hijra, just like the one planned for Ground Zero — are to become “the ‘base’ for our rise,” the memo says. They are to be the focal point of education, preparation, and the “supply [of] our battalions.” Battalions are small cells of fighters. In Muslim Brotherhood ideology (i.e., Islamist ideology) it is assumed that, at a certain mature point, when Muslim forces are strong enough, violent jihad will be effective, so Islamists prepare for it."

The Sherrod Affair

2010-07-21T11:07:00.001-05:00

An email Jonah Goldberg at National Review On-line received:

I don't think you're a milquetoast moderate, but I do think you're missing the point a little. When I first watched the video, I was less bothered by Sherrod's comments than I was by the murmurs of assent and agreement in the crowd. And now Glenn Reynolds has pointed out that the NAACP President was in attendance too. Did they all know that there was a moral to the story coming?

I believe this was Breitbart's point in posting the video. Sherrod may be unfortunate
collateral damage in this sad affair, and that should probably be rectified. But as near as I can tell, Sherrod wasn't the target of Breitbart's scorn. She was merely the vehicle to showcase unchallenged racism in the ranks of the NAACP.

I could not agree more with this reader's assessment. Indeed, it is unfortunate that Ms. Sherrod's career was adversely affected by this whole episode.

Also from NRO, Krauthammer's take:

"She is owed an apology, restitution, and the restoration of her job. I
don't think there is any question about that. ..."

I could not disagree more with Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit's characterization:

The entire tape shows that not only is Sherrod a racist who attacks white
farmers during her speech but that she is likely a Marxist, too

Mr. Hoft, in spite of many of his readers who have commented against his referring to her as a racist after the full length of the video was made available, appears to be sticking to his guns. That's a mistake. We conservatives do not appreciate being called a racist at the drop of a hat; we should not descend to their level ourselves. Also, throwing around the term Marxist at the drop of a hat is reckless as it dilutes the meaning of term.

He's such a tough guy

2010-07-20T19:39:00.000-05:00

Obama gets tough on jobless benefits:

"The gloves are off.

For the second time in three days, President Obama is planning to unload on his Republican adversaries, calling them out for blocking the passage of emergency unemployment insurance.

A White House official says the president will take to the Rose Garden Monday morning at 10:30, where he will 'have strong words' for the GOP lawmakers who have blocked the emergency legislation despite having supported identical measures under Republican presidents."

Perhaps, the President should get tough on unemployment, which he said would not get above 8%. Do you remember that promise? Oh, I forgot. He inherited from his predecessor more of a mess than he had thought. It was Bush's fault.

Cincinnati Cents: for the penny pincher

2010-07-19T08:27:00.000-05:00

Cincinnati Cents: Kroger Deals: Week of 7/19/10: "Here are the best deals at Kroger this week:

Meat & Seafood

Assorted Pork Chops (Value Pack), $1.88/lb."

Just stumbled upon this web site while looking up information about Aldi's. It is crammed with information about the best deals of the week at Krogers, Meijers, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Staples, OfficeMax, etc. Before you go grocery shopping, check out this site!!!

BTW, Aldi's ain't for me. Prefer Sams! However, the milk is very reasonably priced: $1.79 per gallon.

From "Pampered Populists"

2010-07-18T18:02:00.000-05:00

The Corner - National Review Online: Victor Davis Hansen writes: "Bill Clinton was perhaps the first liberal president to embarrass progressive populists, who by rote caricatured those who played golf or amassed millions in post-presidential huckstering. The point is that Barack Obama's 'them' rhetoric against those who supposedly make tons of money and won't pay enough in taxes to fund the Obama technocratic class's redistribution schemes seems almost fossilized. The more the polo-shirted Obama seems obsessed with golf, and the more he seems to prefer the landscape of the elite (who navigate the Ivy League, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Upper East Side, Cambridge, etc.), the more we wonder whom exactly he's railing about."

Do you remember this spill?

2010-07-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

EnviroWonk - 10 Largest Oil Spills (The Valdez Doesn't Make the List): "Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons
An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year"

As I am today, I was up on current events. Now, I know we did not have the 24 hour news cycle in 1980 as we have today. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall this oil spill, the second largest in history, ten times worse than Exxon Valdez. This oil well leaked for almost a full year!

Speaking of Kudlow

2010-07-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

Kudlow’s Money Politics - National Review Online: "Stocks, up today about 150 points, have rallied for six consecutive sessions. Plus, today’s trade figures showed a more powerful economy, at least in the month of May. While the trade gap widened slightly, exports are rising by 21 percent and imports by 29 percent. Both capital and consumer goods are booming on foreign sales and purchases. And the early profits reports are beating the street for the second quarter — including tech bellwether Intel, which surpassed estimates for both earnings and sales revenue."

See what I mean? I come away a little more hopeful when I read Kudlow.

Worldwide economic collapse?

2010-07-15T14:55:00.000-05:00

Financial Crisis - World at Risk of Folding in on Itself: Deputy Doom - CNBC: "The global economy is at risk of folding in on itself unless policy makers face up to the threat of inflation and exchange rate inflexibility, according to Arun Motianey, director of fixed income strategy at Roubini Global Economics."

Now, I find Glen Beck's doom and gloom a little over the top at times, preferring instead to get my financial commentary from Lawrence Kudlow, who always finds a silverlining out there somewhere. But, that said, the MSM pundits were excoriating Beck last year for being a fearmonger when he sounded very similar warning last year. These articles seem to be more and more common in the MSM. So, now they're scaring me!

Politicians and Big Banks

2010-07-15T14:48:00.001-05:00

Senate VIP Loans Mount - WSJ.com: "U.S. senators or Senate employees received 30 loans—far more than had previously been known—under a controversial lending program at Countrywide Financial Corp. that provided cut-rate terms to favored borrowers."

Perhaps the financial overhaul should begin with the politicians.

Housing Market is Ugly!

2010-07-15T14:45:00.000-05:00

Banks repossess US homes at record pace -RealtyTrac Reuters: "The housing market still grapples with 'unemployment, economic displacement in general, and still sits on over 5 million seriously delinquent loans that in all likelihood will at some point go into foreclosure,' he said."

Mark Steyn writes The Very Model of Modern Major Generalist

2010-06-12T06:54:00.000-05:00

The Very Model of a Modern Major Generalist - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "In recent months, a lot of Americans have said to me that they had no idea the new president would feel so “weird.” But, in fact, he’s not weird. True, he’s not, even in Democratic terms, a political figure — as, say, Clinton or Biden are. Instead, he’s the product of the broader culture: There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism. As someone once said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” When you’ve spent that long waiting in line for yourself, it’s bound to be a disappointment"

Interview of Andrew McCarthy, author of The Grand Jihad

2010-06-11T10:35:00.001-05:00

The Grand Jihad FrontPage Magazine: "The very title of the book, “The Grand Jihad” and the invocation of “sabotage” in the subtitle, is taken from a 1991 internal Muslim Brotherhood memorandum in which the group’s leadership in the U.S. explains to its global leadership in Egypt that the Brothers (or the Ikhwan) consider their work in North America as a “grand jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within” by “sabotage.” They are telling us outright what they are about."

We ignore them at our peril.

The future of Obamacare?

2009-09-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Sentenced to death on the NHS - Telegraph: "In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn."

Enhanced Interrogations

2009-08-30T13:29:00.000-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online: "As they say, you're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. The MSM has tried to have both for the last five years, arguing against experience and common sense that tactics like sleep-deprivation and waterboarding were not effective. Clearly, they worked, and to great effect. As Steve [Hayes] says, that case should now be closed."

I'm one of them

2009-08-30T12:14:00.000-05:00

57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress - Rasmussen Reports™: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they would vote."

The Strange Case of the Obama Meltdown

2009-08-23T17:10:00.001-05:00

The Strange Case of the Obama Meltdown

Shared via AddThis

Double standards? As always

2009-08-23T16:45:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin: "White House flack Gibbs called any suggestion that Axelrod benefits from the relationship “ridiculous.” Retorted Gibbs: “David has left his firm to join public service.” So when Republicans trade power and access, Team Obama calls that being “in cahoots” with business. But when noble servants like Axelrod do it, it’s called “public service.”"

Death Spiral

2009-08-23T16:07:00.000-05:00

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™: "The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. These figures mark the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President. The previous low of -12 was reached on July 30 (see trends)."

Nat Hentoff is scared of Obama

2009-08-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

I Am Finally Scared of a White House Administration Nat Hentoff Cato Institute: Commentary: "I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover's FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration."

And health care hasn't been added yet

2009-08-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

TheHill.com - 10-year budget deficit grows by $2 trillion: "The White House next week will revise the 10-year budget deficit from $7.1 trillion to $9 trillion."

What will happen with a huge health care entitlement program?

2009-08-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online: "The Washington Times reports this morning that this simple, basic Big Gummint program has spun totally out of control: it was clearly not thought through (even a little), it was under-budgeted by 2 or 3 hundred percent (and counting), and it was woefully under-resourced — such that staff have to be hired from the outside or pulled away from other government functions (like running air-traffic control) in order to clear the back-log. Clearing the back-log, by the way, is a 24/7 operation that's also requiring additonal budgeting for overtime pay and a training program."

Infinite needs, limited resources

2009-08-21T21:38:00.000-05:00

Critical Condition on National Review Online: "...needs, whether medical or other, are infinite, while resources remain limited, always and everywhere. Even in principle, therefore, 'universal coverage' must evolve, quickly, into something far less compassionate; and in any event, tax increases, even on the middle class, cannot be sufficient to avoid rationing, precisely because the new/expanded programs funded by them will increase demands on the system. And at some point higher taxes will not yield higher revenues, although that seems to be a virtue in the Fairness World of President Obama."

Bad news for the greatest generation

2009-08-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

Townhall.com::Blog: "Even the New York Times has to admit that Obamacare would push granny and gramps to an early grave. Sure, Robert Pear tries to deliver the news gently, but if the Times is telling the seniors to be worried, that's an unmistakable signal to seniors that Obamacare is very bad news for them."

Higher taxes for everyone?

2009-08-21T08:31:00.000-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online: "Out today: “A new Gallup Poll finds that 68% of Americans believe their federal income taxes will be higher by the time Barack Obama's first term as president ends. This includes 35% who say their taxes will be ‘a lot higher.’ ” The survey does report 9% of Americans think they will get a tax cut (yes, the from the forthcoming pet-unicorn deduction!)."

ME: People are not stupid. The ever-increasing size of government and the proposals to increase the size of government, not the least of which is the takeover of the health care industry, have to be paid for somehow. It will be upon the backs of the middle class. The government could confiscate 100% of the income of the top 1%, and I bet it would not run the government for nine days (that was a statistic from the 80s; I cannot imagine it has change much, other than it is likely now less than a week).

Abuse of power

2009-08-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

Health Insurers Fear Probe By House Dems Is Reprisal for Opposing Part of Obama's Plan - Political News - FOXNews.com: "In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation"

Loss of sovereignty

2009-08-19T18:56:00.000-05:00

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Panels - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review Online: "After my weekend column recounted the experience of a recent British visitor of mine, I received an e-mail from a gentleman in Glasgow who cannot get an x-ray for his back — because he has no sovereignty over his back. His back is merely part of the overall mass of Scottish backs, to which a government budget has been allocated, but alas one which does not run to x-rays."

McCarthyites on the Left

2009-08-19T17:58:00.000-05:00

Townhall.com::Blog: "Senior Democratic Congressmen Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak have sent an outrageous letter to Bruce Bodaken, Chairman and CEO of Blue Shield of California, which I will read at the start of today's show, and link when it is available online. It demands a mountain of information on executive compensation as well as premium rates etc, all by September 4. This letter is a straightforward bit of bullying --an attempt by Waxman and Stupak to silence any segment of the private sector that might be inclined to fight back against the takeover of American medicine by the federal government. It is intended to make the health insurance industry fear opposing any part of the Obama-Pelosi scheme to remake American health care." [emphasis mine]

Are you surprised?

2009-08-19T17:55:00.000-05:00

Firms with Obama ties profit from health push - Yahoo! News: "President Barack Obama's push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers."

"Not essential"

2009-08-17T05:43:00.000-05:00

Sebelius Says Government Insurance Plan Not Essential (Update2) - Bloomberg.com: "Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said providing citizens with the option of government-run insurance isn’t essential to the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of U.S. health care.
“What’s important is choice and competition,” Sebelius said today on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The public option itself “is not the essential element.”
Asked if a cooperative plan is a possible replacement, Sebelius said she didn’t know what alternatives Congress would settle on among competing versions of the health legislation now under consideration. The Senate Finance Committee is discussing cooperatives, or networks of health-insurance plans owned by their customers, that would get started with government funds."

ME: Do you suppose Sebelius' joint Townhall Meeting with Specter was a come-to-Jesus moment?

The death of competition in health care

2009-08-14T04:49:00.000-05:00

OBAMACARE KILLS HEALTH COMPETITION - New York Post: "There's nothing inherently wrong with one company earning a large market share, but the lack of significant competition helps contribute to higher insurance costs and poorer service. Moreover, this market concentration hasn't necessarily flowed from consumer preference in a free market, but results in good part from barriers to entry erected by state insurance regulation.

Obama's answer to this problem is to set up a new government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. But such a plan will ultimately result in less competition, not more.

A government-run plan would have an inherent advantage in the marketplace, because it ultimately would be subsidized by taxpayers. The government plan could keep its premiums artificially low or offer extra benefits, because it could turn to taxpayers to cover any shortfalls.

Plus, the government plan also could use its market power to impose much lower reimbursement rates on doctors and hospitals -- Medicare and Medicaid do that now, to the point where they often pay less than cost. Providers would be forced to recoup the income lost thanks to the 'public option' by raising what they charge to private insurance -- driving up premiums and making private insurance even less competitive.

In the end, the private-insurance market would be eviscerated, leaving millions of Americans with no choice but the government-run program. No choice. No competition."

Sarah Palin addresses rationing

2009-08-14T04:35:00.000-05:00

Sarah Palin Notes Facebook: "The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama’s key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I’m speaking of the “Complete Lives System” advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president’s chief of staff. President Obama has not yet stated any opposition to the “Complete Lives System,” a system which, if enacted, would refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential. [1] Why the silence from the president on this aspect of his nationalization of health care? Does he agree with the “Complete Lives System”? If not, then why is Dr. Emanuel his policy advisor? What is he advising the president on? I just learned that Dr. Emanuel is now distancing himself from his own work and claiming that his “thinking has evolved” on the question of rationing care to benefit the strong and deny the weak. [2] How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed to the public at large."

Healthcare going postal?

2009-08-14T04:21:00.001-05:00

Obama's Post Office health care disaster Washington Examiner: "Explaining why he believes a public option would not crowd out and ultimately eliminate private insurance, Obama said, 'My answer is that if the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining…then I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It's the Post Office that's always having problems.'"

ME: You know, it's only 20 minutes. That's the minimum how long I have to wait in my small town post office everytime I go. But, 20 minutes to me, a small business owner for whom every minute counts, is too long. It doesn't matter what time of day I go. There are 4 or 5 people in line. If they have a lot of packages (I often have at 10-12), you can figure almost 10 minutes per person. That's how slow the service is; that's how slow their antiquated equipment is. God help us with healthcare.

So much for exercising our rights

2009-08-13T15:13:00.000-05:00

The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room » Reid: Protesters are ‘evil-mongers’: "Town hall protesters are 'evil-mongers,' says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)"

Who does the public trust?

2009-08-13T15:09:00.001-05:00

Trust on Issues - Rasmussen Reports™: "For the first time in over two years of polling, voters trust Republicans slightly more than Democrats on the handling of the issue of health care. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that voters favor the GOP on the issue 44% to 41%."

NHS has a death panel?

2009-08-12T14:20:00.004-05:00

Hawking and the NHS - Iain Murray - The Corner on National Review Online: "A relative of mine , an award-winning doctor[in Britain], resigned from her job as head of a certain department at her hospital because she couldn't take having to make decisions every day over who lived and who died as a result of granting or denying treatment. The NHS is predicated on this model."

ME: Eleven years ago my father at the age of 59 had a terrible stroke, the result of calcified arteries in the brain stem. To rectify the problem, though there would be persistent quality of life issues with which he would have to live subsequent to an operation, the doctor recommended an arterial by-pass in the brain stem, an extremely difficult and dangerous operation. The doctor explained that chances of survival were not the greatest, with or without the operation; and, if he survived the operation, the long-term prognosis was not good, with life-expectancy at not much more than five years. The doctor did not paint a rosy scenario for my father, but the doctor let my father and his family decide what course of action to take. That decision-making process is about to be handed over to a panel, who, in all likelihood, if they had existed 11 years ago, would have deemed it too costly to operate on my father and to maintain an invalid for 5 years. My father would have been left to die, and he would not have seen the birth of his second grandchild almost 5 years ago. He has quality of life issues, but his cognitive abilities are fine, enough so that he is sickened, for himself and for his child and grandchildren, by the monstrosity that is being shoved down the American people’s throats. We are hopeful he will see his oldest granddaughter graduate from high school in two years. However, our hope diminishes, when we think this absurd healthcare bill will be enacted, and my father’s case will be reviewed by a panel who will decide that it is too expensive to continue providing him the level of care he has been receiving all these years. We have the best health care system in the world bar none. Leave it alone!

Camille Paglia of Salon

2009-08-12T04:15:00.001-05:00

...quoted in The Corner on National Review Online: "As a libertarian and refugee from the authoritarian Roman Catholic church of my youth, I simply do not understand the drift of my party toward a soulless collectivism. This is in fact what Sarah Palin hit on in her shocking image of a 'death panel' under Obamacare that would make irrevocable decisions about the disabled and elderly. When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin's shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate's unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished." [emphasis mine]

Kinsley on Health Care [Ramesh Ponnuru]

2009-08-10T17:48:00.001-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online:

He asks a good question: 'If the government requires insurers to accept all customers and charge all the same price, regulates all aspects of their marketing to make sure they aren't discriminating, and then redistributes the profits to make sure that no company gets penalized unfairly, in what sense is the industry still 'private'?' Here's another: Since Kinsley's right, why is it unfair for conservatives to call a health-care bill that does a lot more than that a government takeover?"

Palin Paranoid?

2009-08-10T17:24:00.001-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online: "Palin is not being paranoid. [Maybe sophomoric but not paranoid]. Some of President Obama’s most influential health-care advisers have promoted rationing and quality-of-life judgmentalism. For example, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, has suggested that we can no longer afford Hippocratic medicine, laid the intellectual groundwork for rationing based on age, and even stated that medical services “provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.” (My analysis of Emanuel’s proposals can be found at my First Things blog.) No wonder Palin is worried about the level of treatment her son Trig would receive under Obamacare."

2009-08-09T19:13:00.001-05:00

Real or Contrived? Lawmakers Argue Over Nature of Health Care Protests - Political News - FOXNews.com:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, 'I think attacking citizens in our country for expressing their opinions about an issue of this magnitude may indicate some weakness in their position on the merits,' McConnell said. 'And I also think it's particularly absurd for the Democrats, who have over an $8 million e-mail list over at the DNC called Organize America, to be criticizing citizens for being organized.'

ME: Over half the Americans polled oppose the health care reform as touted by the socialist Democratic Party.

Citing safety concerns, U. City cancels McCaskills event | Political Fix | STLtoday

2009-08-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Citing safety concerns, U. City cancels McCaskills event Political Fix STLtoday: "A day after a Russ Carnahan event led to the arrests of five participants and a reporter, University City High School — where U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill was set to hold a similar event on Tuesday– announced that the forum has been canceled."

ME: There were no safety concerns until Obama, the President of the United States, began rallying his troops, including ACORN and the SEIU thugs, against the majority of Americans who oppose socialized health care. You want to talk Astroturf, let's talk ACORN and SEIU.

2009-08-09T19:01:00.001-05:00

Georgia Democrat yells at local doctor over health care - The Back Story - Washington Times: "Tensions are running so high at town hall meetings that Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, yelled at a local doctor concerned about health care after mistaking him for an 'astroturf' political operative looking for a fight."

The empty words of a journalist turned flack | Washington Examiner

2009-08-09T08:40:00.000-05:00

The empty words of a journalist turned flack Washington Examiner: "“There are people out there with a computer and a lot of free time, and they take a phrase here and there — they simply cherry-pick and put it together,” Douglass said, “and make it sound like he’s saying something that he didn’t really say.”

A few years ago, Linda Douglass the journalist might have asked just how Obama’s 2003 declaration of support for single-payer health care was taken out of context. Now, Douglass the White House spokeswoman didn’t even address the question.

Instead, she played a clip of Obama as president, at an AARP forum in July, pledging that people who like their current insurance will be allowed to keep it."

ME: Linda Douglass' must not watch Fox News or listen to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. The president claiming that people can keep their current issurance, which he has stated in speech after speech, has been played countless times on the forementioned programs. In juxtaposition to what he said in 2003, his statements are lies.

2009-08-09T08:31:00.001-05:00

Max Schulz: A Town Hall Protest in Maryland - WSJ.com: "As he entered the auditorium of the Mardela Middle and High School on Tuesday, a surprised Frank Kratovil waded through a sea of constituents. The first-term Democratic congressman had been told by aides that maybe two or three dozen residents would attend the “Congress in Your Corner” town-hall event in this Eastern Shore town of about 360 people. Instead, more than 250 people showed up.

The crowd repeatedly burst into wild cheering, but not for Mr. Kratovil. The cheers were for residents who gave the congressman a piece of their mind over what’s happening in Washington."

2009-08-09T06:24:00.001-05:00

The Corner on National Review Online: "In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to compare the human and veterinary health services of Great Britain, and on the whole it is better to be a dog."

2009-07-10T09:57:00.002-05:00

Of Mice and Men

GOP hits Pelosi for mouse funds - Washington Times: "The Obama administration revealed last week that as much as $16.1 million from the stimulus program is going to save the San Francisco Bay Area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse."

Remember what Obama said about earmarks:

2009-07-10T09:50:00.002-05:00

Kudlow's Money Politic$ on National Review Online:

"Here’s the key: If Team Obama would deregulate energy, drill, drill, drill, and make it easier for our Canadian cousins to send us oil from the oil sands in Alberta, oil prices would be a whole lot lower with greater inventory supplies. And our enemies in the Middle East would be a whole lot poorer."

2009-07-10T09:43:00.002-05:00

Thomas Sowell on Health Care:

The Corner on National Review Online: "What urgent reason is there to believe that the government of all institutions can make healthcare less expensive? If you want something cheaper, you can always get something cheaper. It is just that you are not going to get the same quality. In order for them to bring down the cost of healthcare, the government would have to operate the system more efficiently than the market does. I cannot think of anything that the government operates more efficiently than the market does."

Oil below $60 as traders eye company results - Yahoo! Finance

2009-07-10T09:36:00.000-05:00

Does it break your heart?

Oil below $60 as traders eye company results - Yahoo! Finance: "VIENNA (AP) -- Oil prices slid well below $60 a barrel Friday as investors braced for company earnings reports next week that will provide clues on the strength of crude demand."

Unfortunately, low prices=bad economy. To wish for a good economy is to wish for high prices. Hmmm.

2009-06-25T14:07:00.002-05:00

Single payer health insurance plan abandoned by Colorado

Note this graph:

Pointing to the problems in the universal health care systems of Canada and the UK, opponents of government sponsored universal health plans cite rationing, lack of advanced equipment and long waits to see doctors as some of the biggest problems with a single payer health plan. In Canada, the Calgary Herald reported the ongoing shortage of doctors is “still one of the biggest issues facing the province’s strapped healthcare system”. In November 2008, Calgary health officials estimated that 250,000 patients in that city were without a regular family physician.

So, everyone has health insurance, but there are no doctors.

Posted using ShareThis

2009-03-30T18:12:00.001-05:00

Where does he get these people?

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s nominee for secretary of the Navy was involved in a divorce that drew national attention for his secret taping of a conversation between his wife and his family priest that he used against her in court proceedings.

Tax cheats, wiretappers. What next?

2009-03-24T04:55:00.002-05:00

How many industries can the Savior destroy?

Well, you can add the hospitality industry to the list.

"A preliminary survey by the U.S. Travel Association, a Washington trade group, suggests the hotel industry suffered about $1 billion in cancellations in January and February. Las Vegas has been hit especially hard, losing more than $131 million in non-gambling revenue in recent months."

Before you cop an attitude about these complaints coming from industry execs, let's not forget that it hurts the caterers, the servers, the busboys (buspersons), the limo drivers, the child care providers (for convention attendees...there are small businesses that provide this service), photographers (of which I am one), and on and on. You know, the hardworking little guy gets the shaft. So much for stimulating the economy.

However, there might be a silver-lining:

“We’ve also seen meeting planners move meetings from resort locations to city locations, at a greater cost to their companies, again, for optics’ sake,” he said.

Now, that could help me. How? The companies who are shying away from all the media attention may opt for regional meetings in small out-of-the-way Midwest cities, like Cincinnati, where no attention will be drawn to them. Yeah, that's the ticket. Screw those folks in those big resort towns. Let ME have the business. Those small business caterers and audio providers and event planners and limo companies; those servers and busboys and limo drivers and the retired flower delivery guys and gals don't deserve a piece of that action simply because they are lucky enough to live in a big, fancy, schmancy resort town. It's my turn to get a piece of the action. They had their turn.

Hey, it's the new era of Screw the Other Guy.

2009-03-24T04:34:00.002-05:00

The Graphic Budget Deficits

(This is from the Congressional Budget Office, not the Republican National Committee.)

Red ink everywhere! Obama's promise (sleight of hand) to cut the deficit in half by 2012 still leaves a deficit larger than any of the Bush era deficits.

2009-03-03T04:34:00.002-05:00

Digging into the President's budget

Brian Riedl over at NRO's The Corner points out some sleights of hand. This one sticks out.
It is easy to "cut the deficit in half" after you've quadrupled
it.

2009-03-01T08:08:00.005-05:00

Obama and the dropping of the DOW:

Maybe Obama the Socialist could care less about the DOW and capitalism, but that cannot be said about what Wall Street thinks about Obama:

November 5, 2008: Dow drops 530 points the day after President Obama is elected.
January 20, 2009: Dow drops 359 points the day the President delivers his inaugural address.
January 28, 2009: The House passes their stimulus proposal after trading hours. The next day, the Dow drops 224 points.
February 9, 2009: President Obama has his first prime-time press conference, followed by Treasury Secretary Geithner’s speech on the credit markets the next day. The Dow drops 381 points on February 10.
February 13, 2009: The House passes the conference version of the stimulus bill in the afternoon, and the Dow closes 83 points down. After the Senate passes the final version late in the evening, the Dow drops 343 points the next day.
February 17, 2009: The President signs the stimulus bill into law in Denver, CO. The Dow drops 293 points.
February 25, 2009: The Dow drops 226 points the day after President Obama delivers his address to a Joint Session of Congress.

Since ascending to the throne, the DOW has dropped 1,217 points, an average of 202 points per week! How far does it have to go before Obama gets the message? I really think he does not care.

Hat tip The Foundry.

2009-02-21T06:28:00.002-05:00

Mileage Tax

Transportation Secretary LaHood suggested a mileage tax, and Obama nixed the idea. You would pay a transportation tax based on the number of miles you drive. How would the folks in Washington know how many miles you drive everyday? The Event Data Recorder.

It's a Black Box installed in your vehicle. (Well, not all vehicles, about half of 2004 models and later. ) This is like the Black Box found in airplanes, that thing they look for after crash. When found, they can gather all kinds of information about the plane before the event to determine the cause of the crash. Probably not a bad thing to have if you're in car accident. But...

...car manufacturers aren't touting the safety benefits of the Black Box like they do so many other improvements on the modern automobile. That is because the Black Box is not a safety feature; it is a surveillance tool -- and when drivers learn about it, they are none too happy.

And if you think the data collected in the little Black Box in your car is your own personal data, think again.

Legislation passed by the state of California is likely a sign where things are headed. The state requires notices in the owner's manuals of cars that have Black Boxes. The new law also allows data to be accessed under court order, for research, and for other reasons. California's EDR law replaced consumer choice with an agreement among politicians, bureaucrats, and industry on a nice low level of protection for consumers.

Rob Atkinson, chairman of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, said...

Privacy concerns are based more on perception than any actual risk.... The satellite information would be beamed one way to the car and driving information would be contained within the device on the car, with the amount of the tax due the only information that's downloaded, he said.

Really, a government that is about to collect all our personal medical records into one big national database would only want enough information from the little Black Box in our car to send us a tax bill? Do you really believe that?

2009-02-21T06:19:00.002-05:00

Are you really surprised?

Ice cap size underestimated

2009-02-20T10:13:00.002-05:00

The Chicago Tea Party

Discontent on the trading floor. View the video.

Would you join the party? Submit your response.

So far, 93% answer in the affirmative. Not an accurate poll but tellingly indicative of the discontent that is brewing in the Heartland.

2009-02-17T11:56:00.001-05:00

2000 points

That's how much the stock market has fallen since Mr. Obama became president. 2000 points!

2009-02-17T10:27:00.002-05:00

It's 10:28...

...and the stock market is down 270 points. Perhaps, Mr. Obama should reconsider signing this monstrosity of a spending bill.

2009-02-11T04:49:00.001-05:00

Schumer on pork

“And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments: the American people really don't care.”

Really we "really don't care"?

2009-02-11T04:39:00.002-05:00

If we enact the stimulus legislation...

...there will people from Beijing to Dubuque who will hold pieces of paper saying, roughly, that on a specified date they can show up at the door of the United States government and demand trillions of dollars. On that day, it seems to me that some combination of only four things must happen:

Read it and weep

2009-02-11T04:32:00.001-05:00

Geithner spoke...

...and the market listened.

Dow Jones Industrial Average down 382 (4.6%)
S&P 500 down 43 (4.9%)
Nasdaq down 67 (4.2%)

2008-08-24T06:34:00.003-05:00

For a candidate whose campaign theme has been "Change you can believe in," it is hard to see how the selection of Senator Joseph Biden, a 35-year veteran of Congress, contributes to that theme. You cannot get anymore Washington Establishment than Joe Biden. OC Domer writes:

By picking Biden, Obama completely undercuts his most persuasive credential - that he is a candidate for change, bringing a new kind of politics to Washington. That just looks silly now. His ticket is now just another product of the Democrat Party establishment in Washington.

This Democratic ticket has some other disadvantages that the McCain campaign would do well to exploit:

He's not much younger than McCain, ageism now being a line of attack the surrogates of the B.O. campaign will have to abandon;
Biden voted for the war in Iraq, in contrast to B.O. having not voted for the war (oh, B.O. wasn't in the Senate then);
Neither has served in the military, a first in 68 years that either party has not had former military on the ticket (see Michael Medved's post), a crucial factor in this time of war;
Biden is probably a more arrogant, full-of-himself elite than B.O., if that is possible. Check out this clip from C-SPAN.
Neither Obama nor Biden has very good judgment when it comes to foreign policy. Recall that Obama said he would attack our ally Pakistan, and Biden, if he had the power, would have divided Iraq into three parts, which would have been a recipe for disaster. Don't forget, too, that Obama, when asked now that the surge in Iraq has proven to be a success, would he have voted for it, said, "No."

McCain can win this if he does not misstep with respect to his running mate.

2008-03-24T05:34:00.002-05:00

The War

Six Sons of Iraq mistakenly fired upon and killed by U.S. forces
Three U.S. soldiers killed in roadside bombing
Iraq forces search for and engage rogue Mehdi Army terrorists
The Green Zone attacked, though there were no casualties
An interview with General Patraeus
Six terrorists killed by US forces
Suicide bomb attack kills 13 Iraqi soldiers in Mosul

Economics

Iraq oil ministry seeks bids
Who is in charge of the oil in Iraq? "Kurdish leaders are adamant they have full constitutional authority to sign deals and say the moves were necessary because of Baghdad's failure to reach agreement on an oil law."
Speaking at a cultural

Society, Religion, Culture

Speaking at a cultural festival south of Baghdad, the Prime Minister said: "Iraq cannot be anything but strong, unified and active in the surrounding region. It will not be isolated," the Shiite leader said a speech broadcast on state television. "As Iraq has triumphed over terrorism, it will triumph in the international arena."
The Internet is becoming "indispensable:" "…Iraqis in their millions are using the Internet for chatting, doing research, dating, keeping abreast of current affairs and to access social networking sites such as Facebook and Hi5."

1,199,999,999 to go

2008-03-22T19:50:00.001-05:00

The Pope baptizes a Muslim convert (via Drudge):

Italy's most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, converted to Catholicism Saturday in a baptism by the pope at a Vatican Easter service.

Operation Chaos: Illegal Voting? Prove it!

2008-03-22T11:00:00.001-05:00

Kathy, a commenter writes:

Don't you understand that these people who Lied to get a Democrate Ballot broke the Law, and could be sent to Jail? Beleive you will be hearing more on this subject. Of course a man like Limbaugh who Lied to dooge the Draft will lead people to do anything, no matter of Right or Wrong. I would have though more of You.[ME: does Kathy know me, personally?]

How do you know they lied? Perhaps, they are genuinely excited about casting a vote for the first potential black presidential candidate in U.S. history. O'bama keeps referring to the historical significance of his run for the White House. Can you blame these folks for wanting to be a part of history?

But, to the question of whether or not these folks broke the law, from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The bottom line: A crossover voter is accountable to his or her conscience - and not much else.

Take Lincoln Ware, a talk show host on the African-American-oriented radio station WDBZ. He cast an early vote with great fanfare on his radio show Tuesday.

Though a longtime registered Republican, he crossed over to vote for Obama in the Democratic primary. As a matter of law, Ware is now a Democrat.

"I'm not declaring that I am a Democrat," he said later. "I consider myself a Republican locally. The only reason I switched over is I wanted to vote for a national Democrat. I'm disgusted with the national Republican party."

That was enough to satisfy Hamilton County Elections Director John M. Williams, a guest on the show (and a registered Republican). He accepted the ballot.

Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Timothy M. Burke, who also chairs the Board of Elections, said he would happily welcome independents - and even Republicans like Ware - into the fold.

"If they believe that - in this year's election - the Democratic candidates offer the best choices, the law permits them to (cross over)," he said.

And, from Wired:

Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law who specializes in election law, says it's debatable whether Ohio's law is enforceable and says that even if it is enforceable the likelihood that anyone would be prosecuted under it is "infinitesimally small."

Given that Republicans, especially Conservatives, do not have a conscience, as we are so often accused of by the Left, we can't be held accountable because we can't help it. We are victims of Mother Nature, born without a smidgen of a conscience!

There are, though, some Democrats who suffer the same lack of conscience as the Evil Conservatives. For the Democrats are not innocent when it comes to crossing over to affect an outcome more favorable to their party [also from Wired].

… cross over voting for purposes of affecting an election isn't limited to Republicans. A spokesman for the Ohio secretary of state's office said it always happens in presidential elections and also occurred during the 2006 gubernatorial primary election when Democratic voters crossed over to cast ballots in the Republican primary for Kenneth Blackwell because they thought he would more likely lose in a race against the Democratic candidate for governor.

When the Left games the system, it's business as usual. When the Republicans turn the tables on them and utilize their tactics, they cry, "Prosecute!"

Operation Chaos

2008-03-19T09:30:00.001-05:00

I believe that is the phrase Rush Limbaugh used to describe his effort to encourage Republicans to cross over and vote for Hillary during the Texas and Ohio primaries.

It's working:

[A Reuters poll] showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22.

McCain leads 46 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup against Obama in the November presidential election, according to the poll.

Banking Crisis Averted

2008-03-17T20:04:00.001-05:00

Lawrence Kudlow, writing at National Review Online:

Paulson and Bernanke have done exactly the right thing. It was a run on the bank. The Fed stopped it right there. No banking crisis.

The big Wall Street banks are in good shape, even with earnings losses they're still well capitalized, profitable and solvent [my emphasis]. Fed stopped it from spreading on Friday; JPMorgan takes them over tomorrow.

David Bernstein of Volokh Conspiracy offers:

I've said it before (e.g.), and I'll say it again. I simply didn't, and still don't, understand how anyone could have thought that giving people, often people with terrible credit histories, mortgages with no money down and often with no documentation of income--and after an unprecedented increase in prices left the market especially vulnerable to a downturn in prices--was a good idea. Maybe if I had studied for an MBA in Harvard and worked my way up to the top of the investment banking industry it would somehow have made sense to me.

Obama is Toast

2008-03-17T16:17:00.001-05:00

John Derbyshire writes:

The MSM can't smother this, not in the age of the web, though they are trying mightily. (The Sunday New York Times "Week in Review" Section had nothing about Wright; neither did the main news section.) Americans are a fair-minded people, who find double standards obnoxious. A guy who says "nappy-headed ho's" in an irreverent radio show is dragged round the city walls behind a chariot to the delighted howls of a mob of self-righteous "anti-racists"; yet a man who uses the authority of the cloth to damn our country and curse white people, is praised as a "biblical scholar" by a candidate for the presidency? I don't think so. This won't stand. The man is toast. [Emphasis mine]

I don't even think Gore can pick Obama as a running mate now.

What's Obama to do? If he dissociates himself from the man and his church, he will infuriate numerous African-Americans. If he remains a member of the church, he will infuriate many white folks, who, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, would have voted for him instead of Hillary. Not now. Indeed, he is toast.

2008-03-10T14:33:00.002-05:00

New York Governor's Mansion, the New Red Light District

From the Washington Post:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the crusading politician who built his career on
rooting out corruption, has told senior advisers he was involved in a
prostitution ring, The New York Times reported Monday. In a public statement,
Spitzer apologized to his family and the public but did not elaborate on the
reported links to a prostitution ring.

This guy is a Democrat, right? Funny that the Times reporter not once uses the word Democrat.

Note how entreprenuerial he was in trying to eliminate his competition:

His cases as state attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of
prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes.

Resilient economy

2008-02-15T17:18:00.001-05:00

The recession drumbeat grows louder every day. A bad economy would be good for the Democrats going into November.

Lawrence Kudlow is a more optimistic than the "recessionistas" (his word):

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But free-market capitalism on the supply-side is weathering the credit storm better than most folks think.

And, for those who think Big Oil should pay their fair share in taxes, consider in the same post:

Over the last three years, Exxon Mobil has paid an average of $27 billion annually in taxes. $27 billion! As my friend, economist Mark Perry, points out, while corporate profits receive a lot of media attention, the corporate taxes paid on these corporate profits are largely overlooked. Dr. Perry also points out that Exxon Mobil pays as much in taxes annually as the entire bottom 50 percent of individual taxpayers — a full 65,000,000 people.

But they support the troops

2008-01-31T16:06:00.001-05:00

From the Contra Costa Times:

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

“Tribe of Terror”

2007-12-29T05:04:00.001-05:00

Excerpts from Stanley Kurtz's article appearing in the December issue of Claremont Review of Books, in which he reviews three books written by Akbar S. Ahmed:

Akbar Ahmed, a British-trained social anthropologist, served as Pakistan's P.A. in South Waziristan from 1978 through 1980…. Given Waziristan's new-found status as the haven and headquarters of America's global enemies, Ahmed's book is an indispensable guide to thinking through the past and anticipating the future of the war on terror. In addition to shedding new and unexpected light on the origins of the Taliban, Resistance and Control in Pakistan offers what is, in effect, a philosophy of rule in Muslim tribal societies—a conception of government that has direct relevance to our struggle to stabilize Iraq.

A popular novelist of the British Raj called Waziristan tribesmen "physically the hardest people on earth." British officers considered them among the finest fighters in the world. During the 1930s Waziristan's troublesome tribesmen forced the British to station more troops in that agency than in the remainder of the Indian subcontinent. In more settled agricultural areas of Pakistan's tribal Northwest Frontier Province, Ahmed says, adults, children, and soldiers mill about comfortably in the open, while women help their men in the fields. No guns are visible. But arid Waziristan is a collection of silent, fortress-like settlements. Women are invisible, men carry guns, and desolation rules the countryside.

In his later work, Ahmed's insight into the subtle choreography of tribal violence dissolves in a haze of cultural apologetics. In Islam Under Siege, for example, he argues that Americans misunderstand what they see when Afghan tribesmen fire rifles into the sky, or store ammunition and weapons in caves. Although Americans associate these actions with terrorism, Ahmed calmly explains that firing into the sky is simply a mark of celebration at birth and marriage. Weapons storage, he reassures his readers, is merely "insurance against tribal rivalries." But is there not some connection between the resort to terror tactics, on the one hand, and societies characterized by violent tribal rivalry and demonstrative gunfire, on the other?

A powerful code of honor ties the system[of this tribal society] together. Among the Pushtun tribes that populate Waziristan and much of Afghanistan, that code is called "Pushtunwali." Avenging lineage honor is only one aspect of Pushtunwali. The code also mandates that hospitality and sanctuary be provided to any stranger requesting them. Thus a means is provided whereby, in the absence of a state, zones of security are established for travelers. Yet the system is based on an ever-shifting balance of terror which turns friends into enemies, and back again into friends, in a heartbeat. And this ethos of honor writes violent revenge and collective guilt deep into the cultural psyche. Although the British political agents who learned to live with Pushtunwali generally lionized it, Winston Churchill condemned it as a "system of ethics, which regards treachery and violence as virtues rather than vices." In any case, the dynamics of the war on terror are easily recognizable as an extension of this tribal system of collective guilt, honor, humiliation, and revenge.

The Islamist revolution is a conscious choice—an act of cultural self-defense against the intrusions and seductions of an alien world. Although the social foundations of the traditional Muslim way of life have been shaken, they are far from broken. So long as these social foundations cohere, advancing globalization will provoke more rebellion, not less—whatever America decides to do in Iraq and beyond. The root of the problem is neither domestic poverty nor American foreign policy, but the tension between Muslim social life and globalizing modernity itself.

Modern and liberal though he may be, he is unwilling to concede the need for fundamental reform within Islam. Instead of facing the evident incompatibility with modernity of core aspects of Muslim religious and social life, he reverts to sanitized accounts, accusations of Islamophobia, and complaints about American foreign policy. Although he bitterly resents the influence of Bernard Lewis on American conservatives, Ahmed periodically (and reluctantly) mimics Lewis's claim that Americans are being scapegoated for the Muslim world's own decline. Lewis's conviction that the use of force must be a key aspect of American foreign policy in the Middle East infuriates Ahmed. Yet, rightly understood, his own account in Resistance and Control in Pakistan confirms Lewis's insight. Without the destruction of the Wana market and the capture of Noor Muhammad, not to mention the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Ahmed's gentle, honor-based rule in Waziristan would not have been possible.

Bhutto’s Assassination

2007-12-29T03:45:00.001-05:00

A round-up of articles;

Rich Lowery, "When an Assassin Succeeds"

Because what we always feared has happened -- an assassin has killed a strategically significant target. Bhutto's martyrdom will understandably obscure her misrule the first two times she was prime minister. But on her return, she was a frank voice against Islamism, and no one can deny her this: She was very brave.
Wonacott and Solomon, Wall Street Journal, "Bhutto Killing Inflames Pakistan"

The world's most unstable nuclear-armed nation is plunging deeper into crisis.
Yesterday's assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has thrown into disarray Pakistan's attempt to restore democracy, eliminating a leading contender for power days before a national election and highlighting the growing reach of extremists.
Christopher Hitchens, Slate, "Daughter of Destiny"

And now the two main legacies of Bhutto rule—the nukes and the empowered Islamists—have moved measurably closer together.
This is what makes her murder such a disaster. There is at least some reason to think that she had truly changed her mind, at least on the Taliban and al-Qaida, and was willing to help lead a battle against them. She had, according to some reports, severed the connection with her rather questionable husband. She was attempting to make the connection between lack of democracy in Pakistan and the rise of mullah-manipulated fanaticism. Of those preparing to contest the highly dubious upcoming elections, she was the only candidate with anything approaching a mass appeal to set against the siren calls of the fundamentalists. And, right to the end, she carried on without the fetish of "security" and with lofty disregard for her own safety. This courage could sometimes have been worthy of a finer cause, and many of the problems she claimed to solve were partly of her own making. Nonetheless, she perhaps did have a hint of destiny about her.
Manzoor Ijaz, Christian Science Monitor, "The Benazir Bhutto I Knew"

Benazir Bhutto was a brave woman. She was the face of modernity that Pakistan needed to salvage its descent into a sea of Islamist darkness. She should be remembered as a guardian of Pakistan's identity as a modern Islamic nation. Her death need not be the beginning of Pakistan's end.
Ralph Peters, New York Post, "The Bhutto Assassination: Not What She Seemed to Be"

We need have no sympathy with her Islamist assassin and the extremists behind him to recognize that Bhutto was corrupt, divisive, dishonest and utterly devoid of genuine concern for her country.
Me: This is a harsh. Because of her devotion to her country, she was willing to put herself at risk. It was only a matter of time before the Islamists would get to her. I am sure she knew that as well but hoped against hope they would fail.
Michael Medved, "Five Political Lessons From the Bhutto Assassination"

Me: I wanted to note that Mr. Medved, while acknowledging Ms. Bhutto's shortcomings, was, in contrast to Ralph Peters' harsh statement, a bit more diplomatic:
Though she had plenty of faults and a puffed up ego, she still deserve[s] credit for the sacrifices and dangers [she] accept[ed] for the sake of an impassioned desire to serve [her] country.
The Times editorial, "The Nightmare Scenario"

Death has magnified Ms Bhutto's undoubted virtues and will render her a martyr. She had charisma and courage on an extraordinary scale. There was absolutely no need for her to return from exile in London and Dubai when her life was plainly in danger. Victory at the polls would have meant that she inherited an unenviable series of challenges. Her previous periods as Prime Minister had not been without controversy or disputes and to have taken the office again in the circumstances that were certain to occur would have been yet more perilous. Her willingness to make that personal sacrifice was profoundly honourable. The fear must be that her loss will discourage others entering politics.
Mark Steyn, National Review Online, writes:
Miss Bhutto could never have been a viable leader of a post-Musharraf settlement, and the delusion that she could have been sent her to her death.

Yikes!

2007-12-17T05:37:00.001-05:00

“If I had a gun, I have a perfect shot.”

2007-12-09T07:14:00.001-05:00

Nebraska is a Conceal and Carry state. However, there are, as in most CCW states, restrictions on where one may carry his weapon.

An eyewitness to the mall tragedy in Omaha writes:

Honestly, and as God as my witness, when I saw him shooting and as watched for a few seconds trying to figure out what he was going to do and what I should do, the thought that when through my mind was, "If I had a gun, I have a perfect shot."

Yes, a perfect shot. I had a full side profile, I was close, and no one was visible behind him except [sic] a wall. I had a clear shot during the second round of fire. I told this to every cop I came in contact with. The interviewer agreed.

Via Patterico.

Lawn Care and Double Standards

2007-12-05T10:15:00.001-05:00

Michelle Malkins asks:

Will Geraldo Rivera and his open-borders companions accuse the reporters of Nazi-like tactics for "harassing" the illegal immigrants?

Will the Globe reporters be accused of, ahem, "stalking" the poor illegals and invading privacy? Note that they didn't just drive by the house once. They hung out on the lawn over the last two months.

And when is it permissible to ask an illegal alien his citizenship status?

She has a ready answer.

Agenda Journalists’ Goal

2007-12-05T07:39:00.001-05:00

Hugh Hewitt writes:

My concern about the Huckabee pop is that it is hard to imagine the former Arkansas governor winning the November vote. I can see election night with a sea of blue states with the deep South voting Huck. The MSM knows this and is relentlessly boosting Huck in order to fell Romney. The Globe's obsession with the leaves on Romney's lawn underscores how agenda journalists of the left view this race: Take out Romney, bleed Rudy, nominate Huckabee, elect Hillary.

2007-11-17T11:53:00.001-05:00

According to Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, Hillary Clinton, during this week's Democratic debate in Las Vegas, got a pass from Wolf Blitzer of CNN. A short, simple "no" was enough for Blitzer when he asked her a question about driver's license for illegal immigrants, a question which tripped her up during the previous debate moderated by Tim Russert. Perhaps, Mr. Blitzer, in spite of his public posturing, was intimidated by the Clinton campaign going into this debate. Unlike Russert, he did not want to be accused of "piling on." According to Morris and Eileen, "CNN saved Hillary from yet another embarrassing debate performance." Instead, Blitzer opted for a light-hearted "diamond or pearls" question, another one of those planted questions (though, not by the Hillary campaign this time) we have been hearing about recently.

Accuracy in Media posits that Blitzer's kid-glove treatment of Hillary, who is most likely going to win the nomination, was an attempt to save the Democrats from a potentially lethal issue:

Blitzer's acceptance of the "no" answer from Hillary was striking. There had been some scrutiny in the preceding weeks about the inevitability of her becoming the next president because of that very issue. In general, as all of the Republican presidential candidates fully understand, illegal immigration has the potential of destroying the Democrats next November. The media seem to understand this, too. Perhaps that is why Hillary was given a pass this time around.

Read the transcript (within the above-referenced AIM article) of the question, which was posed first to Obama. When Blitzer, feigning (?) dissatisfaction with Obama's answer, asked him and each of the candidates for a simple "yes or no" answer, Hillary got the pass she needed. No need to explain her flip-flop on the issue, a flip-flop that occurred within a two-minute timeframe during the last debate.

The Afghan Front

2007-08-05T05:12:00.001-05:00

Progress is slow and steady but will take years, maybe decades. Read this NYT piece.

Al Qaeda Terrorist Leader Killed

2007-08-04T15:10:00.001-05:00

Haitham al-Badri , the punk terrorist that masterminded the bombing of the mosque in Samarra in February 2006, was exterminated by our heroes in Iraq.

Cognitive Dissonance

2007-08-02T04:34:00.001-05:00

The surge in Iraq is showing signs of success? Don't confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up.

This is the gist of the response of the left to an article written in the New York Times by two critics of the war, O'Hanlon and Pollack, of the Brookings Institute.

Read Dean Barrett's take.

2006-12-05T04:53:00.000-05:00

Bolton Bolted

America is no longer represented by a true patriot in the halls of the United Nations. John Bolton, who has been serving since August 2005 a recess appointment as U.S. Ambassador to the UN, saw the writing on the wall and tendered his resignation to his boss, George W. Bush. If there was no hope of making it pass Republican Lincoln Chafee to the floor of the Senate for an up-or-down vote, there surely is no chance of his confirmation moving forward with Senator Joseph Biden at the helm of the foreign relations committee.

As Human Event rightly notes:

The resignation of John Bolton as our nation’s United Nations Ambassador leaves a significant hole in our nation’s national security efforts and our war on Islamic terrorism.

In these times of peril, God forbid we have a hardliner, a polarizing figure like John Bolton representing a country under threat of Islamic terrorists. The UN representatives in that august body, some of whose member countries provide support to the very Islamists who have declared war on our country, deserve a representative who is less harsh, more affable, more Neville Chamberlain-like. Yeah, that's the ticket. An appeaser is what the world needs, someone whose style is less brusque and, instead, more sensitive.

America lost a hardworker who, in a short 18-month period, accomplished much. Check out Anne Bayefsky's NRO article here (HT: HotAir) to get the skinny on this man's accomplishments.

Some bloggers covering the story:

Michelle Malkin: If the White House thinks throwing in the towel and throwing Bolton overboard will appease the Dems or the U.N., it doesn't know what reality is.
Hotair: Bad things happen when you lose a majority.
Atlas Shrugged: John Bolton was a loyal Bush stalwart. Clearly he was at odds with recent Bush policy decisions that were chock full of carrots but no sticks for savage bullies, but he never said a cross word. Never. Loyal. No wonder Bush is isolated.
Flopping Aces: The one man who desperately wanted to really reform this organization has been denied an opportunity. So now life will go on in that silly fantasyland we call the United Nations.
Rightwing Nuthouse: John Bolton tried to reform an institution so resistant to change that they would rather wallow in their own filth and corruption than take even the simplest steps into the light. And when all is said and done, he will have the satisfaction of knowing that he was in the right and that his critics – superficial and shallow as they are – were wrong.

2006-11-19T06:38:00.000-05:00

Iraq a disaster?

Any intelligent observer of the events in Iraq can agree that it is a disaster. However, that is not to suggest that our being there or remaining there is a mistake. PM Tony Blair was recently interviewed by David Frost for Al Jazeera; the f0llowing exchange to place (via Power Line):

Mr Blair was challenged by Sir David over the violence in Iraq, saying it had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".
The prime minister replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq?

"It's not difficult because of some accident in planning.

"It's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

As John at Power Line notes, this is one of those "all headline, no story" episodes that we often see nowadays.

Daily Pundit offers an alternative headline, one that takes into account the context of Blair's response to the interviewer: See "Blair Blames Islamic Terrorists for 'Disaster' In Iraq" isn't quite as...sexy...a headline.

Of course, the left is beside themselves with this so-called admission.

Mr. Blair’s grudging acknowledgement of what has been described as Britain’s worst foreign policy fiasco since the Suez crisis came during an interview with David Frost on Al-Jazeera television’s new international English-language channel on Friday. (RINF news)

Tony Blair agrees that Iraq has "so far been pretty much of a disaster." (Think Progress)

Tony Blair has publicly agreed with the opinion that the violence in Iraq since the 2003 invasion has been a disaster. (Drudge Retort)

Apparently PM Tony Blair is becoming a little more truthful in his talk on Iraq then Bush and Co... (Daily Kos)

So on and so forth with the disingenuousness of the left.

2006-11-16T16:13:00.000-05:00

Man arrested for carrying $78,000 in cash and nuclear info on his laptop

A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.
Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested Tuesday after a dog caught the scent of narcotics on cash he was carrying, according to an affidavit filed in court.

Michelle Malkin is concerned that our new Congress may hamstring our efforts to be ever-vigilant in our fight against the Jihadists. Read her post The Bi-partisan CAIR Congress.

2006-11-15T06:38:00.000-05:00

Our Resourceful Earth

A new study refutes the Peak Oil Theory:

In contrast to a widely discussed theory that world oil production will soon reach a peak and go into sharp decline, a new analysis of the subject by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) finds that the remaining global oil resource base is actually 3.74 trillion barrels -- three times as large as the 1.2 trillion barrels estimated by the theory’s proponents -- and that the “peak oil” argument is based on faulty analysis which could, if accepted, distort critical policy and investment decisions and cloud the debate over the energy future.

There are those who disagree:

...even if you agree with CERA's wildly optimistic assumptions, you have to admit that we are in a bit of trouble with oil. Based on everything I've read here on the subject, I do think we are headed for a production plateau of a few years followed by a slow decline in total production. But what makes CERA's prediction incredibly scary is the fact that global supply will not be able to meet increased demand would like to continue to increase at 1-3% per year to feed the voracious Asian consumers and the continued suburbanization of America.
What CERA most gets wrong IMHO, is their obsession with oil reserves versus production rates. You can't run an industrial economy on reserves - you need to pull it out of the ground first. They treat reserves like a bank account that can be cashed out based on the economics of demand.

2006-11-04T06:59:00.000-05:00

A Nuclear Middle East

Six Arab nations have announced their intentions to pursue the development of nuclear energy programs for civilian purposes. These nations include Morocco, Tunisia, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia. They may claim it is for peaceful purposes, but it is more likely a response to the sabre rattling of the Persians.

Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that it was clear that the sudden drive for nuclear expertise was to provide the Arabs with a “security hedge”.

“If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world],” he said.

The announcement by the six nations is a stunning reversal of policy in the Arab world, which had until recently been pressing for a nuclear free Middle East, where only Israel has nuclear weapons.

Saudi Arabia, sitting atop the world's largest deposits of oil reserves, reserves that could last decades if not a few hundred years, arguably, does not need a nuclear energy program. What they and these other Arab states feel they may need is a security hedge against their maniacal OPEC partner, Iran, especially if the international community, specifically Russia, is not willing to impose tough sanctions against the defiant Persians. A Times article notes:

Last night Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said proposals by the European Union to impose very limited sanctions on Iran were too strong. Western diplomats fear the talks will drag on without any serious action being taken against the Iranian regime, which recently announced it had expanded its enrichment work

These Arab nations are not going to sit idly by and allow the balance of power to tilt toward Iran.

They fear the rise of Iran’s brand of Islam and the impact it is having on Shia brethren in countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

An Iran that is a member of the nuclear club would have far more clout in the region.

It is more than a politico-military shifting of power; there is the over-arching religious component. The Wretchard quotes a Noah Feldman article:

A nuclear Iran means, at the very least, a realignment of power dynamics in the Persian Gulf. It could potentially mean much more: a historic shift in the position of the long-subordinated Shiite minority relative to the power and prestige of the Sunni majority, which traditionally dominated the Muslim world. Many Arab Sunnis fear that the moment is ripe for a Shiite rise. Iraq’s Shiite majority has been asserting the right to govern, and the lesson has not been lost on the Shiite majority in Bahrain and the large minorities in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah of Jordan has warned of a “Shiite crescent” of power stretching from Iran to Lebanon via Iraq and (by proxy) Syria.

The time has arrived to take some serious action against Iran. If the U.S. has to go it alone, so be it. Action must be taken against Iran--now. A nuclear arms race in an unstable Middle East with unstable leaders at the helm could be disastrous.

j

2006-11-02T08:58:00.000-05:00

The anti-military left

Speaking before a group of college students the other day in Pasadena, John Kerry suggested that if they did not get an education they would be "stuck in Iraq" like the other numbskulls. He said it was a botched joke meant to poke fun at George Bush. How a joke about the Commander in Chief for whom the men in uniform have high regard would any more endear him to the military is beyond me. He issued an apology of sorts, the kind of apology that says he regrets you ignoramuses didn't understand what he was trying to say.

This morning I followed a link by Drudge in which it is reported that Seymour Hersh, the so-called journalist of My Lai fame, said:

“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.” [emphasis mine]

This anti-military bias on the left is out of control. Hersh wants our soldiers not to return home to a hero's welcome but to a public spitting and screaming "'Baby killers!"

John Kerry did not botch a joke. He stated what he believes deeply in his heart and what is deeply believed in the hearts of everyone on the Left.

2006-10-30T04:31:00.000-05:00

Donald Rumsfeld and the Press

The press cannot have a civil, fact-filled Q and A with Donald Rumsfeld. It's a challenge to which Rumsfeld capably and enthusiastically rises. Consider this exchange:

Q But given the record, Mr. Secretary, can you blame us for the tone, expressing some skepticism? Because --
SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, no. That's your job. You can express all the skepticism you want.
Q Every time a benchmark has been laid down in terms of security forces, and the like, the Iraqis have been unable to meet them.
SEC. RUMSFELD: That is just false.
Q And you have no --
SEC. RUMSFELD: Just a minute. Just a minute!
That is false!
Q That is not false.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Every time a security benchmark has been laid down the Iraqis have failed to meet it? Wrong! Just isn't true. And it would be a shame if people walked out thinking it.
Just a minute! Just a minute!
Q Okay.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Now, why do I say it's wrong? Well, first of all, it has the benefit of being true that it's wrong. The Iraqi security force training program that we have laid out has been proceeding in an orderly, reasonable way. We have projections that we release to the Congress every month or two or three; we show them what we think we're going to have by way of training and equipping. We show them that the chain of command's been set up. We've shown them when the new divisions get shopped over -- Iraqi divisions -- to the chain of command because they have the capability of handling it. We've done it -- two of them now. There will be more coming along. We can't say precisely what day that will happen. But it's all laid out there. We think it's working. They're doing a good job. When we said that they would handle the bulk of the security for the last election, they did. We were in an outer cordon, they were handling it in the inner cordon. They did a good job. The election took place.
I mean, to say that every security -- I mean, that's -- there's people ranting like that up on the Hill, but that is just wrong to say that! It's not even -- it isn't even close to being true!
Q They have met the benchmarks in numbers, but not the ability to stand up and take control. It was evidenced here. General Casey said as much in the fight to retake Baghdad, that when the U.S. military called on the Iraqi military to provide forces to assist in that operation, they provided only a small fraction of what is needed.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Okay. Look at it this way. Have there been instances, many instances, when the Iraqi security forces have been able to do precisely what was intended and what was predicted? Answer: Yes. Have there been instances where they were not able to do what was predicted and hoped for or intended? Answer: Yes.
That means your question, your statement, your assertion is flat wrong. You said "every" security benchmark has been missed. That's not true! They've done a darn good job.
Q Perhaps the assertion was too precise --
SEC. RUMSFELD: Too precise? It was inaccurate.
Q But in terms of their ability --
SEC. RUMSFELD: You might want to retract it. Just for the fun of it, just retract it.
Q (Laughs.)
Q In terms of their ability to provide for their own security, there are many times when the U.S. has called upon them where they just haven't stood up. Is --
SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second; there are many times. There are some times. There are some times where they took over something, it didn't work, and people had to go back in and help them, no question, and take it back. I've said that from the beginning. That's part of this process.
It is not a smooth road. It's a bumpy road. We know that. We've said it repeatedly. There's no surprise to it. But anyone who runs around denigrating the Iraqi security forces and minimizing their capability is making a mistake and doesn't understand the situation.

There is more at Redstate about the SecDef's news conference.

2006-09-26T07:45:00.000-05:00

The Clinton Interview: "comprehensive anti-terror strategy"

Bill Clinton red-facedly claimed the following:

I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him [OBL]. The CIA was run by George Tenet, who President Bush gave the Medal of Freedom to and said he did a good job. The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came to office...

When I failed [to get OBL], I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy...

Via Byron York's article at NRO we have this exchange between Richard Clarke, whom Clinton referred to several times in his interview with Wallace, and reporters during a briefing:

A reporter asked: “Were all of those issues part of an alleged plan that was late December and the Clinton team decided not to pursue because it was too close to — ”

“There was never a plan, Andrea,” Clarke answered. “What there was was these two things: One, a description of the existing strategy, which included a description of the threat. And two, those things which had been looked at over the course of two years, and which were still on the table.”

“So there was nothing that developed, no documents or no new plan of any sort?"

“There was no new plan.”“No new strategy? I mean, I mean, I don’t want to get into a semantics — "

“Plan, strategy — there was no, nothing new.”

“Had those issues evolved at all from October of ‘98 until December of 2000?”

“Had they evolved? Not appreciably.”

2006-09-16T17:32:00.000-05:00

The Pope...

..., God bless him, gave a speech that enraged the adherents of the Religion of Peace. The Pope expressed regret today if Muslims were offended. He should not have offered any such regret. To his credit, he stopped short of an apology, which the peaceful people of Islam are demanding. Those peaceful people are the Muslim Brotherhood.

Michelle Malkin has the latest that is circulating among the peace lovers in Internet chat rooms.

From the New York Times, mouthpiece for the Islamists terrorists:

There is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.”
...

Muslim leaders the world over have demanded apologies and threatened to recall their ambassadors from the Vatican, warning that the pope’s words dangerously reinforce a false and biased view of Islam. For many Muslims, holy war — jihad — is a spiritual struggle, and not a call to violence. And they denounce its perversion by extremists, who use jihad to justify murder and terrorism.

Jihad is a misunderstood word. It's an inner struggle thing. Read this if you want the skinny on jihad.

Unfortunately, there are just enough of the Islamic fanatics for whom jihad is all about blowing up children in schools, or diners in cafes, or dancers in discos to pose a bit of a problem for those of us here in the West to really get this is whole jihad thing. It's not the Pope's words that shape our perception of Islam; it's the adherent themselves.

The Pope speaks truth. And, in the immortal words of Jack Nicholson, the Muslims "can't handle the truth."

2006-09-11T18:32:00.000-05:00

Five years ago today...

...America changed when Muslim terrorists (you got that? Islamic Jihadists!) attacked our homeland using four jet airliners as their weapon of choice. Three of those passenger jets found their targets, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The fourth airliner crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania thanks to the brave passengers who, after learning that their flight was a flying missile probably targeting the White House or the Capitol Building, reached deep within their beings and mustered the courage to attempt a takeover of the flight from the terrorists. Over 3,000 people died that day, in addition to 19 animals.

After 9/11, our generation's day of infamy, we were certain that another attack would follow, any day, any week, any month. Yet, though some 20 countries in this War on Terror have been victims of these evildoers, we have been spared. Why? John at Power Line states it plainly:

...the Bush administration has done a brilliant job of fighting the terrorists, and keeping us safe here at home...

Yet, to hear the critics of the Bush Administration (not a loyal opposition by any stretch of the imagination), the Democratic Party, the MSM, academia, President Bush has utterly failed in his execution of the War on Terror. Indeed, there have been challenges in fighting this war overseas; but, it is indefensible to suggest that the Bush Administration has failed to keep us safe at home. By any sensible standard, one would claim that to be a success. We are, as John says, living in a world that is turned upside down.

Yes, America changed that day. For the life of me, I cannot say it was for the better. Oh, there was an unmistakable moment of unity, the surcease of which we never anticipated to arrive so quickly. Unfortunately, our day of infamy only temporarily brought out the best in our nation. Not many months after 9/11, it became quite obvious the change that had occurred. What changed was the realization that our beloved country was deeply divided, that in the preceding two or three decades multiculturalism and diversity training and political correctness had corrupted our moral clarity.

Let us pray that the damage is not irreversible. Let us pray that the brilliance the present administration has demostrated in keeping us safe from the terrorists, the blood that has been spilt by our soldiers and Marines on the battlefield has not been in vain. Let us pray for moral clarity and for unity of vision as we confront an enemy hell bent on wiping us from the face of the eart.

2006-09-10T04:39:00.000-05:00

That Senate Intelligence Committee Report

The Senate Intelligence Committee released their report on pre-War intelligence on Iraq. It'll make good reading during these final two months before the November elections.

Paul at Powerline writes:

Reading through the more than 100 pages of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on our use of INC information that lay out the facts, it seems clear that our intelligence agencies acted consistently with the principles I have just articulated. They administered polygraphs to INC-related sources, they treated information from these sources with skepticism; they checked it carefully against other information. To the extent that our agencies thought some of the information was worth mentioning, they mentioned it in various documents. However, as far as I can tell from the fact section of the Intelligence Committee's report, information from INC-related source never caused our intelligence services to reach a conclusion that differed from the conclusion they would have reached without that information.
One would think that this would be the end of the matter. However, some Senators who regret voting to go to war with Iraq seem to think that it sits better if, instead of being influenced by intelligence assessments that were merely mistaken, they can claim to be misled by assessments that arguably were fraudulent. Perhaps more to the point, some Senators think that it will sit worse for President Bush if they can claim that the intelligence process was contaminated by an outside organization (the INC) that "stove-piped" information to Bush, via the Vice President's office, via the neo-cons at the Defense Department, without proper vetting.

It is for one or both of these purposes, I believe, that the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee, along with Republican Senators Hagel and Snowe, amended the conclusions contained in the original report to make it sound as if INC-related sources were influential, rather than peripheral at best. In my next post on the subject, I will discuss in some detail why, in my view, the amended conclusions contained in the committee's report are quite deceptive.

Captain Ed, who links to searchable PDFs of Phase II of the Intelligence Committee reports, notes two conclusions that are conveniently overlooked by MSM.

2006-09-09T06:07:00.000-05:00

Did Iraq go uranium shopping in Niger?

Christopher Hitchens explains that:

At a minimum, ... the Blair and Bush administrations were quite right to view the Iraq-Niger relationship with concern. At a maximum,... the Niger connection was a great deal more significant—and more dangerous—than anyone has even suspected. (The A.Q. Khan network was not exposed until after Muammar Qaddafi's capitulation and the opening of the Libyan stockpiles, which in turn did not occur until after Saddam Hussein had been overthrown.)

Read the entire article to understand why Hitchens comes to this conclusion.

2006-09-04T19:21:00.000-05:00

Bob Seger...

...is back! What a rocker he was in his day. I look forward to purchasing his new album.

Bob Seger - Wait For Me
Provided'>http://videocodes4u.com/">Provided by VideoCodes4U.com