2/26/2006
Steyn Points Out A Disconcerting Trend
Mark Steyn’s latest column points out a disconcerting trend in Europe. Like I’ve said before, this is a religious war. The Muslims see it that way, it’s time we wake up to the realities of our post 9-11 world.
…Something very remarkable is happening around the globe and, if you want the short version, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto the other day put it very well:
”We won’t stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law.”
Stated that baldly it sounds ridiculous. But, simply as a matter of fact, every year more and more of the world lives under Islamic law: Pakistan adopted Islamic law in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984. Four decades ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it’s in the grip of sharia, and the other half’s feeling the squeeze, as the death toll from the cartoon jihad indicates. But just as telling is how swiftly the developed world has internalized an essentially Islamic perspective. In their pitiful coverage of the low-level intifada that’s been going on in France for five years, the European press has been barely any less loopy than the Middle Eastern media.
What, in the end, are all these supposedly unconnected matters from Danish cartoons to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker to gender-segregated swimming sessions in French municipal pools about? Answer: sovereignty. Islam claims universal jurisdiction and always has. The only difference is that they’re now acting upon it. The signature act of the new age was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran: Even hostile states generally respect the convention that diplomatic missions are the sovereign territory of their respective countries. Tehran then advanced to claiming jurisdiction over the citizens of sovereign states and killing them — as it did to Salman Rushdie’s translators and publishers. Now in the cartoon jihad and other episodes, the restraints of Islamic law are being extended piecemeal to the advanced world, by intimidation and violence but also by the usual cooing promotion of a spurious multicultural “respect” by Bill Clinton, the United Church of Canada, European foreign ministers, etc.
The I’d-like-to-teach-the-world-to-sing-in-perfect-harmonee crowd have always spoken favorably of one-worldism. From the op-ed pages of Jutland newspapers to les banlieues of Paris, the Pan-Islamists are getting on with it.
2/25/2006
Al Qaeda — More Organized Than You’d Think
Often, when I’ve thought of Al Qaeda I’ve pictured a bunch of loosely organized fanatics and third world savages without the education it would take to form a cohesive military organization. After doing some research though, I found out that I was really wrong. West Point has translated some captured Al Qaeda documents and they have certainly shed some light on the structure and sophistication of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has four divisions;
Military:
The military arm of Al Qaeda has a stated goal of obtaining Nuclear Biological and Chemical weapons.
Political:
Information:
The financial committee:
Clearly there has been a considerable amount of thought put into this structure. What’s more is that this structure wasn’t thought up by un-educated people. There are other documents that have been translated by West Point. These cover many different subjects, one in particular covers the goals of the organization as a whole. I hope to cover this document in my next post.
2/24/2006
How Can You Have A Dialogue With These People?
One of the things that has amazed me about some in the peace movement is the insistence that we have a dialog with with our enemies. How can you have a dialog with people who chant “nuke nuke USA” and “Death to US”. The Islamofacist community doesn’t want to talk, they want to fight.
2/22/2006
No time to post right now, but I’m working on a series of posts about Al Qeada’s political and military strategies. I found — through Powerline — a link to West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center where they have posted some captured and translated AQ letters and documents that deal with their political and military operating theories. The documents provide a chilling look into the mind of the enemy that we face.
2/21/2006
Well, it appears that we’ve nabbed a couple more scum bags in the war on terror. These three mental midgets were indicted for planning to kill the President, giving support to terrorists, and planning attacks on US forces in Iraq. According to AG Gonzales, the Patriot Act was instrumental in garnering evidence against these three. I wonder if the Democrats and — much to my chagrin — some Republicans will continue to obstruct the renewal of this vital tool in the GWOT?
Hat Tip to Cosmic Voyager. He caught a mistake I made. I mistakenly attributed the comment about the Patriot Act to AG Gonzales. In the article the comment was actually made by “law enforcement sources”.
2/20/2006
My good friend and fellow RMA’er Michael over at Best Destiny did a little research into exactly what the media is paying attention to right now and found some … well, not so surprising results:
So, now it’s been a week since the two most immediate past Vice Presidents have been in the news. Let’s see how the national media has handled things. Via Google:
“Dick Cheney Anderson Ranch”: 9,750 hits, from all type and manner of major media outlet
“Al Gore Jiddah”: 472 hits, 6 of the first 10 from new media
Let’s be clear about the difference here: The Cheney story is the sitting Vice President shoots a friend in a hunting accident, the friend is all right, the sheriff has closed the investigation, and there are NO further ramifications of the event; the Gore story is a former Veep, and elder statesman of his party, a man who was almost President and will likely run again in 2008, going into the Arab world and inventing history in a fashion that damages alliances, encourages anti-American sentiment around the world, and leaves the world with the impression that the administration’s foreign policy is not supported at home.
And the MSM wonders why they have fallen so far down in the realm of public opinion…
2/19/2006
Looks like the Religious leaders in Qom have started paving the way for the use of nukes.
2/18/2006
I guess the attempt by the media to fuel outrage over the Cheney hunting accident didn’t work after all. Rasmussen did a survey earlier this week … 27% say it raises serious questions about his ability to serve as veep. The other 57% of us have a more reasonable view; it’s just one of those embarrassing things that happens to all of us.
February 16, 2006–Twenty-seven percent (27%) of Americans believe that the recent hunting accident involving Dick Cheney raises serious questions about his ability to serve as Vice President. Twice as many, 57%, say it was “just one of those very embarrassing things that happens to all of us.”
The survey was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday night. Cheney spoke publicly about the incident for the first time on Wednesday. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans say they have been following news about this story somewhat or very closely.
Strike three … your out!
MoDo is up to her usual sarcastic shtick. Her column is — as usual — to ridiculous to comment on in full, but I thought I would take a shot at a couple of her more asinine remarks.
President Bush signed Executive Order 13292 on March 25, 2003, amending a Clinton-era order, to grant the vice president the same power as the president on top-secret material. W. must have been concerned that Vice didn’t have enough power to abuse.
(With the way these guys keep giving themselves extra powers, there are probably also executive orders that allow Vice-Man to turn himself into a dragon, become invisible and leap tall buildings in a single bound.)
Ah, but you just said that this was an amendment to a Clinton era executive order. So does that mean you don’t approve of Clinton’s expanding powers during his presidency? Of course not. MoDo, as usual is just looking for another way to insult the administration.
The administration has been so apoplectic about leaks, I almost forget the entire Iraq war was paved by its leaks. Cheney & Co. were so busy trying to prove a mushroom cloud was emanating from Saddam’s direction, they could not leak their cherry-picked stories fast enough.
I’d hardly call credited and sourced information a leak. Unlike the NSA leak which much to my dismay still hasn’t been sourced. Oh well, we’ll find out soon enough, and when we do whoever leaked that “cherry - picked” story will be spending time in federal lockup with his new boyfriend.
In his speech to the Council of Foreign Relations yesterday, he sounded positively humble. Gone were the days when Rummy and the neocons thought a big Shock-and-Awe blaze of American might would make Islamic terrorists tremble in their Flintstones caves, never to challenge us again.
See. that’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats want to scare, bribe, and ignore the Islamofacists into leaving us alone. The Republicans on the other hand have never intended to scare them. We’ve plainly meant to kill them. This is war, you don’t win it by trying to scare an enemy that has no qualms about blowing themselves up. You win the war by eliminating the threat.
Like the vice president, the defense secretary is eager to get information out. If the American press wouldn’t scream, “Henny Penny, the sky is falling,” every time the Pentagon tries to plant paid stories in the Iraqi press, for gosh sakes, maybe we could have some success in the P.R. battle.
After the Lincoln Group’s “nontraditional means,” as he delicately put it, were discovered, “the resulting explosion of critical press stories then causes everything, all activity, all initiative, to stop, just frozen.”
P.R. is just as much a part of winning the war as air strikes. If we cannot convince the “natives” to stand up and fight for themselves against the brutal regimes that have taken hold in the middle east the winning of the war will be much harder and come at a significantly higher price in men and material. Just ask the Democrats — weren’t they the ones that came up with the whole hearts and minds theory during the Vietnam war?
“Even worse,” he complained, “it leads to a chilling effect for those who are asked to serve in the military public affairs field.” The press “seems to demand perfection from the government,” he wailed. And why do the media focus on Abu Ghraib, perpetrated by “people on the night shift, one night shift in Iraq?” he asked. Why not more stories on Saddam’s mass graves?
Rummy is genuinely perplexed about why it’s wrong to subvert democracy while promoting democracy.
First, let me say that I am against torture as it is defined in the Geneva convention. But there has yet to be one case where the U.S. has broken the Geneva Convention, and from what I’ve heard I’d hardly call what went on at Abu Ghraib torture. “Rummy” — as she calls him — has a good point though; why are there not more stories from the MSM about the torture and mass murder that was going on under Saddam’s regime. Could it be that telling those stories might actually bolster support for the war?
I love it when Shooter and Rummy call us unrealistic for trying to hold them to standards that they set. They are, after all, victims of their own spin on Iraq. Mr. Cheney thought we’d be greeted with flowers; Rummy said we could do more with less.
As I pointed out in an earlier post, we are being “greeted with flowers”, you won’t find the story in the MSM though. As far as doing more with less, we have. We’ve toppled a regime, captured a despot, and helped a country start to rebuild under democracy with what we have there, and we’re starting to bring troops home.
“Ultimately, in my view,” Rummy concluded, “truth wins out.”
Bad news for him, and his pal Dick.
The truth will win out … no thanks to MoDo and the MSM.
Come to think of it, I said “some of her more asinine remarks”. It ended up being almost the entire column. Hmmm, that tells you something.
2/17/2006
America’s Hero’s Want to Finish The Job — Dems Want Them Silenced
Powerline has a great post on an ad running in the twin cities that was produced by Progress for America. In the ad, America’s heroes and their families speak out for finishing the job in Iraq. The Democrats in the midwest as well as some in the media are doing everything they can to pull the ads off the air. Some champions of freedom of speech they are.
2/16/2006
Wouldn’t Expect Anything Less From The NYT
Two articles appeared in the NYT today. One of them was an opinion article from Bob Herbert. No big surprise where he’s coming from. He thinks the veep should resign “for the good of the country and for the good of the Bush administration”. Heh, as if he really cares about the good of the administration.
I’ve never read such a spun piece of tripe in my life. Just look at these couple of passages from the piece:
There’s a reason Dick Cheney is obsessive about shunning the spotlight. His record is not the kind you want to hold up for intense scrutiny.
More than anyone else, he was fanatical about massaging and distorting the intelligence that plunged us into the flaming quagmire of Iraq. He insisted that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was hot on the trail of nukes. He pounded away at the false suggestion that Iraq was somehow linked to Al Qaeda. And he spread the word that the war he wanted so badly would be a cakewalk.
“I really do believe,” he told Tim Russert, “that we will be greeted as liberators.”
Okay, so the weapons weren’t there. But, we knew he had had them at one point. We knew he had used them in the past, and Saddam’s regime had saught contact with Al Zawahiri a member of Al Qaeda. What would Mr. Herbert have us do? Wait until there’s another smoking hole in the New York city skyline?
Furthermore, we have at least one letter from the mayor of Tall Afar Iraq praising the 3rd ACR as heros. Here’s the text of the letter:
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq
Sounds like we’re being greeted as liberators to me. What’s more, according to information coming out of Iraq from our soldiers and radio personalities like Laura Ingraham this letter represents the majority opinion in Iraq.
But, I can shove aside Mr. Herberts rantings as trash from a partisan who hasn’t liked Bush, Cheney or anything they’ve done. The other article is supposed to be a straight news piece. From the paper of record.
The piece is titled “Bush Says He Is Satisfied With Cheney’s Account of Shooting”. Okay, that’s fair enough, but look at all the supposition and unsupported allegations in the article:
After days of growing pressure from Mr. Bush’s press representatives, and possibly the president himself, Mr. Cheney told Brit Hume of Fox News in an interview that he took full responsibility for the shooting, and said he had no regrets about how he handled the public disclosure of the accident.
Where are the Bush press representatives that have been pressuring Cheney. What were they pressuring him to do and what proof do you have that he was under pressure from anyone other than the Democrats and their attack hounds in the media?
In the interview with Fox News, Mr. Cheney took full responsibility for the shooting at the Armstrong Ranch, even though for days some of his supporters and the owner of the ranch said the blame belonged mostly to Mr. Whittington, who walked toward Mr. Cheney and another hunter without announcing himself.
If you know anything about hunting — which we can assume someone from New York City probably knows very little, if anything about bird hunting — you will recognize that in fact both Cheney and Whittington are at fault for the mishap. Whittington should have announced his return to the firing line, and Cheney of course holds the ultimate responsibility because as he said he’s the one who pulled the trigger.
But the vice president, who disdains talking with the press and who carefully chose Mr. Hume as the only one he would speak to about the shooting, also used the occasion to defend his decision to let one of the ranch owners disseminate the account of the hunting accident to a local newspaper. This was the only account of the incident until the interview with Mr. Cheney on Wednesday.
First of all, after watching the likes of Dana Milbank and the rest of the Whitehouse press corps act like two year olds because they weren’t the first ones told about the accident, I wouldn’t be very happy about talking with the press either.
Secondly, I want to know how this reporter — Maria Newman — knows that Cheney “carefully chose” Mr. Hume to conduct the interview. What if Mr. Hume was just the first person to approach him about an interview. One last little bit about going to Hume for the interview; Mr. Cheney probably figured that Fox was the only place where he’d get a fair shake. I mean look at Jack Cafferty’s comments from the other day
Finally, the only choice we really have is to believe what the veep is saying; he wanted to get the story out to someone who could put the accident in context, someone who knew the business end of a shotgun … or someone who could tell you that we’re likely talking about pellets that are far smaller than BB’s ( the shot used in the shell that hit Harrington was likely size 6 or 8 ). You’re far more likely to find that person at a small paper in Corpus Christi than at the NYT, WaPo, or CBS.
Don’t misunderstand me, this is no small incident. There is a man lying in a hospital right now that has had a minor heart attack after being accidently shot by the Vice President. But, the media and the left have taken this completely out of control. The story has become not about a man wounded by the Vice President and the veep’s reaction to it, but about what was the media told, when were they told, and who was told. The tantrum’s that I’ve seen from the Whitehouse press corps over being scooped by a small town paper have been rediculous.
The left wing moonbats such as Mr. Herbert and Lawrence O’Donnell are just piling on. Any news outlet that would allow O’Donnell to come on the air and speculate that the veep was too drunk to talk to the cops should be ashamed, and if I were Cheney they would be hearing from my lawyer. Can you say defamation of character?
Danger … Danger Sid Blumenthal
Sid Blumenthal has gone into full black helicopter alert mode. I mean, what this guy implies in his Der Spiegel column sounds more like Art Bell (no offense Art, but some of your stuff is pretty out there) than something Sid could come up with.
One big screw up that Sid made is implying that Cheney was drunk.
On the Hunting Accident and Incident Report Form of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the shooter, Richard B. Cheney, checked the “No” box for the question, “Under the apparent influence of intoxicants or drugs?” But in an interview with Fox News Wednesday, Cheney admitted to having a beer earlier in the day, contrary to his statement to Texas officials.
There is no conflict there. One can have a beer or two and seven hours later NOT be under the influence of an intoxicating substance. It amazes me the lengths to which some will go to find a conspiracy. Get a life!
Hat Tip: Hugh
2/15/2006
Boys and girls, our word for the day is bitter. You can use it in a sentence like this; “Jack Cafferty is a bitter has been”.
JACK CAFFERTY: Well, I obviously didn’t see it because it hasn’t been released in its entirety yet. But I would guess it didn’t exactly represent a profile in courage for the Vice President to wander over there to the “f-word†network for a sit down with Brit Hume. I mean that’s a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain’t it? I mean, where was the news conference? Where was the access to all of the members of the media? I don’t know, whatever.
Wolf: Do you still think he needs to do a full scale news conference, invite all the cameras, all the reporters and ask whatever they want?
Cafferty: That’s never going to happen. But I mean running over there to the Fox Network to do it, i mean talk about seeking a safe haven. He’s not going to get any high hard ones from anybody at the f-word ntework, I think we know that.”
Geez, how jealous can you get?
Hat Tip: Hugh
What’s Happening To Our Y0uth?
Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was probably one of the most decorated fighter aces of WW II. He was credited with downing twenty six enemy aircraft during his time in the pacific theater, this was a tie for the most enemy aircraft destroyed by someone in an American uniform. For this, he was awarded the Navy Cross. He was a prisoner of war for twenty months.
Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was a true hero of WW II. He was also an alumni of University of Washington. February 7th, a student proposed a monument honoring “Pappy”. The response to his motion to create this monument is both disgusting and disturbing. The following is from the minutes of the meeting:
Andrew Everett, sponsor of the legislation, summarized the resolution.
He said he wasn’t interested in a large statue, but rather something on a small scale.
Jill Edwards moved to table the resolution until next meeting.
Seconded.
Objection.
Jill Edwards said other legislation needed to be considered as other resolutions have been on the docket longer.
Mikhail Smirnoff said he didn’t see the issue as controversial and that because Senate had voted it to the top of the agenda it should be considered immediately.
The motion failed.
Travis McCoy asked how the construction of the memorial would be funded.
Andrew Everett said he had drawn up funding proposals for the UWAA, several UW departments, and other private sources of funding.
Jono Hanks asked why Andrew Everett was interested in honoring this particular alumnus.
Andrew Everett said he had read about Colonel Boyington and thought his achievements warranted recognition.
Tyler Dockins asked why the monument shouldn’t commemorate all the alumni who fought in the war.
Andrew Everett noted that several statues around campus already serve such a purpose and that Colonel Boyington had many of the qualities the University of Washington hoped to produce in its students.
Jill Edwards questioned whether it was appropriate to honor a person who killed other people.
She said she didn’t’ believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce.
Ashley Miller commented that many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men.
Karl Smith amended the first ‘whereas’ clause to strike the section “he was credited with destroying 26 enemy aircraft, tying the record for most aircraft destroyed by a pilot in American Uniform for which he was†and leaving the reference to the Navy Cross.
Seconded.
Objection.
He said the resolution should commend Colonel Boyington’s service, not his killing of others. [Italics mine — TR]
So, they don’t know if the Marine Corps is an example of the type of person the school wanted to produce? Also, notice later in the minutes Ashley Miller says that there are already monuments on school that honor “rich white men”.
What is going on in our schools and our universities that people make statements like this. What’s happened to our kids that they cannot see the bravery and the intense sacrifice that men like Boyington and his modern day contemporaries exhibit every day?
These pukes don’t have half the bravery and honor in their entire body that Boyington and his comrades had in their little finger.
Hat Tip: Paradosis
2/13/2006
Bob Herbert of the New York Times — like 99% of his colleagues in the Op-Ed section — gets it completely wrong today. Not only does he get it wrong, but he provides no valid examples of what he accuses the Bush administration of doing. So, let’s take this article one paragraph at a time and show Mr. Herbert where he went wrong.
Yesterday The Times ran an extraordinary front-page article detailing the physical agony and profound emotional distress being faced by troops trying to cope with absolutely ruinous wounds suffered in Iraq. “The worst car crash is nothing in terms of what we see here,” said a surgeon at an American base in Balad.
I read the article that he’s talking about. It was very touching, and having been through my own medical hell the last three years I truly feel for these brave men and women. But, it doesn’t have anything to do with the “blunders” that he later accuses the administration of committing. The President didn’t do this to these men, terrorists did.
Talk about focusing on the trees! The forest in this instance is the incredible mess that the Bush crowd has made with its policy blunders, relentless duplicity and outright incompetence. This sorry track record has resulted in, among other things, the horrible suffering and premature deaths of thousands of men, women and children.
What blunders is he talking about. If he’s talking about the men who were wounded in Iraq referenced above then he’s completely off his rocker. As I said before, the President didn’t do that to these men, terrorists did.
Now, what about the “horrible suffering and premature deaths of thousands of men, women and children.”? What examples do you have for us of premature deaths of men women and children? If your talking about deaths that have occured in Iraq, for the most part we’ve managed to avoid “collateral damage”, or the deaths of innocent men women and children. I would certainly like to know where Mr. Herbert got his numbers, because thousands sounds like quite a exageration. By the way, what duplicity and outright incompotence is he talking about. You know, you can’t just go around throwing phrases like that out without providing examples.
I remember talking in Ottawa last February with a traumatized 34-year-old family man — a Canadian citizen with two children named Maher Arar — who was seized by American authorities at Kennedy Airport in the fall of 2002 as part of the reprehensible practice known as extraordinary rendition. He was flown out of the U.S. surreptitiously and handed over to Syrian authorities, who tortured him and kept him caged for a year like a nocturnal animal in an unlit, underground, rat-infested cell.
Then he was let go. No connection between Mr. Arar and terrorism has ever been made.
The extraordinary rendition myth was proven to be just that … a myth. Mr. Herbert still has not provided any proof that this went on other than the claims of Mr. Arar.
The litany of tragic incompetence continued unabated last week. On Wednesday we learned that the federal government has still been unable to provide the trailers it promised as temporary shelters for tens of thousands of people driven from their homes by the hurricanes that slammed the Gulf Coast last summer.
I have looked for stats on the number of trailers delivered so far and can’t find any concrete numbers. The fact is that many of these trailers have been delivered and the rest have to be built. We don’t have this magic stockpile of tens of thousands of trailers waiting to go out to victims of natural disasters. I don’t know how this can be called a “litany of tragic incompetence”, but I guess in Mr. Herberts world it can.
As for Iraq, James Glanz reported in The Times on Thursday that newly declassified statistics on insurgent violence “appear to portray a rebellion whose ability to mount attacks has steadily grown in the nearly three years since the invasion.” [emphasis added — TR]
Ok, all this proves is that the “insurgents” (more appropriately called terrorists) have realized that Iraq is the front line in the war on terror. The same thing could have been said of Japanese attacks in the pacific theater in 41-45. It doesn’t mean were loosing, it just means that we’re not fighting them here on Main street in small town USA. By the way, these statistics also include “insurgent” attacks on Iraqi soldiers and civilians not just American forces.
Can you imagine what Republican politicians and conservative commentators would be saying if a Democratic president — say Al Gore or Hillary Clinton — had compiled exactly the same track record over the past five years as George W. Bush?
Oh, you mean for example Bill Clinton not effectively going after AQ after the embassy bombings or after the attack on the USS Cole? I wonder if he remembers Clinton turning down OBL’s head on a platter on numerous occasions before the 9-11 attacks? Or does Herbert remember former AG Reno using the FBI to chase a little Cuban boy out of Miami? A little boy, by the way, who had a loving family here in the states that was willing to raise him and care for him. Heh, we won’t even get into the monumental screw up that was Waco. Mr. Herbert, a Democratic President did rack up a record “like this”. The difference is that the Republicans can give clear concise examples of Clinton’s screw ups. Your limited to misrepresentations and half truths.
I guess the good news is that — as usual — Mr. Herbert’s column is just red meat to the party faithful. The rest of us know that the “paper of record” is moving closer and closer to the funny pages every day.
2/12/2006
Bush’s Numbers Are Up, Hillary In Trouble
Rasmussen’s latest numbers show the President up to a 49% job approval rating. Not bad for a second term President committed to doing the hard work to protect our country no matter what the Democrats and their shills in the MSM think. By the way, I wonder if you’ll here the MSM talking about the President’s nine point recovery? I doubt it.
Sunday February 12, 2006–Forty-nine percent (49%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.
On the other side of the aisle, the heir apparent — Hillary Clinton — has horrid numbers. Once again, Rasmussen’s latest showing that only 27% would vote for her in the Presidential election. 43% would definitely vote against her. Heh, I guess the whole “playing both sides against the middle” thing isn’t working too well for her. Note to Hillary; when you show up at a black church and proclaim that the opposition party is running the Congress like a plantation and basically accuse them of slavery, but then turn around and run to the middle and support that same opposition parties proposals you. look. like. a. fool.
Looking to 2008, support for Hillary Clinton has dropped sharply over the past month. Just 27% of Americans say they would definitely vote for the former First Lady while 43% would definitely vote against.
Of course, we haven’t even gotten around to the bizarre spectacle that was the Coretta Scott King funeral. This seemed to be an odd replay of the Wellstone memorial. Using the funeral of a respected leader to beat up on your political opponent. An opponent, who by the way, was at the funeral as well. Not to mention the oddity of announcing your candidacy for President at the funeral. If I hadn’t heard the audio and seen the news footage I wouldn’t have believed it. Ohhh, will they ever learn?
2/8/2006
Well, my new nick name is grace… NOT!! I went to the doctors office yesterday to get a prescription refilled and to visit with a nurse that I know. On my way downstairs I noticed that the elevator was out. My first mistake was not checking to see if there was another elevator that I could use … there was.
I instead decided to use the stairs. Second mistake. You see, because of my earlier illness (Guillain Barre Syndrome) my feet don’t work like normal feet do. I cannot move them in the normal gas pedal motion. When I pick them up they flop down (in other words, if I don’t pick my feet up high enough I trip over my own toes). I started down the stairs and made it about half way down and then fell the rest of the way down the stairs … face first!
Long story short; another trip to the hospital via an ambulance, a lot of pain, a severely sprained maybe cracked ankle, bruised ribs, strained back muscles, asthma attack at the thought of having to go to the hospital yet again, a solumedrol injection for the asthma attack, and a very late night full of paperwork, x-rays, and doctors (in the ER) that really don’t give a sh%#.
Blogging will be light over the next few days. I’m tired, just really bone tired. I want this whole being sick and hurt thing to be over with. No more … please.
2/6/2006
Today Denver mayor John Hickenlooper announced his decision to not run for Governor of Colorado. In his announcment he state that he still has promises to keep to the Denver voters. Hickenlooper’s candidacy would have made for an interesting race. As it stands, his delay in announcing that he won’t run has hurt the democrats fundraising efforts. Many donors have withheld important donations to Ritter’s campaign while waiting to see if Hick would run. That has set Ritter behind in fattening his war chest. Heh — all the better for the Republicans.
In a related story Marc Holtzman released this statement regarding Hickenlooper’s announcement:
HOLTZMAN RESPONDS TO HICKENLOOPER ANNOUNCEMENT ENGLEWOOD-Following a personal phone call from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper regarding his announcement this afternoon Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman released the following statement:
“Mayor Hickenlooper is an outstanding public servant and would have made a considerable contribution to this race. By calling this morning to notify me of his decision, he once again demonstrated that he is a ‘class act’.â€
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2/4/2006
Tom Toles and Ted Rall Cut From The Same Cloth
There’s been a lot of talk lately about a WaPo political cartoonist by the name of Tom Toles. He’s the one who drew the disgusting political cartoon depicting a soldier as being without arms and legs in order to score a cheap shot against Donald Rumsfeld. After looking at his archives, it seems that Tom Toles and Ted Rall have a lot in common; they’re both left wing ideologues hell bent on scoring cheap shots on anyone to the right of Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy. I would say that they’re given to fits of hysterical moonbattery, but it seems that neither one of their switches have any other position than nutty left. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you the evidence:
Like I said, nutty left.