More bad news for the True Believers

William Gray says their little fantasy is coming to an end.

Priceless:


"As Blue Öyster Cult once put it:

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men.'"

An Inconvenient Truth for all the Democrat candidates

.....who fell all over themselves in last week's debate about the "will of the American people" being clearly in favor of a "timeline" , and a policy that would "bring our troops home" from Iraq:.

Details from Cliff May at NRO.

Does anyone recall reading or hearing about this information in our Lame Stream Media?

Or on the "progressive" blogs?

No?

Imagine that!

It's time to fire Dingy Harry Reid

Here's how it will be done.

Cartoon of the Day

13,090!

A new record!

The "progressives" won't like that at all.

Watch for the requisite posts and comments about "Bush's Fat Cat Economy".

And, as we already know

......La Pelosi doesn't really care about about the war, nor does she care about the troops.


Once again, Democrats will OWN any sort of "defeat" in Iraq.

If we are "defeated" in Iraq

...The Democrats will most certainly own the defeat all by themselves, despite what Dingy Harry would like you to believe.


Noteworthy:


"Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R.-Tex.), now chairman of FreedomWorks, said in a phone interview, 'I think it’s very pointed of him [Reid] to say this is still the President’s war. He understands the danger of it, that they are in.



Basically, it’s like the Democrats want to take ownership of it and he’s disavowing that and I think he’s trying to tell the base "Lay off, you guys are running us into a blind alley. You guys are going to get us in trouble," Armey explained, 'I’d put that down as a plea. I think he understands where it is going and probably sees it more clearly than Nancy Pelosi does.'"

UPDATE:

WSJ agrees with me that the Dems will own any American "defeat" in Iraq.

Excerpt:

"As for Iran, Mr. Reid's strategy of defeat would guarantee that the radical mullahs of Tehran have more influence in Baghdad than the moderate Shiites of Najaf. It would also make the mullahs even more confident that they can build a bomb with impunity and no fear of any Western response.

The stakes in Iraq are about the future of the entire Middle East--and of our inevitable involvement in it. In calling for withdrawal, Mr. Reid and his allies, just as with Vietnam, may think they are merely following polls that show the public is unhappy with the war. Yet Americans will come to dislike a humiliation and its aftermath even more, especially as they realize that a withdrawal from Iraq now will only make it harder to stabilize the region and defeat Islamist radicals. And they will like it even less should we be required to re-enter the country someday under far worse circumstances.

This is the outcome toward which the "lost" Democrats and Harry Reid are heading, and for which they will be responsible if it occurs. The alternative is to fight for a stable Iraqi government that can control the country and keep it together in a federal, democratic system. As long as such an outcome is within reach, it is our responsibility to achieve it."

Indeed so.

Cartoon of the Day

Bye Bye Miss American Pie

Looks like Katie drove CBS' Chevy to the leveee, but the levee was dry.

Excerpt:


"It's over. The only one who doesn't know it is CBS"


Looks like it won't be long before the media media will be singing this tune about the CBS brass:


"... Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, 'this’ll be the day that I die.

This’ll be the day that I die.' "

Please, God....Please!

Let this come true!

It will end up being even worse for the Democrats than 1972 was.

How the Dems/ "Progressives" and their MSM pals

.....conduct their information war against our efforts in Iraq.

Excerpt:

"The New York Times is the poster-boy for a fictitious reality. As the standard-bearer for much of U.S. media, the Times provides a template for other outlets to follow. And consider its Al-Qaqaa fabrications synchronized to impact the 2004 Presidential Election; its unleashing details of Saddam Hussein's active nuclear weapons program -- ostensibly to discredit Republicans -- just hours before the 2006 Congressional Elections; its revelations of classified programs including monitoring of international calls to terrorist enclaves, phone-number call analysis, and SWIFT; its 'selective' censorship of the National Intelligence Estimate... all are simply examples of a blinkered, rapidly spinning and fictitious reality designed for a single purpose. And that purpose is to coerce Americans into a hopelessness, a loser's mentality; so that America itself will lose any war in which it might engage."

But we knew all of this already, didn't we?

(hat tip: Riehl World Order)

Cartoon of the Day

The Supreme Court has ruled on partial birth abortion

Rightly so, in my opinion.

Key point:


"The liberal dissenters have not merely made a minor logical error here. Take their argument seriously for a moment. They claim that it is conceivable that in some cases, partial-birth abortion is the safest method of abortion, and therefore it has to be allowed. (And it has to be allowed whether or not the pregnancy itself threatens the mother’s health.) They further claim that it should make no difference to anyone where the child’s feet are positioned when he is aborted.

Let’s apply this argument to infanticide. It is conceivable that in some cases removing the child from the womb completely before killing it is the safest option. And surely it should make no difference to any rational person whether the infant was fully within the womb, partly inside it, or all the way out when his skull is crushed? Four justices on the Supreme Court have accepted all the premises for a constitutional right to infanticide. They lack only the nerve to take their reasoning to its logical conclusion."

Exactly.

I do not support a complete ban on abortion, but it's pretty clear that society has a compelling moral right to regulate this particular aspect.

The "unfettered abortion on demand" crowd needs to tone down their absolutist and inflammatory rhetoric.

This decision probably won't do that for them.

Here's some of the nonsense that's out there

....about the Virginia Tech murders, as reported in the New Criterion.

Excerpt:


"It seems almost too good to be true, but it is true: Spiegel has the European scoop on who really killed those poor people in Virginia. Maybe Mr. Cho Seung-Hui pulled the trigger, but perhaps the person more deeply responsible is . . . Charlton Heston.

You might have thought, as did I, that Charlton Heston was deathly ill and confined to his home in Beverly Hills. But that just shows how impoverished your imagination is. These right-wingers are crafty."

There's probably worse out there from our very own American Nutroots, but I'm not particularly interested in reading it.

Politicizing Bad News

Over at The CA, there are several threads regarding politics and the Virginia Tech murders.

Roch, Fec, and Hoggard take Sam to task for being "the first to politicize" the event.

I have news for you three: From past experience, he knew that the first people to politicize this would not be Republicans and Conservatives.

Sam was making a prediction based upon this knowledge. So far, at least several of the elements he included have come to pass.

He's been proven right on those elements.

Meanwhile, I found this to be right on target.

Noteworthy:

"Still, I do think that the rush to draw gun-control conclusions from the Virginia Tech murders is unfortunate, for two reasons. First, it is unseemly. While this or any other tragedy can be a legitimate topic of political discussion, having that discussion while the bodies are still being carried out of the building conveys an impression of trying to capitalize on the emotion of the moment. Second, we don't know the facts of this case yet.

Thus, when the New York Times leaps into the breach to assert, 'What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss,' its conclusion is negated by its own admission that:

'Not much is known about the gunman, who killed himself, or
about his motives or how he got his weapons, so it is
premature to draw too many lessons from this tragedy.'"

Indeed it is.

Once again the post by Podhoretz I linked to at Sam's is still appropriate:

"The effort to shoehorn an event as devastating as this one into a predetermined set of ideas — like the need for gun control, or the need for the abolition of all gun controls — is an effort to make the unthinkable thinkable. Does this massacre seem to be utterly without cause? Well, then, we will find a cause in order to be able to wrap our minds around it, because when we have a cause we can determine a remedy. (I can sense a certain measure of disappointment emanating from some quarters that the shooter, may he reside forever in Hell, wasn't an illegal alien.) We can pass a law, or teach new kinds of classes to people, or produce anodyne television specials and heartwarming television commercials that will serve to vaccinate America against the next monstrous act of senseless evil."

UPDATE:

I've been thinking and reading about the murders all day now, and I've discovered a personal connection.

One of the victims was Mary Karen Read, a freshman from Annandale VA, and a graduate of my alma mater, Annandale High School.

Those are not unusual facts for a Virginia Tech student. Annandale High has sent many thousands of its grads to Blacksburg in the 50+ years of it's operations. More than a dozen of my friends went there, and I spent a lot of time on the campus in the 60s.

If it had not been for my desire to go to a small liberal arts school (Lynchburg College), I probably would have gone there too.

Once again, it's time to remind everybody

.....about who said what regarding Iraq, WMDs, and removing Saddam from power.

(hat tip: Mr. Produce)

The Spring of 2007

Tyrrell says it's a generational thing.....it's the 60s and early 70s all over again.

Noteworthy:

"To those of us familiar with the 1960s generation, this is the late 1960s and early 1970s all over again. In fact, many of the same dramatis personae who howled against the war and the embattled White House in the late 1960s are leading the pack again today. They are forty years older, wider in the midsection and grayer if not glabrous -- but they are as indignant as they were back in the good old days when they were wearing bell-bottomed pants, abstaining from deodorant, and dreaming of the perfect commune -- perhaps one with a genuine Indian mystic seated in his underpants. "

Thank God I left "progressiveness" behind.

It's time to pump up the dollar

Kudlow tells us why.

Key points:

"Inflation is the bane of financial assets. Bonds lose value when future interest and principal payments are made in cheaper dollars. And stocks lose value when the rising interest rates necessary to compensate for inflation reduce the present value of future earnings."


"Loose talk from a protectionist-leaning Congress is arguing for a lower dollar to curb the trade deficit. This would be exactly the wrong policy."

Watch out for the Dems.

In addition to denying them the ability to implement those confiscatory tax policies they're just salivating over, let's not let them screw up monetary policies too.

More on the Saddam/al qaeda connection: Follow the Money

Captain Ed has details.

Here's an in-your-face question for Senator Levin:


"The money came to Zawahiri right before the attacks on two American embassies. Sure sounds like Saddam funded, at least indirectly, attacks on American assets that resulted in the death of Americans.

Does Carl Levin think that doesn't represent a connection?"

Tax cuts=economic growth=more government revenue=lower Federal deficit

Of course, the "progressives" will howl in protest, but the numbers are clear. Potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson has the details.

Noteworthy:

"The reason for this outcome is that, because of lower rates, money is being invested in our economy instead of being sheltered from the taxman. Greater investment has created overall economic strength. Job growth is robust, overcoming trouble in the housing sector; and the personal incomes of Americans at every income level are higher than they've ever been."


"Now, as before, politicians are itching to fund their pet projects with the short-term revenue increases that come from tax hikes, ignoring the long-term pain they always cause. Unfortunately, the tax cuts that have produced our record-breaking government revenues and personal incomes will expire soon. Because Congress has failed to make them permanent, we are facing the worst tax hike in our history. Already, worried investors are trying to figure out what the financial landscape will look like in 2011 and beyond."


"To face these challenges, and any others that we might encounter in a hazardous world, we need to maintain economic growth and healthy tax revenues. That is why we need to reject taxes that punish rather than reward success. Those who say they want a "more progressive" tax system should be asked one question:

Are you really interested in tax rates that benefit the economy and raise revenue--or are you interested in redistributing income for political reasons?"



Don't let the jibber-jabber, the whining, and the class warfare nonsense of the "progressives" distract you from this inherent economic truth.

Cartoon of the Day

click on image to enlarge....
(hat tip: jaycee)

Pelosipalooza: The First 100 Days

( hat tip: Instapundit)

Let's start with the numbers, then let's get to the empty rhetoric.

Business as usual for the Democrat Party.

"Remember Me?"

Yes, I do.

Some of us will never forget you.

Others will only use you for their crass political
purposes, and to fulfill an agenda of hate and discontent.


I think you know the people to whom I'm referring.

You are a lot smarter and more dedicated to your country instead of yourself than was (and continues to be) the case of their last failed presidential candidate and those who believe like he does.

(hat tip: Fred Gregory)

The old "Embryonic Stem Cell Hustle" at work

As detailed in the Times of London amd reported by James Taranto in the WSJ's Best of the Web.

Here's Taranto's excerpt and comments:


Stem-Cell Slant

"'Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again,' the Times of London reports. That's the first paragraph. In the eighth and ninth, we learn that this promising field of technology is under threat from 'powerful critics':


'Previous studies have suggested that stem-cell therapies offer huge potential to treat a variety of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neuron disease. A study by British scientists in November also reported that stem-cell injections could repair organ damage in heart attack victims.

But research using the most versatile kind of stem cells--those acquired from human embryos--is currently opposed by powerful critics, including President Bush.'



So that means if Bush had his way, he would've stopped the new diabetic breakthrough? Uh, no, it turns out:

'After stem cells had been harvested from their blood, they then underwent a mild form of chemotherapy to eliminate the white blood cells causing damage to the pancreas. They were then given transfusions of their own stem cells to help rebuild their immune systems.'

So this story has nothing to do with embryonic stem cells. But the Times doesn't tell us that until paragraph No. 16."

This is typical procedure regarding the mis-information supporters use to indoctrinate readers into thinking embryonic stem cell research is the ONLY viable use of stem cells.

In addition, those who oppose it (like George Bush and many conservatives) are evil, wicked dogmatic fools who want innocent people to suffer, and not be cured of their terrible mamadies.

Just one more of many lefty/"progressive" agenda items needing to be fulfilled.......

Richard Lindzen discusses "global warming" in Newsweek

"Why So Gloomy?"

Excerpt:


"Many of the most alarming studies rely on long-range predictions using inherently untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately forecast the weather a week from now. Interpretations of these studies rarely consider that the impact of carbon on temperature goes down—not up—the more carbon accumulates in the atmosphere. Even if emissions were the sole cause of the recent temperature rise—a dubious proposition—future increases wouldn't be as steep as the climb in emissions."

All charges dropped in Duke lacrosse players case

Imagine that!

Details.

Attorney General Cooper:


"We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges."


Nothing will ever make these guys whole again, regardless of the outcome of any civil action.

Nifong is in a WHOLE heap of trouble.

I do not feel sorry for him at all.

Vote faud report revised

....and provides a solid basis for voter ID laws.

Predictably, the Dems are whining, as noted in the story. (After all, it IS a story in the New York Times.)


Details here.

This just may force the Dems to shift their "Get Out the Vote" campaign back to the cemetery resident segment.

Yet another link in the Saddam/Al Qaeda chain

One of the big Lefty/Hate Bush crowd talkinf points has always been the "no Saddam/Al Qaeda link" nonsense which of course is absolutely wrong.

As time passes, we continue to find more links that establish that link, like this.

Noteworthy:


"The type of trust and confidence necessary to give assets including money, weapons, arms, safehouses and training and reciprocal placement of Baathists into al Qaeda leadership positions only leads an outside observer to conclude that the two sides shared common grievances, common goals and common beliefs."

Johnny Hart, 1931-2007

Well done, indeed.

The Cornerstone of Christianity

"He is risen!"

"For Christians, then, there is eternal hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus. With Christ we die to our sins, and in Christ we rise to new life. Christ has promised to restore all things; there is hope even for our aching bones and wrinkled flesh in the resurrection of the body. In that one historical event—the most important event in human history, when Jesus' dead body was restored to life—the whole world was given hope that, in Christ, we too can live again. The reality of the resurrection is what prompted St. Augustine to declare, 'We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.'"

When will we see Pelosi "frog marched" out to face charges?

She committed a felony when she met with the Syrian dictator.

She violated the Logan Act when she conducted foreign policy in defiance of the Bush Administration.

Noteworthy:

"Indeed, the offense is greater when the usurpation of the president's "constitutional authority is done by a member of the legislature--all the more so by a Speaker of the House--because it violates not just statutory law but constitutes a usurpation of the powers of a separate branch and a breach of the oath of office Ms. Pelosi took to support the Constitution."


It's part of the ongoing effort the Dems are undertaking to undercut the President, and to make sure we are defeated in our efforts to destroy terrorism and thwart the efforts of the terrorists' Puppetmasters.

Key point:

"So this is Democratic foreign policy: Assure our enemies that they can ignore a President who still has 21 months to serve; and wash their hands of Baghdad and of their own guilt for voting to let Mr. Bush go to war. No doubt Democrats think the President's low job approval, and public unhappiness with the war, gives them a kind of political immunity. But we wonder.

Once we leave Iraq, America's enemies will still reside in the Mideast; and they will be stronger if we leave behind a failed government and bloodbath in Iraq. Mr. Bush's successor will have to contain the damage, and that person could even be a Democrat. But by reverting to their Vietnam message of retreat and by blaming Mr. Bush for all the world's ills, Democrats on Capitol Hill may once again convince voters that they can't be trusted with the White House in a dangerous world."

More of the same old same old nonsense

....and over-hyped scare tactics in the True Believers' never ending quest for "scientific consensus" on "global warming".

Read the executive summary here.

It's long on alarmist rhetoric, short on provable analytical judgement.

In other words, it's "global warming" business as usual.

More to come, as the thing is completely fisked by those who know the routine these folks like to pull.

So the Brit hostages are back home safely

The Asshole of Iran wins.

It was an act of war which should have been made known from the beginning.


Interesting point:

"If there is a glimmer of hope in this shameful denouement, it is the possibility that the sheer brazenness of the kidnappings will shatter some of the widespread naïveté — particularly in the British and American diplomatic corps — about the nature of the Iranian regime."

I disagree. I don't think naivete plays the major part of their perpetual miasma.

There are too many career bureaucrats at Foggy Bottom and Whitehall. Career bureaucrats tend to be lefties who are inherently anally retentive about what they perceive as their nation's faults.

The everlasting pettiness of John Kerry

.....and some of his Dem friends, here.

Excerpt:


"Kerry made clear during confirmation hearings that he rejected Fox because of his $50,000 donation to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. So Kerry's resentment over a perfectly legal donation that led to stingingly effective ads against him is being allowed to determine the suitability of appointees. This is horribly petty."


Thank God Kerry did not fool enough people into electing him President.

Media Research Center’s “Quote of the Year”

(from the Patriot Post US )

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, whether it’s the rights of immigrants to start a new life, or the rights of gays to marry, or the rights of women to choose. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where oil still drove policy and environmentalists have to fight relentlessly for every gain. You weren’t. But you are. And for that, I’m sorry.”

—New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.’s May 21 graduation address at the State University of New York at New Paltz

Hmmm.....guess the progressive agenda is a failure then, isn't it?

Indeed, Mr Sulzberger: You (and your newspaper) ARE sorry.

Regarding media overhype

....which is now standard on many stories, especially those stories that support a certain world view.

John Stossel provides analysis.


Money quote:

"The media make it worse. Instead of educating people to real dangers, we scare them about things that hardly matter."

It's a matter of priorities, but the media crap establishes fallacious priorities in the minds of many.

So much for ethanol as an alternative fuel source.

We've already talked about a major downside of ethanol: It takes more energy to produce than it actually provides.

Now, here's the last nail in the ethanol coffin: It's not very "green".

Noteworthy:

"People are being conned into believing in a product and paying for it through their tax monies when there's no justifiable benefit and indeed many negative costs."

(hat tip: Fred Gregory)

So who's the environmentalist here?

Or more accurately, who's the hypocrite?

(hat tip: Mr. Produce)

From the description of of these homes, see if you can tell who is the owner of each one....


HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.



HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.



HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville , Tennessee . It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.



HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford , Texas . Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States , George W. Bush.

Imagine that!

Regarding Fred Thompson

Novak says he's for real.

Excerpt:

"Friends bet Thompson will run. He clearly wants to try, and his wife, Jeri, is all for it. Seeking the best timing, he wants to avoid the pitfalls encountered by Democrat Barack Obama, who may have damaged himself by starting his campaign too quickly."

I disagree with Novak on his assessment of Giuliani and the social conservatives however, and stand by my previous statement on that matter.

Current head-to-head Presidential poll results

From Real Clear Politics.

Giuliani is clearly ahead no matter which Dem is put up against him.

McCain scores well also against Clinton and Obama, but Edwards gives him a run. Go figure

Romney is clearly outgunned in any matchup with a Dem at this point.

It's still WAY early, but some trends are starting to become noticeable.

No mention of Fred Thompson...yet.