Surprise, surprise!

The Dems in Congress want to spend more of your tax money.
Much more.

But wait.....there's more to the story. (hat tip: Fred Gregory)

Noteworthy:

"Democrats are proposing to change the rules in order to game the system and raise taxes and increase spending without a House vote. What are House Democrats afraid of?"

The voters in the 08 election...THAT'S who they're afraid of.

Just Dem business as usual.

Immigration "reform"?

I doubt it.

Seems more like "amnesty" to me, and it probably will do nothing to actually solve the problem.

Here's Power Line's take on the measure.

Yet even MORE links in the Saddam/Al Qaeda connection

One of the big talking points in the Dems/Lefties/"Progressives" many BashBush/anti war tirades we hear incessantly is the "No ties between Saddam/Al Qaeda" lie.

Ray Robison drives yet ANOTHER nail in that particular talking point.

I wonder what new and innovative rationalization and spin we will hear from the Usual Suspects in another weak attempt to deny the facts of these matters?

Regarding Lefty/"Progressive" elitism

Professor Sowell, as always, gets it right on the money; this time it's in regard to the arrogant attitude of presumption the lefties/"progressives" think they're entitled to assert.

This passage has to rank as the Quote of the Year, at least to this point:


"The ignorance of people with Ph.D.s is still ignorance, the prejudices of educated elites are still prejudices, and for those with one percent of a society's knowledge to be dictating to those with the other 99 percent is still an absurdity."

Jerry Falwell has passed away

.....take a look at the how the Nutroots react.

Several of my favorites:

Here.

Here.

And Here.

UPDATE:

Here's a good analysis on the Lunatics' slime on Reverend Falwell's death, by Ericka Anderson at Human Events.

On a related note, look at the stuff over at Cone's on this subject, where one of our favorite Usual Suspects, Little Lord Lex is being his usual obnoxious self.

Lex thinks he's the "expert" (doesn't he always, on all things?) on Falwell. I'm getting ready to disabuse him of that notion.

As some of you may know, I worked as a newspaper reporter/editor in Lynchburg VA.

Alexander Cockburn's latest on "global warming"

Last week, I provided a quote from Alexander Cockburn regarding the lack of empirical evidence supporting anthropogenic CO2 as being the major factor in "global warming".

He's back, with more.

Noteworthy:


"No response is more predictable than the reflexive squawk of the Greenhouse fearmongers that anyone questioning their claims is in the pay of the energy companies. A second, equally predictable retort contrasts the ever-diminishing number of agnostics to the growing legions of scientists now born again to the "truth" that anthropogenic CO2 is responsible for the earth's warming trend, the melting of the icecaps, the rising of the seas, the increase in hurricanes, the decline in penguin fertility and other horrors too numerous for individual citation."



"As Richard Kerr, Science magazine's man on global warming remarked, 'Climate modelers have been "cheating" for so long it's become almost respectable.'"

The consequence? As with the arms spending spiral powered by the Cold War merchants of fear, vast amounts of money will be uselessly spent on programs that won't work against an enemy that doesn't exist."

Power Line takes on the DNC

....over their heavy-handed and obnoxious attempt tointimidate someone who said something they don't like.

Excerpt::

"In my view, the letter is sheer thuggery that recalls the same maneuever made on behalf of John Kerry in the 2004 campaign."

The slimeball tactics didn't work against the Swifties, and it won't work now.

Count on it.

Remember the Dems' babble about "lobbying reform"?

.....especially the "Republication Culture of Corruption" libel they used in the last election cycle?

Take a look at what they have actually done about "reform" in this area since they regained power in congress.

Key points:

"House Democrats are suddenly balking at the tough lobbying reforms they touted to voters last fall as a reason for putting them in charge of Congress.

Now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them. They're also having second thoughts about having to wait an extra year before they can become high-paid lobbyists themselves should they retire or be defeated at the polls."

"It's simple: they like lobbyist money. All that blathering about Jack Abramoff was a smoke screen, and considering how Reid and other Democrats like Tom Harkin and Robert Kennedy were knee-deep in cash from Abramoff clients, a rather obnoxious smoke screen at that. The Democrats have just as much culpability in pork and lobbyist love as the Republicans -- and to the extent that they are big-government expansionists, even more. Federal spending is what drives lobbyist cash to politicians, and the more government spending there is to exploit, the more money the lobbyists toss around."


Meet the New Boss.....Much worse than the Old Boss!

American health care outperforms European socialized medicine

Imagine that!

Noteworthy:

"It's funny how the supposedly equalized treatment of people under Western socialized-medicine models holds people back from new therapies and new medicines, while the American model of market-based medicine (with significant regulation) outperforms in this regard by a factor of 10. That response allows patients to start treating their cancers earlier, but what this report misses is that the American model also allows for earlier detection, thanks to the long waits for procedures like CAT scans and the like in Britain and other socialized systems.

And yet, the Democrats this year have already begun discussing how they will bring the American system closer to nationalization. Perhaps their presidential candidates should read this report first. Certainly American voters should familiarize themselves with it."

Indeed, people should familiarize themselves with this knowledge, and not let the "progressives" pull their usual shuck and jive on medical care.

Podhoretz: "I strongly suspect that the Democrats may already have blown the 2008 election. "

Details.


Noteworthy:


"In any case, the position the Democrats are now taking can only have the effect of revivifying and reinforcing the sense of them as weak on national security. And this was the very factor that led to the ignominious defeat of their presidential candidate, George McGovern, in 1972, when they also misread the public temper by paying too much attention to the left wing of their party."


Let's remember the words of George Santayana:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

It's '72 deja vu.

The Dems/Lefties/"Progressives" will never see what hit them.

Politicizing yet another natural disaster

You get three guesses as to which political faction, and their Nutroot blogosphere pals continue to shamelessly exploit tragedy to score political points.

Your first two guesses don't count.

Is there no end to their arrogance and pandering?

Note to Dems, Lefties, "Progressives", et al: National Security is NOT a game

It's real, it's a serious matter, and you need to stop trying to use it to make political points.

Excerpt:


"Further, agents were able to corroborate the intelligence provided by the informant through, yes, electronic surveillance — in this case, recordings the informant agreed to make of conversations in which he participated. This eavesdropping — or “domestic spying,” as the Left likes to deride it — specifically targeted people inside the United States, and was carried out in the absence of any court supervision or showing of probable cause.

All this was perfectly legal under federal law, which has long permitted the government to conduct warrantless monitoring of any conversation in which one of the participants consents to the eavesdropping—even if that participant happens to be an FBI informant."

Image of the Day

So now Edwards tells us he worked for Fortress?

And he expects us to buy the line about learning more about financial markets and their relationship to poverty?

From a HEDGE fund management group?

Does he really expect anyone besides his sycophant followers to believe that?

Excerpt:

"It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too," the 2004 vice presidential nominee said in an interview with The Associated Press."

I'm sure the money was a good thing.....just like in the good old days as a trial lawyer, wasn't it?

"He said the job was a compliment to his position as the head of a poverty center at the University of North Carolina."

Oh?

How do you figure that, Mr. Two Americas?

Unbelievable!

All in all, it's just a weak attempt at damage control.


Here's what WaPo said about this tawdry situation.

Noteworthy:

"Steve Jarding, a former top strategist for Edwards, said he would have advised the candidate to avoid the business and fundraising relationship with the hedge fund because it flies in the face of his political persona as a champion for the poor and an advocate for making the wealthy pay their share of taxes.

'It raises the question, "Is John Edwards the guy he says he is?"--- and that is not a debate John wants to have when he is trying to raise money and to move into that top tier of candidates,' Jarding said."

More True Believer attempts at censorship of "global warming" skeptics

....over the DVD release of The Great Global Warming Swindle video we discussed here before.

Amy Ridenour has details.

Quote:


"This isn't about censorship, it's a question of quality control."

-Bob Ward, former spokesman for Britain's Royal Society, on a campaign he is organizing to block the DVD release of a British documentary skeptical of the notion that human beings are causing catastrophic global warming.

Yeah, sure.


Meanwhile:



"Mr Durkin said: 'This contemptible attempt at gagging won't work. The reason they want to suppress The Great Global Warming Swindle is because the science has stung them. By comparison look at the mountains of absurd nonsense pedalled in the name of 'manmade climate change'. Too many scientists have staked their reputations and built their careers on global warming. There's a lot riding on this ridiculous theory. The DVD will be on sale shortly at a shop near you.' "

Just another in a long list of of thought control techniques these people use to keep their Big Lie strategy afloat.

In other words, business as usual for the "scientific consensus" on "anthropogenic global warming" religious cult......



Ready for more?

Read this.

Excerpt:

"The Union of Concerned Scientists is not about to relent in its green climate crusade. Yet UCS does not speak for the scientific community. Instead, it is a well-funded, left-wing pressure group, which politicizes science while claiming to be its true guardian. A partisan is no less a partisan because he has won the Nobel Prize, but a scientist is less of a scientist if he allows ideology to color his research."

The list of the "business as usual" fringe groups that support the Church of the True Believers goes on and on and on.....

McCain-Feingold needs to go!

It's clearly unconstitutional, and a new effort to bring it back to the Supreme Court is needed.

Mark Tapscott elaborates.

Noteworthy:

"Bob's basic point is the same one I have been making since before McCain-Feingold became law in 2002 - it is unconstitutional because it makes the definition of permissible political speech dependant upon the whims of Congress. That is in direct contravention of the First Amendment that mandates 'Congress shall make no law' governing speech."


Quoting Bob Bauer:

"The same 'interests'—special, corporate interests, in the lingo of reform—can still speak, only by new rules set by the state. The government’s argument is: what’s the difference, if the speech, by other means, is still possible? It will allow for speech, but it must be speech expressed in the form the government approves: it can impose its will and, when it does, it can show that the statute has, in the vindication of its authority, 'worked.'"

Empowering the garbage police

As many of you know, I do much of my work from my home office, which is positioned at a front corner of my home in northern Greensboro. This puts me in a position where I can easily monitor activity on my street.

More than once on our Tuesday garbage pick up day, I've seen a lady in a Toyota stop alongside the assembled containers on our street to lift the lid of the recycling container. She occasionally is seen to write a note to some of my miscreant neighbors threatening all kinds of nasty things should the accused folks fail to follow the rules. It's all reminiscint of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi.

I was reminded of this upon reading a Mark Steyn comment this morning at The Corner, where he discusses the way Brits monitor their garbage criminals.

Just think-- we could extend this sort of thing to all areas of our society in order to correct aberrant individual behavior, especially as it applies to what we've "decided" is our "scientific consensus" on "anthropogenic global warming".

Gosh!

Don't you think that's a GREAT idea? Think of all the good we could accomplish for Mother Earth that way!

Here's my favorite line in the Steyn piece:

"If George Bush put a microchip in your garbage under the Patriot Act, there'd be mass demonstrations across the land. But do it in the guise of saving the planet and everyone's fine with it."

Imagine that!

The passing of an American hero

You will be remembered, Wally........

In praise of academic and intellectual honesty by certain Libs

...who understand, despite their political inclinations, that the Second Amendment does indeed protect the individual's right to own firearms, as noted in the linked NYT article.

Read the article in this link regarding the discredited "prefatory language" line of attack that some "progressives" love to use in an attempt to claim that the Second Amendment doesn't say what it clearly says.

Excerpt:

"Think that any of this prefatory language limits free speech rights and the conduct of criminal trials? You shouldn't; as Professor Volokh shows, the existence of prefatory language in the granting of a constitutional right is entirely normal and when it comes to prefatory language creating two clauses in the granting of a particular constitutional right, these examples show 'how the two clauses might be read together, without disregarding either.'

So if we are not going to limit free speech rights or the conduct of criminal trials because of the existence of prefatory language in the constitutional provisions concerning those issues, why should we do so when it comes to the Second Amendment?"

Exactly.

Now if we could only get more academic and intellectual honesty from them on issues like "scientific consensus" on "anthropogenic global warming", we would REALLY be making some common sense progress, wouldn't we?

Quote of the Day

“The Left...views the world not as a conflict between good and evil but between white and black, male and female, and rich and poor... As a general proposition, subject to exceptions that accompany all generalizations, the Left has considerably more compassion for groups (racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and sexual groups it favors) than for individuals.”

—Dennis Prager

...from the Patriot Post US.

Read the story linked, which prompted the inclusion of the Prager quote.

Quote of the Day, "global warming" department

"In a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached.

Then as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide. Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning.

Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others less virtuous than themselves.

The modern trade is as fantastical as the medieval one. There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is making any measurable contribution to the world's present warming trend.

The greenhouse fearmongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind's sinful contribution--and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism and greed."

-- Alexander Cockburn

At least SOME Lefties get it, don't they?

Dems decide "global warming" more dangerous than Islamic terrorists

(Sigh)

The stupidity over this idiotic "global warming" agenda has come to this.

Excerpts:

"'Our job is to steal secrets,"' said Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

'There are all kinds of people analyzing global warming, the Democrats even have a special committee on this,' he told The Washington Times. 'There's no value added by the intelligence community here; they have no special expertise, and this takes money and resources away from other threats.'"

"'It's hard to imagine how anyone could believe that climate change represents a more clear and present danger to the United States than radical Islamic terrorists armed with bombs, but that's essentially what Democrats have concluded in this bill,' said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican."

As if the six billion plus dollars we already spend on something we can do little or nothing to effect meaningful changes isn't enough money wasted......

RELATED:

This type of story was bound to show up, wasn't it?

Not only are they lying about the science and the math behind their alarmist gibberish, they're putting an all out effort to convince everyone that their version of "fixing" the supposed "problem" (anthropogenic global warming) isn't nearly as expensive as everyone thinks.

The facts say otherwise, but what the heck, why let facts stand in the way of fulfilling a cherished"progressive" social/political/economic agenda item?

Time Magazine's BDS is showing

Don Surber has the details.

Henry Luce has been spinning in his grave for quite some time now, but this may be enough to effect a complete resurrection.

(hat tip: Instapundit)

Heath Shuler: "Conservative" Democrat?

Let's take a look at the record.

Noteworthy:


"Indeed, if Shuler continues to vote in a manner that makes him less than distinguishable from Nancy Pelosi, he may very well find himself on the short end of the stick when the next elections roll around."



On the other hand, look at how the "progressives"/Nutroots howled about Shuler appearing at the recent Civitas gathering in Raleigh.

Is he trying to play both sides against the middle?

I had to chuckle at the comment comparing his brief congressional career in DC with his brief NFL career in DC.

As the saying goes, it's "Deja Vu all over again".......

Yet another hissy fit brewing in Libthink Land

First, WaPo reports that Dingy Harry, La Pelosi, and assorted pals are caving to the White House on Iraq timetables, after knowing that the Bush veto has made them look silly.

The story is quickly denied by the Dem wannabee leaders, and righteous indignation flows from the Nutroots.

Check out the babble, dribble, drool and spew in the comment section of the last link.

Noteworthy:

"The media's coverage of this focussed on the Democratic dilemma because they simply have no ability to retract their heads from Karl Rove's behind. In this Media position every fart Rove makes sounds loud and important."


"Greg, isn't the question you raised at the end of the piece the real problem with the MSM? They are not independent. Whether the cause is right wing ownership of media outlets, or fear of loss of access to the WH and other administration sources, the plain, obvious conclusion is that the MSM has been transformed into a state propaganda device. Unfortunately, there are no indications presently that this situation is changing in the current environment."

"The WaPo and its GOP masters may be figuring that if enough parts of the media report it this way that people will give up putting pressure on the Democrats to keep that language in the bill. Then Shrub 'wins', for some value of winning that I don't seem to get.

Who are the aides who keep saying this, and who do they actually work for? Because it sounds to me like Rove might have sleeper agents in the Democratic Party. Shame on the party if it falls over its own voters and caves again."

THAT is funny!

It's a perfect example of the Left's wacked out logic about the media, as exemplified recently in the Cone meme about the media being "willing cheerleaders for the War in Iraq".

And Cone thinks I'm a paranoid conspiracy theorist!

(hat tip: Instaoundit)

UPDATE:

Captain Ed has more.

Excerpts:

"The supplemental has to get passed and signed as quickly as possible, and that reduces the leverage of Congressional leadership. If they fail to produce an acceptable compromise bill by the time they leave for Memorial Day, the outrage will get directed at Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. The nation will wonder what they have been doing since the beginning of the year, since nothing much else has passed Congress since the Democrats took control in January. Had the Democrats really wanted to put Bush in a corner, they would have started out with this compromise from the beginning. They could have garnered Republican support and taken leadership of the direction of the war."



"Reid and Pelosi enabled Bush to look tough, presidential, and relevant -- and now they have belatedly discovered that since they don't have the testicular fortitude to yank the funding altogether, they have to find some way to accommodate the White House.

Welcome to the big leagues, Harry and Nancy. This time, try to keep up."

"We Win, They Lose"

It's time to let Dingy Harry, La Pelosi and their other conspirators know how we feel in no uncertain terms.

Memo to the members of our Lame Stream Media

.....and their "progressive" pals in the blogosphere, both nationally and locally:

Pay attention. You might actually learn something here.

Quote of the Day

“How many times have we heard the Dems insist that they support the troops? It’s one of their mantras. If something isn’t ‘for the children’, it’s to ‘support the troops.’ But it’s false, just as their insistence last fall that they wouldn’t cut and run was. All of that pales in comparison to one single fact: Reid and the rest of the Democrats do not condemn defeat. They do not say they would have done better to win, because the words ‘win’ and ‘victory’ never pass their lips. They never propose an idea that might lead to quicker, more decisive victory in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the Horn of Africa, or Lebanon, or anywhere else.

No. The Democratic pathology is the same now as it was forty years ago... What, then, is the import of what Sen. Reid said? First, Reid and his ilk do not support the troops. When Reid says the war is lost, the troops hear. They understand that they are still risking their lives every day for a war the Democrats are content to lose. There can be no more destructive assault on their morale.”

—Jed Babbin

(from the Patriot Post US)

I think the authorities need to dig a little deeper

.....into this story. There's more here than meets the eye.

Might this just possibly be an effort to discredit and embarrass The Rhino, and has nothing to do with the KKK?

Might not this just be payback for the Bledsoe series on Wray and the GPD?

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.

Republican Presidential Straw Poll

At GOP Bloggers.

Unscientific to be sure, but interesting results nonetheless.

Hillary's Star Descendant

So says Dick Morris.

Excerpt:

"No politician looks their best when they are evasive, and Hillary looks worse than most."


Dems are in a quandary.

Hillary is still the favorite to win the nomination. She's got the money and she's got the organization.

But many Dems are well aware that she may be unelectable in the general election.

Cartoon of the Day

"The American public has a general sense of unease over the Democrats lack of budget spending restraint, and their failure to extend the Bush tax cuts......"

Quote of the Day, "Global Warming" file

.....from John Hawkins, at Town Hall.

"Quite frankly, if you buy into manmade global warming, you should have good answers for these questions or, if you don't, admit that your opinion is based more on faith and guesswork than it is on science."

Friend speaks my mind.

Political Correctness and Historical Revisionism

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the New World. It should be a time of celebration.

Yet look at how some people are using it to make a politically correct agenda item point, as well as re-writing history in the process.

Noteworthy:


"But the timid, apologetic tone of some of the exhibitions detracts from the experience. As Edward Rothstein reported in The New York Times, “The Indians, we read, were ‘in harmony with the land that sustained them’ and formed an ‘advanced, complex society of families and tribes.’”

Rothstein continues: “English society — the society that gave us the King James Bible and Shakespeare . . . is described as offering ‘limited opportunity’ in which a ‘small elite’ were landowners.” England, they tell us, suffered from social dislocation, unemployment, difficult working conditions, and so forth. The exhibit goes on to suggest that Virginia's history evolved out of the “interaction” of three different cultures: British, Native American and African.

This sort of hokum has become de rigueur at American museums."

Exactly so.

Political correctness and its accompanying historical revisionism are perfidious in the lies these philosophies tell about our nation and its heritage.

Giuliani's the Man redux

He's the best choice for fiscal conservatives.

So says Steve Forbes in Opinion Journal this morning.

Excerpt:

"Rudy Giuliani can unite the Republican Party and restore our traditional claim as the party of fiscal conservatism. He has already proven he can stand up to liberal special interest groups and achieve tax cuts, even with a Democrat-controlled City Council. That's the kind of leadership we need in Washington. That's the kind of leadership that will inspire the next generation of the Reagan Revolution. And that's why America's Mayor should be America's next president."

It's about leadership.

And no one else who is considered a candidate or potential candidate for the presidency in 08 can match his credentials in this critical area.

Giuliani/Rice in 08.

Regarding "free trade" and "climate change"

A reader at Donald Luskin's blog wonders why the debate standards on each point differ.

Summation:

" If the proponents of climate change could put that sort of evidence on the table, we'd have a real consensus and a basis for policy. In the absence of such evidence, consensus its just another way to package the Kool Aid."


One little problem......they can't provide that kind of evidence.

Not that that little detail stops them from peddling their nonsense.

Following the money

....takes you to a deeper level of understanding regarding the "scientific consensus" on "global warming".

Key point:

"If the global warming virago collapses," Stott predicts, "there will be an awful lot of people out of jobs."

Yet another example of Dem "Do as I say, not as I do"

And there's no real news coverage of Dem Darling DiFi's dirty little former secret.

Excerpt:

"When we talk about political corruption, this is exactly what we mean. Politicians who use their power and assignments to fill their own pockets with federal dollars corrupt our system and deserve to be tried in court for violating the public trust. Feinstein never should have sat on subcommittees that hand out federal contracts for markets in which her own family businesses compete. If the Democrats meant what they said in 2006, Feinstein provides an excellent test case for their new sense of ethics. They should expel her from the Senate and have California hold a special election to replace her. If they do nothing, then they have exposed themselves as the party of self-enrichment at the expense of taxpayers."

So where's the outrage from the Dem/Progressive/Lefty side??

It's time to repeal McCain-Feingold.

It's a deeply flawed bill, and it violates the First Amendment rights of many.

My former Washington Automotive Press Association colleague Mark Tapscott has the details.

Excerpt:


"And five years later, none of the promises of the McCain-Feingold advocates has been fulfilled. The "corrupting influence of money in politics" is as strong as ever and there is no evidence that the law has had one iota of influence on the degree of citizen participation in politics.

If anything, earmarks financed with tax dollars - the real corrupting influence of money in politics - is at an all-time high. Several congressmen have been convicted of crimes related to earmarks and the Republicans lost their congressional majority last November largely because they couldn't resist this genuine form of the corrupting influence of money in politics."

Democrat Budget Resolution to increase taxes, provide no reform

Get Out Your Checkbook alert: $2641 per household tax increase if we let the Dems have their way.

Furthermore:

"Projected over the ten-year period, the expiration (or required offset) of all existing tax cuts would raise projected revenues by $3,268 billion[2]—easily the largest peacetime tax increase in American history.[3] Over the ten-year period, the average household's taxes would increase by $2,641 annually, or 12 percent above current tax levels. Tax revenues would spike from 18.5 percent of GDP today to 19.8 percent by 2012 and then 20.1 percent in 2017—the second highest level since World War II.

And even that may not be all. The Senate budget contains 22 "reserve funds" that would give Congress virtually unlimited authority to raise taxes further if Members decide to increase spending above the budget resolution's spending targets. By the time Congress is finished, the tax increase could easily top $1 trillion over five years and $4 trillion over ten years."

Barone: "Gore's Faith is Bad Science"

...but we already knew that, didn't we?

Details.

Noteworthy:


"Even The New York Times bridles at this. After Gore won the Academy Award for his film on climate change, the Times printed an article in which respected scientists -- not Republicans, not on oil company payrolls -- charged that Gore has vastly exaggerated the likelihood of catastrophic effects."




Life just keeps getting tougher for the Church of the True Believers.

Gore struts his, ummm, "stuff"on The Hill

And when we fisk his theatrics, this is what we find.

"But Gore's exaggerated scientific claims are just cover for his real agenda.

Most reports on his testimony have neglected to mention the most important thing Gore said. Here is my transcription of the crucial passage, starting about four minutes into Gore's House testimony:

--- 'America is the natural leader of the world, and our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination to see and feel and understand that the entire relationship between humanity and our planet has been radically altered.' [Emphasis added.]

Get that? The real issue here isn't about carbon dioxide or global temperature readings or coal-burning power plants or federal fuel efficiency standards. It's about mankind's relationship to nature."



And just how noteworthy is this excerpt?


"In New York's Newsday, Ellis Hennican describes a three-on-three debate held last week in New York City, in which opponents of the global warming hysteria--including that meddling novelist Michael Crichton, along with distinguished British scientist Phillip Stott and MIT's Richard Lindzen--took on some of the scare's defenders. The interesting things about this debate is that the organizers polled the audience before and after the event. The result? The number of people who thought that global warming is a "crisis" dropped from 57% to 42%.

That's why folks like Al Gore have to keep claiming that there is an iron-clad 'consensus' on global warming and that the debate is "over"--because the moment the debate on the scientific merits of global warming is actually allowed to begin, the alarmists start to lose.

Al Gore is trying to dragoon science in an attempt to win over converts who don't share his sense of personal spiritual crisis and don't find his anti-industrial moral vision compelling. But the moment people see through his charade--and realize that what Gore is really pushing is a not a scientific campaign against 'pollution' but a quasi-religious crusade against industrial civilization--his campaign will collapse."



UPDATE:

Potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson shares his thoughts on Gore's grandstanding comments.


"Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Hmmmm. SOLAR system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn’t even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There’s a consensus."
"

The REAL history of 20th century CO2 levels

....is established here.

Excerpt:


"It shows that actual past measurements of atmospheric CO2 have undergone great variation in levels from time to time in the period surveyed. Levels were not 'flat' before the 20th century, as is usually asserted."

What an Inconvenient Truth for the True Believers!

I wonder what kind of bogus reply they'll dream up to counter this latest hole in their "scientific consensus"?

So Tim Bellamy is the permanent GSO police chief

....Who were the candidates?

...How were they chosen?

...Who actually made the final choice?

Picture of the Day

Obviously just another Republican Agent Provocateur, right?

The New Free Speech Movement

"Indoctrinate U".

Watch the trailer, then go to the website.

Political Correctness/Libthink indoctrination on our campus may be more dangerous to this country than than Islamic terrorism.

(hat tip: Powerline)

Make sure you fill out the form at the website.

Here's the story about last Saturday's

....."anti war protest" in Washington DC that you haven't seen or heard anywhere else.

Excerpt:

"A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles' volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags--while anti-Bush, 9/11 co'spiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow 'Out of Iraq' placards.

Several of the vets shouted, "Yellow! How appropriate!" in between spirited chants of 'U.S.A! U.S.A!' While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists' Che banners and peace pennants."

From National Park Service observations, it may well be that the defender/counter protestor force was LARGER than the protestors.

And we've heard nary a peep from the blowhards over at Cone's who were so bent out of shape at the credible notion that some attempt at desecration of national memorials might take place.

My favorite comment from the Usual Suspects in reference to the bottom feeders who deface military, other memorials, and national landmarks was this:

"Anyone care to guess how many of the 'anarchists' who continue to give the Peace movement a bad name are in actuality agents provacateurs?

It is unbelievable the lengths some of these people will go to cloak the behavior and the nature of support for "anti-war protesters".

I'm sorry I didn't go, as I had originally intended.

It would have been very, VERY satisfying to me if I had done so.

In regard to "speaking truth to power", here's the REAL thing

Just in case you missed it in the N&R this morning, here's the link.

(hat tip: Fred Gregory)

Excerpt:


"So Cheney was speaking a simple truth: Al-Qaeda wants the United States out of Iraq. And congressional calls to give up, regardless of conditions on the ground or what happens next in the wider war, validate that strategy."
but in this case Cheney is right. And he speaks from experience. He worked in the White House 32 years ago, for President Ford, when Southeast Asian allies were abandoned to their enemies. Millions were killed and displaced.

If that nightmare is replayed in Iraq, Pelosi and the anti-war powers will have to answer for the truths they've left unspoken."


There is no question about the truth of that last statement.

How much more clear can the case be made?

What part about what al Zawahiri wrote do these defeatists not understand?

Why would we purposely follow a policy that would result in a major setback against our plans to defeat terrorism?

Are we as a nation really that stupid?

Cartoon of the Day

Here's yet ANOTHER example

....of how the "Progressives" show their belief in free speech.

Excerpt:

"Johnson told a group of conservative bloggers at The Heritage Foundation that he heard from hundreds of angry callers, many of whom used profane language. The research center’s vice president, whose phone number was listed on the Web page, eventually had to change her number when the attacks became so persistent and threatening.

The phone blitz was only one avenue liberals used to intimidate. Johnson said his organization received thousands of e-mails, the vast majority of them negative and hate-filled."

Just one more in the long line of incidents in the "Free speech for me, but not for thee" lefty watchers' notebook.

Apologize for Slavery?

Why?

Who benefited from slavery?

Exactly who TODAY actually benefits from slavery, and the "apologies" forthcoming in different areas?

Noteworthy:


"The effort to get apologies for injustices committed decades and centuries ago emanates from the view of activists as superior to their predecessors. It is the shout of the child to the parent: 'Apologize!'"


"It is also a way to keep their status visible and to continue victimhood in order to continue such policies as affirmative action, an idea that directly contradicts notions of fairness and universal rights."


"But rather than using the examples of their forebears as inspiration, many blacks and their white liberal exploiters, capitalize on slavery for their own advancement. If anything, the black descendants ought to criticize how the white elite have used the legacy of slavery to their own advantage, to cull political favor, to position themselves as superior to others in their own race, to write the books that publishers want and that will earn them royalty checks and gain them tenure."



"Face it: It’s the elites who want to live off the capital of slaves in one way or another. The agitation for apologies reeks of insincerity and self-promotion.

It’s time to move on. Black descendants should display some of the dignity of their forebears. White elites should finally do some real, productive work."



Exactly so.

It's time for certain elements in our media, government, and society in general to STOP PLAYING RACIAL POLITCS. both nationally and especially locally here in Greensboro and Guilford County.

"Stewards" of the public money.

Sam Hieb blogged about the defeat of the Guilford County commissioners' attempt to ask the state to allow them to increase the sales tax by one percent.

Billy Yow's "cover your butt" comment certainly reduces the matter to the basic truth.

Elected officials of all stripes think that the public funds are theirs to "eat" without recourse. They know there's always more to be had. There always is.

Feeding at the public trough is an instinctive habit for certain animals, isn't it?

Valerie Wilson's testimony before Congress

Was she lying about certain things?

Excerpt:

"Did Plame lie to the House committee today, or does that question hinge on the meaning of the word “recommend,” or the meaning of the word “suggest,” or the meaning of the words “did not”?"

Also, there's this (from a comment):

"There are other problems with her testimony today. She said something about everyone on the “Georgetown Cocktail Circuit” knowing she was an “agent”.

This corresponds to what Andrea Mitchell said several years ago, and corroborates testimony from a old friend, a veteran of the inside Washington political/social scene, who said that Ms. Wilson's occupation was common knowledge, information that he had personally heard several different times before any of this became an issue.

UPDATE:

Byron York asks several questions that should have been asked of Ms. Wilson.

FURTHER UPDATE:

...from Flopping Aces.

Advance notice for those who are interested

The line is drawn.


UPDATE: March of the Moonbats

....once again, from Flopping Aces.

"Mother" Sheehan will be there.

Play the video. It's funny......

Quote of the Day, "global warming" department

"Unless we know how the greenhouse-limiting properties of precipitation systems change with warming, we don't know how much of our current warmth is due to mankind, and we can't estimate how much future warming there will be, either. To solve the global-warming puzzle, we first need to learn much more about the precipitation-system puzzle.

What little evidence we now have suggests that precipitation systems act as a natural thermostat to reduce warming."

Roy W. Spencer

Principal research scientist at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center of the National Space Science and Technology Center.

As quoted here, in this article about climate models.

Notable:

"The practical experience of numerical modeling in allied fields such as semiconductor process modeling should cause us to question the claimed accuracy for Global Climate Models. The UN's distortion of historical climate data should further undermine our faith in climate models because such models can only be 'tested' against accurate historical data."

Debunking the myths about our war with terrorism

To sum it up, "Either we are serious about fighting the war on terror, or we are not".

As usual, the VPOTUS gets it right. Contrast that to the Usual Suspects, locally and nationally, who do not.

UPDATE

NRO exposes the "Let's Lose Now" crowd.

Noteworthy:

"The bill does succeed in showing the emptiness of Pelosi’s claim that her Democrats support U.S. troops even as they oppose the war. The message is: We don’t believe you should be there; we don’t believe you can win (even as the surge shows early signs of progress); so be warned that we mean to pull the rug out from under you as soon as we can get away with it.

Trying to avoid giving this impression, Pelosi has filled the bill with billions of dollars for veterans’ health care, new armored vehicles, and military operations in Afghanistan. But these gestures should — and probably will — ring hollow. They are on the order of buying a man a nice dinner after you have burned down his house."

"Shattering Three Myths about Liberals"

John Hawkins has the details.


Excerpts:

"Meanwhile, another study from a professor at Stanford showed that Democrats were prejudiced about whom they chose to donate money to after Katrina,

'But for Democrats, race mattered -- and in a disturbing way. Overall, Democrats were willing to give whites about $1,500 more than they chose to give to a black or other minority....(While Republican) responses to the assistance questions are relatively invariant across the different media conditions. Independents and Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to be affected by racial cues.'"



"Just as robbing Peter to pay Paul isn't compassion, taking tax dollars from one person and giving that money to another isn't compassion either. Giving your own time and your own money to help other people? That's real compassion and liberals just don't measure up to conservatives in that area,

It turns out that this idea that liberals give more…is a myth. Of the top 25 states where people give an above average percent of their income, 24 were red states in the last presidential election.

Arthur Brooks, the author of 'Who Really Cares,"'says that 'when you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about 30 percent more.' He adds, 'And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money.'

And he says the differences in giving goes beyond money, pointing out that conservatives are 18 percent more likely to donate blood."

"The truth is that adult stem cells are far more promising than embryonic stem cells as a potential cure for disease. While adult stem cells have already been used to cure a significant number of diseases, embryonic stem cells haven't even made it to their first human trial yet. That's why there is such a push to acquire taxpayer funds -- because private companies don't think embryonic stem cells are worth the investment.

But, because the left can dupe desperate people like Michael J. Fox into accusing conservatives of withholding a cure from them for religious reasons, they're willing to keep pushing embryonic stem cells for the sake of politics, even though taxpayer money would be much better spent on adult stem cell research.

Sure, there are conservatives who have objections to embryonic stem cells on religious grounds, but isn't the fact that embryonic stem cells don't merit taxpayer funding in the first place a much bigger issue?"