This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Senate Democrats; we love losing

    To empasize their love of losing every battle, the Democrats thought it’d be a good idea to put the already-failed Feingold “we support the troops but let them fight without any money” bill up for a vote again – they were rewarded with a 70-28 defeat. Washington Times S.A.Miller quotes Dianne Feinstein;

    “There is value in doing it because I think it makes the record clearer,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat. “That’s what we do. … We live by our votes.”

    In other words, Feinstein admits that Democrats suffer from mental illness. The American people don’t want this bill to pass – if they did, the Senate Republicans, spineless cowards that they are, would collapse and vote for it. And Harry Reid suffers from the illness;

    “We’re not changing our strategy,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said shortly before the vote, adding that the tactic succeeded in making Senate Republicans claim responsibility for the war.

    “We are united,” the Nevada Democrat said. “We vote together all the time. And the Republicans vote together all the time, with rare exception. And as a result of that, it’s very clear to the American people who supports President Bush’s war.”

    So instead of actually doing something about winning the war, the Democrats are more focused on making pointless statements for the MoveOn crowd. How fricken brave.

    In the Washington Post, Weisman and Murray report that the Democrats are calling for a “bipartisan action” for withdrawal from Iraq. Here’s a hint, guys; the Republican Party is against ending the war before it’s won so any early withdrawal would not ever be bipartisan. If the war ends before it’s over, it’s all you guys. If you’re going to put fighting the war on Republicans, guess how you get associated – with losing the war. 

    Speaking of MoveOn, the Senate also voted to condemn the organization for their Petraeus ad last week in the New York Times by a margin similar to the vote above (Washington Times);

    The nonbinding measure, offered by Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, passed by a vote of 72-25, with 24 Democrats and one independent, Bernard Sanders of Vermont, voting against it.

    See the names of the 25 spineless weinies at SWAC Girl, Gateway Pundit and Michele Malkin. Hang Right Politics asks you to name the group.

    According to the Washington Post, MoveOn responded by sending an email to it’s members;

    In an e-mail to its members last night, the group acknowledged that the content of the ad might have angered its allies but argued that a larger issue is at stake. “Maybe you liked our General Petraeus ad. Maybe you thought the language went too far,” they wrote. “But make no mistake: this is much bigger than one ad.”

    And it turned its criticism squarely back on the Senate, accusing it of “spending time cracking down on a newspaper ad” after failing on Wednesday to pass a bill lengthening the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, a bipartisan measure that some regarded as pressuring Bush into limiting the redeployment of U.S. forces.

    Yeah, the Senate should listen to crack-smoking hippies and do the bidding of the squeaky wheels instead of listening to America. Way to go, MoveOn. After all, the Senate Democrats were only responding to another attack – this time from President Bush (Washington Examiner);

    “That leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org — are more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military,” [President Bush] said.

    Well, there, it’s been said. let’s see what the Democrat response will be – I expect a lot of whining and crying and shouts of “Not Fair!” Crotchety Old Bastard, Michael Goldfarb and Little Green Footballs wade into the slime to gauge the depths of Leftist misery while QandO deciphers what “support the troops” means to the Left. Redstate asks the left how it feels to be losers and Marooned in Marin compares Hillary’s words to her votes. 

  • Iran/China/Syria/North Korea; the new Axis

    Have you ever woke up in the morning and feel like you’re living in a Tom Clancy novel? That’s the feeling I get today. Yesterday, I read from Gateway Pundit and Bloodthirsty Liberal about the most recent murder of an anti-Syrian legislator in Lebanon;

    Anti-Syrian Lebanese politician was murdered today in a bombing!
    A 40-kilogram strong car bomb killed anti-Syrian Christian leader Antione Ghanem and eight others six days before the Lebanese Parliament is scheduled to meet to elect a new president.

    And today from Spanish Pundit and Breitbart about Iran’s admission that China is supporting their nuclear program;

    Iran’s interior minister said China renewed its support Friday for negotiations over his country’s disputed nuclear activities, and he warned that new U.N. sanctions could force Tehran to adopt “other means.”

    From Kamangir and Crotchety Old Bastard, the US is kowtowing to that berserker Amadinejad and contemplating his tour of Ground Zero. Kamangir, the Iranian says;

    Ahmadinejad must not be permitted to get close to where the twin towers used to stand?

    The NYPD says ‘no’, but he claims he’ll go anyway. Either way, he’ll be a welcomed speaker at Columbia University.

    From Free Korea, (h/t Gateway Pundit), North Korea and Syria are linked, too;

    The details of the claims are vague, but one source told FOX News in late August that the North Koreans had sold the Syrians a nuclear facility, most likely related to uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium is necessary both for nuclear power and nuclear weapons uses. The United States accuses Syria of assisting terrorist groups including Hezbollah.

    And so, it comes full circle – there is a global conspiracy against American interests, but Democrats would prefer to talk about healthcare and the minimum wage instead of facing the reality that we are under attack worldwide, that it’s been going on for sometime and Democrats are unwilling to recognize that there’s a problem, let alone formulate a plan for doing something. From Breitbart;

    Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would “commit suicide” by launching missiles at Israel.  

    From the guy who figured it was inconceivable that Khomeini would succeed in taking over Iran. He’s really got his finger on the pulse of stuff, huh? And we need to put some more of those dimwits in a position of power.

    Speaking of Iran, Kamangir has caught the Islamic Republic in another lie.

  • Troop deployment curb killed

    Yesterday, Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel, the two turncoats with no cause, failed to run a play around the Administration’s flank and curtail deployment of forces into the two largest conflicts in the Middle East. S.A.Miller of the Washington Times;

    Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a bid by Democrats to restrict troop-deployment schedules for a second time, saying it would impede the ability of President Bush and generals to wage the war in Iraq.

    “The majority has brought this back in order to reduce the numbers of fully trained and combat-experienced troops available to our military commanders and thus to force an accelerated drawdown of troops and units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s be honest about this,” said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and presidential aspirant.

    The troop-deployment measure, which would have required troops to get “dwell time” at home equal to time deployed overseas, died 56-44, falling four votes shy of the 60 needed to pass, according to a previous agreement.

    Anyone who has ever read a page of Tsun Tzu or Clauswitz knows it’s a bad idea for the legislature to restrict deployment of troops into combat. That’s why we have a commander-in-chief – we can’t fight a war by committee. The 9-11 report is proof of that. So I guess that means Webb and Hagel are behind the youngest plebe in West Point in their reading. Of course, the Washington Post doesn’t see it that way;

    Senate Republicans yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to lengthen the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, derailing a measure that war opponents viewed as one of the best chances to force President Bush to accelerate a redeployment of forces.

    Republican Senators came to their senses;

    Reading between the lines, Republicans detected another aim. By limiting the pool of people who would be eligible for deployment, they believed that Democrats were attempting to force the troop reductions that they had failed to bring about legislatively.  

    So because of the failed measure, the Post concedes that it’s still Bush’s war;

    The vote offered the most vivid evidence yet that the Bush administration still controls Iraq war policy, despite months of congressional debate, the war’s persistent unpopularity and a summer-long effort by activists to pressure Republicans.

    Despite the fact that Harry Reid tried to change it;

    “Our Republican colleagues are more interested in protecting our president than our troops,” Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said moments before the vote, when defeat appeared certain. “This is Bush’s war. Don’t make it also the Republican senators’ war.”

    The Times reports that Reid thinks of himself as a warrior;

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, vowed to keep pushing to end the war, even though Mr. Webb’s amendment was the lone war-related measure considered to have a chance for passage.

    “We will not stop waging the hard-but-necessary fight to responsibly end the war,” he said.

    Imagine that – he’s willing to fight long and hard to ensure our defeat in the Middle East. It’s too damn bad he can’t summon the testicular fortitude to turn that same perserverance towards the enemies of the country he’s sworn to protect and defend.

  • Murtha, Haditha and Marines in general

    Just about every blog on the Right is touting the exhoneration of another Marine in the Haditha investigation (like Curt from Flopping Aces) and running the video of Jeff Gannon confronting John Murtha at the National Press Club (like Gateway Pundit) and the pictures of the accused Marines with “Cleared” stamped on half of them now (like at Chickenhawk Express) Everyone is demanding an apology from Murtha – it’ll never come, I’m telling you.

    Marines are honorable men who have a thankless job to do. They slog through mud and sand, kick down doors, sleep in the rain, choke down pounds of sand, huddle with their buddies behind a tiny rock to avoid rifle fire from an unseen enemy, they police up pieces of their friends and stuff the pieces in a plastic bag and then take the pieces to their friends’ families and standby tearful as they say goodbye to the best friend they ever had – and spend the rest of their lives wondering why they were spared from the same fate. For a few hundred bucks a week.

    John Murtha is no Marine. He climbs over the bodies of fallen marines to call attention to himself – for the anti-war movement. He has learned that the anti-war movement insulates him from Congressional investigations for his double and dirty-dealings in his district which enrich him and his family. A real Marine wouldn’t use a fallen or troubled comrade to improve his own condition. Real Marines jump on grenades to shield their friends from the blast.

    When Murtha wasn’t decorated for service in Vietnam, he tried to use political connections to get himself some medals. The Marines I know wouldn’t give a tiny rat’s ass whether they were awarded some medals or not – let alone go out of their way after the fact to swing some medals through Congressional connections.

    Now, I’m no Marine, in fact I’ve had more fist fights with Marines than civil conversations, but John Murtha couldn’t be a pimple on the worst Marine’s behind. That’s why you’ll never get an apology from Murtha – Marines are honorable men.

  • Democrats and tax cuts

    Everytime I hear a Democrat presidential candidate mention how they want to give the middleclass a taxcut, I remember Bill Clinton’s 1992 promise to give the middleclass a break – which he completely abandoned in 1993. I remember his excuse that he’d worked harder than he’s ever worked in his life and still couldn’t find a way to toss the middleclass a coupla bones. Then he proceeded to hike our taxes – all of us, even people who were dead.

    Well, now I’m listening to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards promising tax cuts to the middleclass. Even their proposals are weak – Obama is promising a $500 tax credit. A $500 tax credit shakes out to a whopping $41/month savings – $82 if you’re in a family. $0 if you don’t pay taxes – most of the people who don’t pay taxes can thank President Bush who raised the minimum income level for filing taxes. He eliminated 16 million workers from the tax rolls in 2001 by that simple swipe of the pen. And now Obama is buying their vote with $0 tax cut (how much is $0 from $0?).

    To his credit, Obama is proposing elimination of seniors with an income under $50,000 from the tax rolls. I’d go along with that – I like simple tax cuts.

    But the Wall Street Journal reports the bad news;

    The changes will be financed in part by raising the tax rate on capital gains and dividend income to as much as 28%, a level last seen in 1997. That is a higher amount than the campaign had endorsed. Earlier this year, the Obama campaign said it would raise those rates to 20%.

    Earlier this year, Mr. Edwards said he, too, would raise the capital-gains tax rate to 28% from 15% and boost income taxes on those making more than $200,000 to finance tax cuts and other benefits for middle- and lower-income families.

    The underlying message of the Democratic candidates’ plans — that wealthier people should pay higher taxes and lower- and middle-income people should pay less — echoes the theme many Democrats in Congress have adopted.

    Double the capital gains tax – which reduces investments and hinders the economy. Oh, and they don’t mention that doubling the capital gains tax also affects what you pay when you sell your house.

    What Democrats don’t know, don’t understand or don’t care is that half of Americans are invested in the economy – raising taxes on capital gains eventually effects us all. I suspect that Obama wants to lower taxes on seniors because he knows he’ll make it up by doubling the taxes on their dividends and capital gains. One way or the other, people will have less money invested in the economy to save taxes – that only hurts the economy.

    But the Big Brother aspect of this reported by Bloomberg;

    The plan would also simplify tax filing for many Americans by having the Internal Revenue Service provide pre-filled tax forms using financial data it receives from employers and banks. The service would be available to filers without complex taxes, or those with only wage and bank-interest income.

    Yeah, I’d like that. I got a bill from the IRS a few weeks ago telling me that I owed them about $4000 from 2005 because of information they received from one of my financial institutions. After I spent a few harrowing weeks proving my innocence (because with the IRS, you’re guilty until you can prove otherwise), they sent me a letter apologizing for the inconvenience. Yeah, so I’m going to let them pre-fill my tax forms. Nice try, Obama.

    The Washington Post quotes Obama;

    “In our new economy, there is no shortage of new wealth,” he told the Tax Policy Center. “But wages are not keeping pace. . . . This isn’t the invisible hand of a market at work. It’s the successful work of special interests.”

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics would disagree; wages are up. They’ve been going up, and unemployment is down to the lowest and longest sustained rate in history. But it seems that Democrats are determined to end that – then blame the economy on Republican policy that has saved this economy.

    Instead of taxhikes and faux-taxcuts, lets see spending cuts. Democrats are real good at telling us how WE can do more for government – for a change let’s see if they can make government do more for us with less money like we have to do everytime they slap a tax hike on us.

  • Chavez takes over the school system

    Hat tip to Atlas Shrugs for alerting us that Chavez is doing to the school system what he did for television in Venezuela – and just like when he warned private communication companies, he’s warning private schools;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.

    Not bizzare enough for you? How about this quote;

    “Society cannot allow the private sector to do whatever it wants,” said Chavez, speaking on the first day of classes.

    Beautiful, huh? AP reports;

    But one college-level syllabus obtained by The Associated Press shows some premedical students already have a recommended reading list including Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” and Fidel Castro’s speeches, alongside traditional subjects like biology and chemistry.

    The syllabus also includes quotations from Chavez and urges students to learn about slain revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Colombian rebel chief Manuel Marulanda, whose leftist guerrillas are considered a terrorist group by Colombia, the U.S. and European Union.

    So I guess the students’ education won’t focus on the three “r”s. Bloomberg writes;

    Teachers and academics may see the measure as an attempt to politicize the classroom, speeding up a brain drain that has been underway for years as educated, skilled workers move abroad to escape Chavez’s “Bolivarian” revolution, said Ercilia Vasquez, director of the school of education at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas.

    “This ideology is very strong,” she said in a phone interview. “We’re going through a process where a lot of people are looking for other alternatives outside the country. This could accelerate it.’”

    The AP story continues;

    Venezuelan officials defend the program at the Latin American Medical School — one in a handful of state-run colleges and universities that emphasize socialist ideology — as the new direction of Venezuelan higher education.

    “We must train socially minded people to help the community, and that’s why the revolution’s socialist program is being implemented,” said Zulay Campos, a member of a Bolivarian State Academic Commission that evaluates compliance with academic guidelines.

    “If they attack us because we’re indoctrinating, well yes, we’re doing it, because those capitalist ideas that our young people have — and that have done so much damage to our people — must be eliminated,” Campos said. 

    Typical communist rhetoric – and it’s becoming too late to stop to stop Chavez. The left is so adoring, so emotional over the idea of an oil-rich communist empire that they forget the 100s of millions who’ve already been sacrificed at the altar of Marxism. Venezuela is beginning to look more and more like the Lord of the Flies. 

    From The Devil’s Excrement, a Venezuelan’s view of Chavez latest endeavor;

    But much like in Hitler’s Germany, Fidel’s Cuba or Franco’s Spain, Venezuela will now have official textbooks for all subjects, guaranteeing no impure ideas get through to the kids and all information gets the imprimatur from Bolivarian officials. I wonder if they will be signed by a Bishop or a General as a sign of approval or by the autocrat himself maybe.

    Because according to the autocrat, texts used to preach the theories of the Empire, whether the North-American or Spanish one (Did Chavez look up pre-1724 textbooks?), but then the ranting got better when Chavez truly and really said:

    “First, it was an ideologic education, the euro-centric vision, colonial, which taught us to admire the conquerors and then the cult to the animated characters of Superman, Mandrake or the Phantom, denying us the knowledge of Guicapuro, Negra Hipolita or Sucre”

    Jeez, I wonder where he heard about these, as I do not recall learning about any of these characters in school, but I do remember learning about Guicaipuro, Negra Hipolita and Sucre, and was always taught a very negative view of the Spanish conquerors which cost me quite a few expulsions from class when I lived in Spain.

    So where’s Jimmy Carter now that Venezuelans really need him? He’s busy bashing Jews and Israel on public access – apparently Chavez is off his radar now that Carter has insured Chavez’ employment for life. I’ve asked before – where are the human rights Democrats? Where are these so-called socially liberal conservatives?

    Well, they’re all for taking education out the hands of the public sector, too. They want to indoctrinate students into Marxism – more overtly than they can now. The left wants to shut down news sources that they think oppose them. They want the wide latitude that Chavez enjoys – he’s running their dream nation where the only choice is the choice they offer.

    But Chavez’ choices will be bathed in blood eventually.

  • DC vote advocates pressure Senate

    The Washington Post reports in “11th Hour Pressure Applied on DC Vote” that DC advocates are putting pressure on the Senate to pass a measure to allow consideration for a vote giving DC a voting member of Congress;

    Facing a critical Senate vote today, supporters and opponents of the D.C. voting rights bill made impassioned speeches and lobbied on Capitol Hill in a last-minute push on the District’s efforts to get its first full member of Congress.

    The motion coming up on the Senate floor would merely clear the way for lawmakers to consider the bill. But if supporters fail to get the necessary 60 votes, the legislation will probably be doomed for this year, according to senators and staff.
     
    Both sides expect a close vote. So, in an eleventh-hour offensive yesterday, advocacy groups launched a nationwide call-in campaign to senators’ offices. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), meanwhile, joined the District’s nonvoting House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), at a rally in which they recalled the Senate’s notorious history of filibustering civil rights legislation.

    “Not since segregation has the Senate blocked a voting rights bill. And this is a voting rights bill,” Fenty declared outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Behind him, about 60 activists waved signs reading “I Demand the Vote.”

    Now, personally, I think everyone should have representation in Congress – every single human. If residents of DC are really so upset that they don’t have a voting representative, they should move – it’s only ten miles from Maryland to Virginia across the District, so no DC resident is moving too far to get the vote they covet, if they really wanted to vote.

    It’s not like Congress just up and changed the rules recently – it’s always been like that. There’s no one in DC who had their voting rights taken away – well, except maybe Eleanor Holmes Norton – she might have been living here when the Constitution was written.

    Why am I against DC having a voting member in Congress? Well, DC voters are morons, for one thing. They’ve elected a cracksmoking whoremonger to the Mayor’s Office after he was released from prison and then voted for him to sit on the City Council while he’s being investigated for tax evasion. When the District elected a straw Senator a few years ago, who’d they elect? Jesse Jackson, an Illinois resident who has never claimed residence in the District.

    The previous mayor was found to have hired people who falsified his filing documents for reelection and was denied entry into the election on the Democrat ticket – he ran as an independent and won anyway – despite his record of surrounding himself with known criminals and incompetent numbskulls.

    My opinion has nothing to do with the District’s political leanings – Utah would balance that out -it has to do with their electoral boobery. Why should the rest of the country suffer DC’s fools gladly. Aren’t Jim Moran and Chris Van Hollen enough?

  • Abizaid; Nuclear Iran is tolerable

    Sometimes I wonder…I just wonder…how these people get their jobs as generals. Former General John Abizaid, former commander of CentCom made some really bizarre statements to the Center for Strategic and International Studies;

    John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.

    “Iran is not a suicide nation,” he said. “I mean, they may have some people in charge that don’t appear to be rational, but I doubt that the Iranians intend to attack us with a nuclear weapon.”

    The Iranians are aware, he said, that the United States has a far superior military capability.

    “I believe that we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear,” he said, referring to the theory that Iran would not risk a catastrophic retaliatory strike by using a nuclear weapon against the United States.

    Even Wesley Clark, whose Washington Post opinion “The Next War” went largely unnoticed yesterday, recognizes that Iran is our primary and most dangerous threat in the world – and that we’re already at war with them.

    Kamangir reports that the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad is already hard at work dehumanizing the Jews and Americans to the Iranians, that Bush worships the Devil, what makes Abizaid think that they aren’t a suicide nation? We already know that the Iranian president believes in the 12th Imam and that by destroying the world, he’d hasten the arrival of the Imam from his secret magic well and bring Islamic paradise to the Earth. 

    Claims like that from Abizaid are reminiscient of the chattering about containment policies toward Hussein of the 90s. Even though Hussein massed his forces on the Kuwait border twice, causing us to deploy troops and equipment, the generals claimed he was harmless – well, except to his own people, of course. 

    Iran is already using everything in their power against us, why would they not use nuclear weapons? What could possible stop them? And if we should stop Iran from becoming nuclear like Abizaid says…why? Especially if they’re so benign, why expend the energy? Â