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

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Census data shockah; DC has lots of poor people!

    Life in this intellectually vacant city, Washington, DC, isn’t made easier by idiot social scientists. In today’s Washington Examiner, the District’s government announced that *shockah!* there’s a disparity in incomes in the District;

    Nearly 80 percent of the 108,100 District residents who live below the poverty line are black, according to the figures for 2006 released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

    The data show the District has the second-highest poverty rate in the country at 20 percent, far above the national poverty rate of 12.3 percent. It trails only Mississippi, where 21 percent of residents are below the poverty level.

    In a city where Blacks are nearly 70% of the population, why is anyone surprised that 80% of any particular data grouping is Black? And why are 20% of the District’s population below the poverty line? Because the District can’t provide basic services like snow removal, downed-tree removal and street repair.

    The drainage systems explode, the water is only barely potable, the streets are strewn with trash and panhandling hobos, the police can’t seem to find the door handles of their cars until shift changes, the council passes laws they don’t expect to be enforced and pass out money hand-over-fist to any “research” organization that asks. The schools are beyond repair as well as the education system itself. City officials are corrupt and inept.

    Why would anyone with any money stay in the District? The people with the means to leave (except the HillaryClintonJohnEdwardsJohnKerry-types who all have mansions in the Georgetown and Southwest area) leave. The people without the means to leave stay for the handouts. The most amazing part of the Examiner article;

    If recent trends continue, this disparity will continue to grow. Median income for whites has grown by 10 percent since 2004, while black income growth has been stagnant.

    Wait for the money shot;

    “It certainly suggests that the city needs to be going the extra mile to reach out to [poor black] residents,” Lazere said.

    350,000 people in this city of a half-million residents are Black. The city government is run largely by Blacks - nearly half of the City Council is Black. All are supposedly residents of DC. How are they just now noticing this?

    Outside Washington, median incomes were among the highest in the country, while poverty rates were well below the national average.

    Wonder why? Federal employees don’t want to expose themselves and their families to dangerous and poor living conditions. About 500,000 people come to work in the District everyday and then leave before nightfall. Most of the crimes in DC happen after nightfall. I don’t need census data to tell me why.

    How is this a shocking revelation worthy of a headline? Who’s really to blame about the poverty here? The voters – they keep sending the same incompetent boobs year-after-year (a fine example), for superficial reasons, to run the government into the ground and drive away more income-producing residents, which lowers the tax base and makes the government even more incompetent, which drives the tax basis down…. 

    Stevie Wonder could see it from space f’pete’s sake.

  • Iran ready to “fill the gap” when US leaves Iraq

    From Breitbart (h/t Ace), Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims to be ready to “fill the gap” when the US occupiers leave;

    “The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly,” Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran, referring to U.S. troops in Iraq. “Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation.”

    Yeah, I wonder how those regional friends, the Sunni Saudis, like being included in the plans. If ever rememberances of post-US Vietnam were needed it’s now. I’m sure the Kurds will be pleased to see the Iranians in Iraq.

    Meanwhile, Kamangir reminds us that it’s the birthday of the Imam Mahdi – the guy that Ahmadinejad claims will rise from his magic well and rule the world. To celebrate his birthday, the religion of peace has a firepower demonstration;

    What’s the best way to celebrate the birthday of a massively politicized Messiah? Well, throw a party for gun-lovers and fanatics.

    Kamanzir posts more pictures here.

    If you can’t wait for the 12th Imam to read the message you’ve dropped down one of the several magic wells from which he may rise – you can always call him;

    Have a quick question about when the Mahdi is coming to save mankind, according to Shiite Muslim adherents? Need to know the signs?
    Just call the new messiah “hotline.” Or log on to Bright Future News Agency to get the latest religious readout – all part of the effort by freshly rejuvenated true believers in Iran to spread their message of the imminent return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam who is expected to return to impose justice and spread peace.
     
    “People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation,” says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran’s religious center of Qom.

    “The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific,” he adds. “There is a saying: ‘When the students are ready, the teacher will come.’ ”

    Paving the way is a renewed commitment to “Mahdaviat” beliefs by the ultraconservative government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who lives so modestly that declared assets include only a 30-year-old car, an even older house, and an empty bank account.

    These ideologues see the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and efforts to rekindle its revolutionary ideals, as critical to paving the way for the Mahdi’s return.

    A religion that still has public hangings and stonings think they can bring peace and justice to the world.

  • More Clinton campaign stench

    I’d actually hoped they’d learned their lessons in the 1996 campaign when Janet Reno let the Clintons and Gore slide on the Buddist Temple monks contributions to the Clinton/Gore campaign – but according to the Wall Street Journal’s Brody Mullins, they haven’t;

    Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.

    It isn’t obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple’s grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to “attendance liaison” at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.

    The Paws’ political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.

    People who answered the phone and the door at the Paws’ residence declined requests for comment last week. In an email last night, one of the Paws’ sons, Winkle, said he had sometimes been asked by Mr. Hsu to make contributions, and sometimes he himself had asked family members to donate. But he added: “I have been fortunate in my investments and all of my contributions have been my money.”

    So $200,000 in Democrat compaign contributions came from this tiny little house in the last two years – and at least 6 adults live in that tiny little house;

    Do we really want to hear for the next nine years about how terrible the vast right wing conspiracy is to the Clintons? Do we really want to hear how the Republican “juggernaut” forced the Clintons to turn to illegal activity in order to keep themselves in the White House – their own amusement park. Do we want more of the Riatis and the other asians who lined up outside the gates of the White House with sacks of cash to buy influence that eventually led to national security breaches?

    Personally, I’m tired of the BS. 

  • Economic boycott in Prince William County

    This debate over immigration has become so diluted with inuendos and lies, it’s hard to tell who is who anymore. But, here, I’ll try to explain it in terms anyone can understand.

    Residents of Prince William County, Virginia, a fairly upscale area in Northern Virginia, has decided that their county government went too far when they built, with tax payer dollars, a “day labor” center in Lorton so they forced the county to begin checking each “day worker” for their immigration status. It only makes sense – why should tax payers fund a gathering point that encourages law breakers to break the laws that protect taxpayers?

    Well, the supposedly “legal” Latin population of PWC are staging an economic boycott this week to demonstrate their economic power. Funny, but the Washington Post can only find legal residents to quote;

    Rivera, the hotel worker who attended the demonstration at Potomac Mills, said she was also a legal resident but was angry at the proposals aimed at driving out illegal immigrants. She said she decided to participate after hearing about the boycott through her church.

    “They don’t want our children in the schools. They don’t want people renting to immigrants. They want to ask for families’ ID cards in parks. This is wrong, and we do not accept it,” she said.

    If you’re a legal resident, chica, why are you worried? I have to show my passport and immigration papers when I travel in Central America – so does the rest of the world. I get stopped in malls, parks, the liquor stores and asked for my ID all of the time. If I threw a hissy everytime I was “profiled” (being a pale white guy with a noticable American accent in my Spanish) I’d probably get tossed in some dank cell on an island prison somewhere.

    Last month I wrote the same thing in reference to the Pollo Rico bust – legal residents were busted for laudering cash ($7 million, in fact), and the government found illegal immigrants working in the restuarants – so the “legal” Latins were worried they’d get scooped up in some huge raid and get mistakenly shipped back to their jungle villages. The big raid never happened – in fact the Montgomery County police chief came on television and promised he wouldn’t enforce the law. But I didn’t have to wait in line for a haircut that weekend.

    Well, of course, since many of the illegal immigrants (re: lawbreakers) are of Central American heritage, suddenly it’s a race issue and not a rule of law issue. The Washington Post writes:

    “They used us Hispanics to build this county, and now they are trying to kick us out. It’s not fair,” fumed Padilla, 28, a legal immigrant from El Salvador. On the window of his restaurant, La Laguna, was a large green poster that read, “We Are A Pro-Immigrant Business. Rescind the Prince William County Anti-Immigrant Resolution.”

    Who is “they”, chica?

    I’m gonna tell you the truth; up until recently, I was one of the Americans willing to look the other way on immigration. It really didn’t affect me or my family directly, so I actually didn’t have a firm opinion on the subject – other than the Border Patrol needed to enforce the laws on the border and stem the tide as best they could.

    But that all changed last year when I watched thousands of Latin immigrants marching through the streets of our cities, here in this country with their bellies full and designer clothes on their backs with Mexican flags and upside down American flags. Of course the next times they came out for their rallies, the Mexican flags had disappeared and the American flags were right-side up – but too late. The first action someone takes, right or wrong, is the action that person truly feels strongest about. So even though they love the American dollar, the American lifestyle and the American opportunity, they’d prefer that this country was different – to suit them. OK, fine, be like that. That’s how you converted me into an anti-illegal immigration blogger.

    Even the Anglos aren’t getting it, according to the Washington Examiner;

    At a pair of family-owned Laundromats in Woodbridge and Dumfries, owner Ginger Trest is touting support for the boycott to show solidarity with the immigrant customers who make up about 50 percent of her clientele.

    “We do not agree with the resolution,” Grest said. “We feel it is discrimination directed toward one segment of the population.”

    One segment of the population whose very presence here represents a violation of Federal law. How hard is that to understand? I guess it makes Ms. Grest feel “enlightened” to embrace criminals. I guess it eases some of her liberal guilt.

    More “legal residents” speak to the Post;

    In interviews in Manassas and Woodbridge, several dozen Latinos said they supported the boycott, and some were indignant about the way they feel immigrants have been treated in the county. Only two or three said they did not know about the boycott.

    “I am only buying in Hispanic stores this week. I am a resident now, but I am still an immigrant, and it is not good what they are trying to do,” said Abel Santiago, 28, a Mexican restaurant worker who complained that he had been stopped and asked for identification recently. “We feel so much hate and resentment now. But we should have our rights, too.”

    Compa, I feel resentment towards you because you’re lying. No one is targeting you because you’re Latin, just like the troops in Iraq aren’t targeting terrorists because they’re Arabs. It just seems that there are alot of Latins who immigrate here illegally – the key word being “illegally”, f’Pete’s sake. Get over it and figure out why you’re here and not back in your own country. Because back home sucks and here it sucks a lot less.

    These “Mexicans Without Borders” pinheads have muddied the debate so badly with their charges of racism that I’m not surprised law enforcement is confused. So these racist dorks want us to change the laws in this country to accomodate them – then this country isn’t the same country they wanted to make their lives in, it won’t offer the same opportunities, the same quality of life. And by coming here, they’ve deprived their own country of a pair of working hands, working minds and conditions there get worse – and it becomes even worse, forcing more people to come here.

    It makes more sense that latins use their inherent ingenuity and work ethic to make lives for themselves in their own countries and make the lives of their families and neighbors better with their sweat and brains – and end this country’s decline into the third world. That’s why the President has been trying to get these trade deals with Latin countries through a resistant Congress and passed the corrupt trade unions and Big Sugar – to make lives for latins better in their own countries so we aren’t torn apart by small-minded racists in those oddly named “Mexicans Without Borders” and “La Raza”.

    Don’t expect a lot of help from wishy-washy Democrat governor Tom Kaine solving the illegal immigrant issue in Virginia. Washington Times’ Natasha Altamirano writes today;

    “The governor does not object to localities choosing to enter into localized agreements with [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” said Kevin Hall, Mr. Kaine’s spokesman. “He has concerns, however, about asking state troopers to assume primary enforcement of federal immigration responsibilities.”

    So he’s found a way to have his cake and eat it, too. He doesn’t have to enforce the laws, but he has no problem with underfunded localities enforcing the laws. Pure politics. How helpful is that to the discussion, Virginia?

  • Gonzales resigned

    The Washington Post reports;

    Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced his resignation today, ending a controversial cabinet tenure that included clashes with Congress over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and over the use of warrantless wiretaps in the war on terror. 

    I guess I missed something. What has been proven that the Attorney General did that prompted this kind of reaction from the uber-partisan Left;

    “Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House.” — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

    Ah, Karl Rove lives and breathes. So I guess the Senate’s investigation is through – Reid has come to a decision about this as a result of a completed investigation.

    “It has been a long and difficult struggle but at last, the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down.” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

    Who made it a long and difficult struggle, Lil Chucky? Maybe it was you and your tight-assed little pricks who were determined to find something wrong where there was nothing?

    The Justice Department under Gonzales “suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence.” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

    Corrupted by what what political influence Leaky Leahy? Like when the Attorney General of the previous administration wouldn’t investigate her BOSS? Or like when Gonzales let your monkey-ass slide on charges that you leaked national security-sensitive information for political reasons. He should have fried your dusty ass.

    “It is a sad day when the attorney general of the United States resigns amid a cloud of suspicion that the system of justice has been manipulated for political purposes. More than accountability, we need answers. ….If the power of the prosecutor has been misused in the name of partisanship, we deserve a full airing of the facts.” — Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., House Judiciary chairman.

    “Manipulated for political purposes” like when you, John Conyers, tried to influence the Senate to delay advice and consent for Gerald Ford’s VP appointment so you could impeach Nixon and install the Democrat Speaker of the House as president in effect overturning the people’s vote in 1972? Ya mean like that?

    “He has exhibited a lack of candor with Congress and the American people and a disdain for the rule of law and our constitutional system. I strongly urge President Bush to nominate a new attorney general who will respect our laws and restore the integrity of the office.” — Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

    What about your lack of candor and disdain for the rule of law on the night and the decades since Mary Jo Kopekne died, Jabba the Kennedy.

    “It’s about time … Gonzales now joins a long list of Republican officials resigning under a cloud of scandal, but these resignations cannot purge the Bush administration of its problems. The true problem rests with the Bush White House itself, which continues to put what’s best for the Republican Party ahead of what’s best for America.” — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

    “Resigning under a cloud” of manufactured scandals, Dipshit Dean. Tell me what Gonzales did that was so scandalous. Just saying the words don’t make it so, numbnuts.

    “Better late than never.” — [the prettiest girl] Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

    That must be what you tell the crowds when you leave them standing in the hot sun for hours while they await your string of lies and hypocrisy.

    Barack Obama today released the following statement on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

    “I have long believed that Alberto Gonzales subverted justice to promote a political agenda, and so I am pleased that he has finally resigned today. The President needs to nominate an Attorney General who will be the people’s lawyer, not the President’s lawyer, and in an Obama Administration that person will first and foremost defend and promote the rights and liberties enshrined in our Constitution,” said Obama.

    Who tipped over your tricycle, sonny? Just because you “long believed” something, that doesn’t make it so. Immature little sissy.

    The fact that Harry Reid mentions that the investigation must continue tells me that no one has proven anything yet. Yet all of these ignorant peckerwoods have already passed judgement. Is it any wonder he resigned in the face of a jury that had already convicted him?

    I hope other minority citizens in this country take notes and see what happens when they stray from the Democrats’ plantation.

    From the Wall Street Journal;

    “It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we’ve sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months,” [Senator Mitch] McConnell (R., Ky.), said in a statement.

    Don’t count on it – in fact I doubt that the president will get another Attorney General given what the Democrats consider a “choice”. Hell, I’ll bet Schumer and Kennedy would oppose the nominee if he was either of them. Schumer said this about Gonzales when the President named him as the nominee a scant three years ago;

    New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said at the time: “It’s encouraging that the president has chosen someone less polarizing. We will have to review his record very carefully, but I can tell you already he’s a better candidate than John Ashcroft.”

    Curt at Flopping Aces speculates on Gonzales’ replacement – but personally I don’t think a Bush appointee will ever sit in the office again.

  • Iraqis, Bush surge

    Democrats can’t catch a break this summer. They were successful in turning American public opinion against the war in Iraq while they were in session, at the same time they managed to turn public opinion against themselves – with a tiny 18% approval rating (which means even their base has turned against them – for whatever reason Glenn Greenwald wants to use today).

    Despite Jack Murtha’s best efforts to smear our troops as cold-blooded murderers, the Marine’s article 32 investigation is slowly concluding that none of these guys cold-bloodedly did anything outside of their rules of engagement. The true professionals that they are. And despite Baghdad diarist Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s best efforts to lie about his involvement in wartime atrocities, and The New Republic’s best efforts to skirt journalistic integrity they have failed. 

    Jack Reed, Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin, then turn to bashing Nuri al Maliki, who yesterday struck back belittling them fairly well telling them they “should come their senses”. Nuri, we’ve been telling those jackals to come to their senses for years – it ain’t hap’nin’. And then today we learn that the Iraqis faction leaders have come to a key agreement;

    Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced yesterday they reached consensus on several key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.

    The agreement by five leaders is one of the most significant political developments in Iraq for months and was quickly welcomed by the United States, which hopes such moves will ease the sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.

    This must really frost Democrats. They try to bash the US troops, and that doesn’t work. They try to bash our allies, and that doesn’t work. Barack Obama tries to get tough with Pakistanis and gets accused of trying to start a nuclear war. Last week, Sunni Iraqis started joining with Shi’ite Iraqis to fight al Qaeda in Iraq – I can feel the tension in the Democrats’ wadded panties from here.

    I couldn’t help but snicker yesterday while watched Jack Reed on Fox News Sunday try to call the violence in Iraq “sectarian” – still clinging to that whole “civil war” notion from last Fall, Jackie, boy?

    Then to top it all off, while they go on break to rest up from those three day weeks and four hour days, the President uses his vacation time to go around the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the press and tell the American people the truth about the war;

    President Bush has used a monthlong vacation by the Democrat-controlled Congress to mount a frontal assault on why the U.S. must remain in Iraq, declaring the “surge” of troops a success while also preparing war-weary Americans for a continued military engagement there.

    Throughout August, the Bush administration has filled the vacuum with positive news from the war front, culminating with the release of a report last week detailing “measurable” success during the surge of 30,000 troops the president ordered to Baghdad in January.

    In addition, Mr. Bush last week laid out a historical case for staying in Iraq using the wars in Vietnam and Korea as examples of premature pullouts, and he has used press conferences with four world leaders during his own vacation to press his case that victory is still within reach.

    The onslaught appears to be working. Pollster John Zogby said his firm’s most recent survey, to be released this week, shows “a majority of Americans do not feel the war is lost.”

    Democrats can’t even whine that the president took another month-long vacation this year.

    So I guess our troops aren’t the only ones surging – the Iraqis and the President have a few surges left, too.

  • Lazy Sunday Night Links

    I wondered where Robin at Chickenhawk Express was hiding. I hadn’t heard a peep from her since early Thursday. I was beginning to get worried. But then I popped over there tonight and I see why – she’s written a legal brief that should be enough to get the media indicted entitled “They Indicted the Haditha Marines Without a Trial – Part I Newsweek“ Please read it – truly a masterpiece. The best thing about it – it’s only Part I.

    COBDanny reports that Hugo Chavez tells the world that su Tio Fidel will never die. Mora at Babalu Blog says Oogo let the cat out of the bag.

    You have to watch this video of Chris Wallace verbally smacking Bill Moyers around at Hot Air.

    Jules Crittenden’s “Little Saddams“ is a must read if you think we need to leave Iraq.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal is getting Katrina Fatigue – I passed that point when I listened to a supposed Libertarian complain that the Feds weren’t doing enough to bail his whinin’ ass out.

    Curt at Flopping Aces discovers that the DUmmies twigged to our evil plan in “Bush has Killed the Birds!”

    mRed at Invincible Armor has an excellent article on the extermination of Black children (something I’ve been saying for years) in “One quarter of the Black population is now missing“  – I’d add “…just like Margaret Sanger planned”.

    Gateway Pundit reports that the mullahs are pleased they’ve finally got a smart bomb. Well that’s hardly news in Iran – Kamangir translates that Amadinejad just got through telling a group of students that Iran has much to teach the world about rocket science. Even though they still engage in public executions.

  • The surge against the surge is failing, or not

    Carl Levin and Dick Durbin concede that the surge has had spectacular results against al Qaeda – as if they could even begin to believe their lyin’ eyes. But they add the proviso that the Iraqi government is failing the progress our troops are making for them. The Washington Post, in the meantime, chooses to follow the leader of Congress’ “Out of Iraq Caucus” Jan Schakowsky; adament, unbendable intentionally ignorant of the realities of the world;

    …the outspoken antiwar liberal resolved to keep her opinions to herself. “I would listen and learn,” she decided.

    At times that proved a challenge, as when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her congressional delegation, “There’s not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there’s not going to be political reconciliation by next September.” Schakowsky gulped — wasn’t that the whole idea of President Bush’s troop increase, to buy time for that political progress?
     
    But the real test came over a lunch with Gen. David H. Petraeus, who used charts and a laser pointer to show how security conditions were gradually improving — evidence, he argued, that the troop increase is doing some good.

    Still, the U.S. commander cautioned, it could take another decade before real stability is at hand. Schakowsky gasped. “I come from an environment where people talk nine to 10 months,” she said, referring to the time frame for withdrawal that many Democrats are advocating. “And there he was, talking nine to 10 years.”

    Imagine that! A part of the world that has been steeped in turmoil for more than five decades won’t be tamed in the next few months – it may take another decade to make 6th Century throwbacks stop bombing schools and marketplaces. Of course, this realization only reinforces Schakowsky’s knee-jerk, emotive calls to pull the troops out of Iraq and condemn the region to another several decades of horror and injustice.

    The lack of political progress among Iraq’s rival factions and Petraeus’s estimate of the time needed to stabilize the nation left Schakowsky all the more convinced that Democrats must force Bush to begin bringing troops home.

    Insuring that in another 15 years we’ll be forced to go back and finish the job AGAIN. The Democrats and the media forced us to abandon the attack on Hussein in 1991 – before there was al Qaeda, before the cowardly actions over Mogadishu made the world less fearful of American resolve. Before our response to agression became a few cruise missiles fired at empty tents, empty buildings and asprin factories – before we merely put terrorists in jail for their attacks on the World Trade Center.

    But Democrats aren’t happy to undermine our own security, they especially enjoy deriding the Iraqis – causing our allies to lash out;

    Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were the most strident.

    “There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses,” al-Maliki said at a news conference.

    The New York Times decides that what the Vietnamese went through wasn’t so bad, so maybe we should let the Iraqis suffer for a few decades under the boot of radical Islamism;

    Vietnam today is a unified and stable nation whose Communist government poses little threat to its neighbors and is developing healthy ties with the United States. Mr. Bush visited Vietnam last November; a return visit to the White House this summer by Nguyen Minh Triet was the first visit by a Vietnamese head of state since the war.

    “The Vietnam comparison should invite us to think harder about how to minimize the consequences of our military failure,” Mr. Bacevich added. “If one is really concerned about the Iraqi people, and the fate that may be awaiting them as this war winds down, then we ought to get serious about opening our doors, and to welcoming to the United States those Iraqis who have supported us and have put themselves and their families in danger.”

    I love how the Left likes to point out the “military failures” in Vietnam, yet they can’t point to a single military defeat. The only failure in Vietnam was the anti-war crowd’s failure to admit that we should have shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia in the early years – that would have cut the time we fought the war in half and South Vietnam would be a democracy today. Just like we should seal off Syria and Iran from Iraq today – but like Nixon’s actions in Cambodia, the Left would call it an “expansion of the war” – instead of an attempt to actually win the war.

    On August 5th the Washington Post started a series on Congressmembers in their districts during their summer recess and explained the dilema facing them;

    With Congress beginning its summer recess, supporters of the war are expecting attacks and protests from war opponents, and many lawmakers are looking for bipartisan consensus on a new war strategy that has so far eluded them.

    Maybe they’re having such trouble because instead of finding a “bipartisan consensus” they should be looking for a working military solution – or they should sit down and stfu.

    I wonder why Tzun Tsu and vonClauswitz never mentioned that wars should be fought by committees and consensus? Maybe because it doesn’t work – have the Democrats never heard of “unity of command”?

    Of course, in a last desparate attempt to save the surge against the surge, the Left turns to Huffington Post to undermine the good order and discipline of the military  (hat tip to COBDanny) and urges General Pace to fire President Bush. Ya know, like the militaries in third world countries do all of the time. And HuffPo commenters heartily agree;

    Unfortunately, the fact remains that there are serious reasons to consider any and all scenarios, or remedies because of GWB, the worst President ever. Why should anyone else care about the rule of law when he hasn’t concerned himself with it for the 6 long years while he has crapped all over the Constitution and ignored law after law?

    I think that the creative thinking by Mr. Lewis should be commended and that if General Pace is the patriot he claims to be, he should consider the suggestion. My God, our nation as we know it is at stake. 

     I’d like to know, just for my own reference, what laws the President has ignored and when he “crapped on the Constitution”. Fortunately for me, I won’t be waiting with bated breath.

    But the anti-war Left loves this country and the Constitution, don’t they?

    I BELIEVE IT IS NOW TIME TO DEMAND AND SCHEDULE THE SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

    We have GOT to get this little problem of hubris and ‘reinterpretation’ by the Whiggy ones settled once and for all, so U.S. can move forward.

    They love the Constitution so much, they want to rewrite it – as if I’d just stand aside and let them. Maybe they should put it to a national referendum – but they couldn’t do that, actually. Then they’d find out how many Americans oppose them in an undeniable actual vote count instead of one of those vacuous polls to which they cling so dearly. Or a lopsided Electoral College vote that favors the people who drain the country’s coffers over those who fill it. I doubt it’d even be close.

    CoBDanny reads my mind, and even pirates my legal research into the Smith Act to explain to the little worm why his idea just won’t work and why he should probably do some jail time for good measure.

    The death throes of the surge against the surge will be played out on September 15th in Washington – and I’ll be there to chronicle the last desparate gasp. So, too, will the Gathering of Eagles. Anyone else going?