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

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Senate Democrats: Victory is not an option

    Yesterday, the Senate Democrats surrendered to the will of the American people, temporarily – pledging to be a yammering pack of goofballs in the Fall, after they’ve rested up from accomplishing nothing this year. From the Wall Street Journal’s David Rogers;

    Senate Democrats abruptly postponed further debate on the Iraq war, betting that time and grass-roots pressure over the August recess will bring them the Republican votes they now lack to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

    I guess hatin’ is hard work for the players. Since they ca’t do the business of the American people, the Democrats are going to let idiots like MoveOn and Code Pink do their job for them according to the Washington Post;

    But Reid’s decision pleased antiwar groups, which have pressed Democrats to bring the war to a close. “I think Senator Reid took an important step toward confronting Republican obstructionism and ending the war,” said Tom Matzzie, a strategist for MoveOn.org.

    Matzzie said his group’s efforts are concentrated on “forcing the entire Republican Party to look over the side of the cliff” at the political consequences of continuing to stand by Bush. Antiwar groups are focused in particular on Senate Republicans up for reelection next year.

    “Ultimately, we end the war by creating a toxic political environment for war supporters like the Republicans in the Senate,” Matzzie said.

    I wonder if Matzzie and the mindless minions of the Left have given a thought to the fact that Congressional Democrats are nearing single-digits in approval rating polls because most Americans don’t like the surrender chatter coming from the Democrats? 

    The Senate [sleepover in-] action took place as a Zogby poll released yesterday showed that 14 percent of likely voters rated Congress’ performance as excellent or good — 20 points below Mr. Bush’s 34 percent and the lowest ever recorded by the pollster.

    Of course not. It’s the Democrats who aren’t listening to the American people inside their echo-chamber. From the Washington Times’ Sean Lengell and Christopher Dolan;

    But Democrats, responding to their anti-war base, vowed to keep applying pressure.

    “We believe that with time, when we come back to this bill as soon as we possibly can, that we’re going to pick up even more support when the American people see who has voted to change course and who did not,” said Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat who authored the measure.

    Added Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat: “We’re not going to stop until we get to 60.”

    See? “Responding to their base” – not “responding to the American people” or “responding to the terrorist threat” – responding to their base. There’s nothing in this that bolsters our national security or makes our soldiers safer – it’s all pure politics. Politics of the anti-American Left.

    And they can stop calling MoveOn.dorks an anti-war group, by the way. they’re an anti-Bush group that grew out of a Clinton defense group. They’re anti-Republican – it’s just that shallow and pointless.

    So all of that bluster the other night got the Senate Democrats one more surrender vote;

    “At the end of this debate, we’re all a little bit weary, but we’re one vote closer to ending this war,” said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat. “Many senators who’ve gone home and said they’re opposed to the war voted to continue the war today. They’ll have to answer to the voters.”
     

    Three other Republicans — Sens. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, critics of the war, and Susan Collins of Maine — voted with 47 Democrats. Miss Collins said she supported providing an up-or-down vote on the measure but did not support the legislation.

    One vote. All of that taxpayer money for 1 stupid vote. From a RINO, no less. If the Democrats are in such a hurry to surrender, they should surrender to common sense for a change.

  • NIE: SSDD

    The latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) seems to have all of the anti-war deepthinkers in knotted knickers. The Washington Post acts like this is truly news;

    The White House faced fresh political peril yesterday in the form of a new intelligence assessment that raised sharp questions about the success of its counterterrorism strategy and judgment in making Iraq the focus of that effort.

    Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has been able to deflect criticism of his counterterrorism policy by repeatedly noting the absence of any new domestic attacks and by citing the continuing threat that terrorists in Iraq pose to U.S. interests.

    But this line of defense seemed to unravel a bit yesterday with the release of a new National Intelligence Estimate that concludes that al-Qaeda “has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability” by reestablishing a haven in Pakistan and reconstituting its top leadership. The report also notes that al-Qaeda has been able “to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attacks,” by associating itself with an Iraqi subsidiary.

    Anyone shocked? Nope, me neither. Terrorists will continue to regenerate as long as there’s a chance they can get their enemies to let them have the run of the world. The Left and the anti-war-at-any-cost crowd give them hope for that chance. But anyone who is surprised that terrorists are still trying to terrorize need to go back and read the dictionary definition of terrorist.

    From Washington Times’ Bill Gertz;

    “Although we have discovered only a handful of individuals in the United States with ties to al Qaeda senior leadership since 9/11, we judge that al Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put operatives here,” the report stated.

    Retired Vice Adm. Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence whose office produced the NIE, said the United States will face a “persistent and evolving terrorist threat” in the next three years.

    What a waste of Bill Gertz’ talents – that “bug duh” moment. As long as  it’s possible that the US Left divides the country for purely policitical reasons, the terrorist threat will always evolve to take advantage of their naivete`.

    Contrast these two views from the Gertz story;

    “It is deeply troubling that more that nearly six years after 9/11, al Qaeda maintains a safe haven, an intact leadership and the capability to plan further attacks,” said Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat and 2008 presidential candidate. “It is time to act to correct those mistakes, and the first step is to get out of Iraq, because you can’t win a war when you’re on the wrong battlefield.”

    House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the NIE shows that the United States must keep up the fight against terrorists.

    “Retreat is not a ‘new way forward’ when the safety and security of future generations of Americans are at stake,” Mr. Boehner said.

    Instead of deciding that fighting harder and more united is the answer young Barack decides that getting out is the answer. That’s just cowardly…and partisan. AT least we have John Boehner to call them wimps to their faces.

    Meanwhile, my new buddy Robin at Chickenhawk Express delivers deadly blows to that [d]ick Clarke’s “analysis” of the NIE.

  • Political theater; employing the unemployable

    Last night, while no one watched or cared, I guess the Senate tried to pull an all-night exercise in insanity – voting on the same measure again-and-again each time, amazingly, having the same result. Of course the Washington Post thought it was really good and important stuff;

    Earlier in the day, Reid had ordered cots to be set up in a ceremonial room off the Senate floor, and reporters were alerted when the beds, along with pillows, were delivered in the afternoon.

    The office of Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) dispatched interns to buy toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant for delivery to GOP leadership offices, with a note offering the “supplies for your sleepless night.” It added: “Help us bring an end to this war.”

    “Will the all-night session change any votes? I hope so,” said Reid. “Because it will focus attention on the obstructionism of the Republicans.”

    Not “it will end terrorism in our time” or even “we’re going to show those terrorists we mean business”, but rather “it will focus attention on the obstructionism of Republicans” – because, as we know, those Republicans are a dangerous bunch. They’re capable of killing millions of Americans while they sleep if it weren’t for the brave souls of the Democrat Party frantically waving their white flags in front of TV cameras.

    Sean Lengell from the Washington Times reports that;

    Some Democrats left the session temporarily to attend a candlelight antiwar rally across from the Capitol.

    Majority Leader Harry Reid said the unusual session was necessary because Republicans refused to agree to a simple majority to pass the bill and were intent on filibustering an amendment that called for pulling most troops out of Iraq by April 30.

    “If Republicans insist on blocking change of course in Iraq, we have no alternative but to keep them in session to have them explain their obstruction,” the Nevada Democrat said. “Republicans will need to choose whether they want to protect the president or protect our troops.”

    Yeah, if the Republicans insist on making Congress keep its word to wait until September, the Democrats will make them stay up all night. If Harry Reid cared a whit for the troops, he’d shut his chickenshit mouth for a minute and let them do their jobs.

    And all the while the grotesque hags of Tickled Pink and the assorted malcontents of the Left stood outside and chanted like the screeching harpies they are. From the Post, again;

    The group VoteVets.org called in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to spend the night in the Senate gallery. MoveOn.org organized “counter-filibusters” in which protesters outside Senate offices and in other public places read firsthand accounts from Iraq war veterans and military families. “We’ll send a clear message to senators and the media that this isn’t about partisan games — it’s about people’s lives,” the group said.

    Yeah, it’s not about partisan games is it MoveOn.dorks – wasn’t it Move On that led the charge against Lieberman because he disagreed with their BDS-driven agenda?

    No mention, however, of the group Vets for Freedom who made the rounds of Congress all day yesterday urging Congress to wait until September like they promised. I wonder why? Probably because they wore boring tan polo shirts instead of garish pink boas and they didn’t chant mindless drivel or wave idiot signs.

    This was pure political theater – it was so Democrats could prove to their tiny minority of “anti-war at any price” crowd that Democrats are listening to their squeakiest wheels.

    Anyone for a minute think that Joe Six-pack gives a tiny rat’s ass that a hundred pampered people and their pampered staffs stayed awake one night? Nope the only people who care are the breathless hundreds who blogged all night about this non-event.

  • CAIR: US causes terrorism (UPDATED)

    Audrey Hudson and Sara Carter of the Washington Times report that CAIR spokeman Parvez Ahmed told an audience at the National Press Club that its Bush’s fault that Americans are mistrustful of Islam;

     A Muslim civil rights group yesterday blamed the Bush administration for promoting “Islamophobia” and said the “war on terror” won’t stop terrorists.

    “The new perception is that the United States has entered a war with Islam itself,” said Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the national board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

    “Terrorism is a tactic. You cannot eradicate it by declaring a war against it. The war on terror is causing us infinitely more harm than the terrorists could have ever imagined.”

    Yeah, that’s the ticket. Let’s ignore the dozen or so attacks on Americans and our interests throughout the world over the past decade-and-a-half. It wasn’t until we declared war on terrorists that people became aware of the plots against us – aware of the war Osama bin Laden declared against us a decade ago. Maybe there’s a perception that we’re fighting Islam because organizations like CAIR refuse to condemn terrorist attacks against the US. Think?

    “It is important to bear in mind that terrorists cannot destroy America,” he said[….]  The U.S., he said, is too powerful and too resourceful for terrorists to defeat.

    So we should just sit back and let the terrorists have at us…like we did from 1993 to 2001. Yeah, no problem with that, I guess. Well, except for the people who get killed in the interim.

    I guess the fact that CAIR thinks we should stop fighting the war against terrorists is enough reason to continue fighting the war against terrorists.

    UPDATE: I’m listening to the Chris Core Show on WMAL (about 10 AM), and apparently Audrey Hudson, one of the writers on this Washington Times story was escorted from the press conference – she claims she was warned in advance that she wasn’t welcome. Probably because of the bang-up job she’s been doing on the Flying Imams story.

    Isn’t it odd that a journalist is barred from a news event at the National Press Club – probably a news event held in the prestigious First Amendment Room on the top floor, too. 

    Hudson anounced that CAIR doesn’t tell her what her “news beat” is and she’ll continue to cover CAIR whenever the Times assigns her. Sara Carter, Hudson’s co-author of this story, just made her bones on this, her first story. Let’s see how long before CAIR bars her from their propaganda sessions.

    Of course, CAIR disagrees with Hudson’s story (she says she missed only a few minutes of the end of the conference) but they refused to come on Core’s show and explain what was inaccurate about the Times story. Wonder why? 

  • Bird…and fools; paratrooper memories

    This Associated Press story brought back some memories;

    Military officials said 25 heavily armed parachutists who landed in a cornfield on the grounds of a Colorado prison last week were on a training mission but landed about 3 miles off target.

    “Those were Special Operations Command forces conducting routine training,” Army Col. Hans Bush, a spokesman for the command at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., said Monday. He declined to identify the units that landed at Fremont Correctional Facility but said the target was Fremont County Airport.

    […]

    “We don’t know who they were and I’m not sure we’ll ever know who they were,” [spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti] said. “Everyone acted appropriately.”

    The parachute troops were armed only with rubber training bullets.

    “The good news is everyone was able to quickly assess the situation,” Bush said.

    I’m glad the whole thing turned out OK – it could’ve gone bad fast with a jittery trigger finger or two. 

    There’s a drop zone in Alaska I still haven’t seen – and I was first out the door of our aircraft. In Panama, the first three or four guys out the door over Venado Drop Zone went in the ocean everytime – but even if you hit the drop zone, you were in 10-foot elephant grass and inevitably lost.

    In Germany they dropped on a farmer’s sugar beet field at night and even our battalion commander (the late then-LTC Arthur Stang) broke his ankle when he drifted into a stone wall.  

    One time we flew to Panama for jungle training before I was stationed there. We were to jump into Gatun DZ on the Atlantic side where the school was, but when we were rigging up in Homestead AFB, the pilot held the Miami Herald headline up so we could all see it – “Elite US troops to invade Panama” it said. We looked at each other and the blank adapters on our weapons and wondered how’d we’d invade anyone with near-toys.

    Luckily it was just Omar Torrijos being blustery like Hugo Chavez does now. We landed in Panama instead of jumping and bussed across the Isthmus from Howard AFB. Still , it’s a funny story. I have plenty more if prodded and cajoled properly.

  • Living in the 60s; divided we fall

    OK, there was something familiar in the political climate that I couldn’t quite put my finger on – until I read this story from the Politico’s Mike Allen;

    Sen. John Edwards plans to warn later this week that the nation’s schools have become segregated by race and income, and he will propose measures to diversify both inner-city and middle-class schools.

    It feels like the 60s again, doesn’t it? Yesterday Edwards, the prettiest Democrat candidate, was talking about a “poverty tour” and today it’s busing and desegregating schools. The other candidates (and Edwards included) are all “against the war” (whatever that means today), they’re all for raising taxes “on the rich” (whoever that is these days). All of the broke-dick, big-government Liberal issues that brought on the malaise of the 70s are rearing their heads – as if history never happened.

    It doesn’t help that the media are all in on it and the old hippies who are now “journalists” play the game. Like this syncophantic piece from the Washington Post;

    “A lot of Americans think of people who are struggling as people who don’t want to work, and that’s nonsense. We need to make sure the country understands that,” the Democratic former senator from North Carolina said.

    On the second day of an eight-state tour of impoverished communities in the South and Midwest, Edwards tried to connect his presidential campaign with the legacy of King and Robert F. Kennedy and the issue they tried to publicize in the 1960s: poverty. The four-day tour will end in Prestonsburg, Ky., where Kennedy concluded a tour of Appalachia in 1968.

    So, the guy with $400 haircuts and $1/2 million dollar part-time jobs carries the mantle of King and RFK now. I can just see King and Kennedy standing at the gates of Heaven with baseball bats waiting for Edwards’ arrival – and this Perry Bacon, Junior from the Washington Post.

    “We still have two public school systems in this country,” Edwards said. “They’re not segregated just based on race. They’re segregated, to a large extent, based on economics, which has racial implications.”

    The result is, Edwards continued, “if you live in a wealthy suburban area, the odds are very high that your child will get a very good public school education. If you live in the inner city or if you live in a poor rural area, the odds of that go down dramatically. And I think there are very specific things we can do to not only improve the quality of the education in those areas but also to improve the quality of our schools at large.”

    Funny how Federal programs and robbing the American taxpayers of their earnings is always the solution – until the big-government program fails and then the answer is always more money. That’s how we ended up with a 70% tax bracket in the 70s.

    Edwards, and the Democrats as a whole, act as if there is no possiblity for economic mobility in this country. They act as if we’re born to a station in life and that’s where we remain – as if this is 18th century France. The opportunities exist – everywhere in this country. granted there are people who don’t take advantage of those opportunities, but how is it my responsibility to pay for others’ bad choices?

    If I were one of those inner-city or rural teachers, I’d be pissed at Edwards. How dare he say that those teachers aren’t interested in teaching kids until they get more Federal money? So where’s the outrage? Edwards called all of you inner-city and rural school teachers greedy, heartless capitalists. Yeah, I can just hear the howls of rage – hypocrites.

    And this “Two Americas” crap is played out. Edwards is just playing two sides against each other. Ronald Reagan brought America together, and now Edwards is trying to tear us apart like Johnson, Nixon and Carter did. We beat the Nazis and the Soviet Union when we all pulled together. How are we going to defeat Islamofacism with the Democrats pulling us apart?

  • Mas Pollo Rico: AP deliberately lies to create fear

    I’m sure most of you read the post I wrote on Saturday about the El Pollo Rico owners who were arrested for money laudering over $7 million. Well, check out this story from the Associated Press;

    July 15, 2007 – 6:39am

    WHEATON, Md. (AP) – Things are quieter around the El Pollo Rico restaurant.Immigrant employees and patrons of local shops are shying away from the area after an immigration raid on the Peruvian restaurant Thursday morning. Nine employees were seized and four members of the family that owns the restaurant were arrested.  

    Most lunchtimes, a line of customers would wind outside the door onto the sidewalk for El Pollo Rico’s spicy roasted chicken.

    Now, immigrant workers and customers are staying away from the shopping center for fear that the scene will repeat itself.

    One man who said he entered the country legally says he quit his job at a nearby business because he feared immigration officials.

    But members of groups opposed to illegal immigration say they welcomed the bust of the illegal immigrants, adding that they feel the effort should even be stepped up.

    Others in the community worry that the bust makes the whole Hispanic community look bad.

    —

    (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

    That’s it, in it’s entirety. The business wasn’t raided for immigration violations, it was raided because of large money transactions that had been tracked for more than year. No mention that the owners were US citizens who were involved in human trafficking and money laundering schemes – just that the poor LEGAL immigrants were afraid to come to work because the jackbooted thugs of the ICE would scoop up everyone and send them to prison.

    I guess the LEGAL immigrants in Wheaton have seen Cheech Marin’s “Born in East LA” too many times.

  • Chavez’ Bolibanana Revolution marches on

    The Bolivarian Revolution in South America continues to drive the region further into Banana Republic status as the Associated Press reports (by way of the Wall Street Journal) that Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez’ own personal Mini-Me, moves to nationalize the Bolivian railroads;

    President Evo Morales announced plans to nationalize Bolivia’s railroads, continuing his administration’s campaign to extend greater state control over key sectors of the Andean nation’s economy.

    Speaking at the inauguration of a restored steam train for tourists outside La Paz, Mr. Morales said Sunday he intends to recover control of former state rail company Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles, or ENFE, privatized in 1996.

    “We must begin the rehabilitation of our railways,” Mr. Morales said, after traveling from the Tiwanaku ruins to Lake Titicaca on the new line. “This inspires us, this obligates us, this is the start of the nationalization of ENFE.”

    Yeah, cuz the nationalised industries in the region have been doing so well – take a look at the chart from The Devil’s Excrement in regards to Venezuela’s oil production over the past 17 years. Keep in mind that Chavez has been intervening in oil production since he rose to the Presidency in 1999.

    The Houston Chronicle sees no new money for Venezuela’s production development;

    But many independent experts caution that the pullout of the two U.S. oil giants could further harm the investment climate in Venezuela. They also question whether its state-run energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela, also known as PDVSA, and its new suitors have the expertise, money and technology to exploit the tarlike heavy oil in the Orinoco basin, which may hold upward of 300 billion barrels of petroleum.

    “They’ve got a problem, because new money isn’t coming in,” said David Mares, an expert on Latin American energy issues at the University of California at San Diego. “PDVSA is confident, but I would say it’s based on blind hope.”

    Venezuela, like some other countries, is raising taxes and royalties in a time when the oil producers are looking for different ways to maximize revenues.

    Taiwan’s CPC oil company is seeking to protect it’s rights in Venezuela;

    The state-owned oil company CPC Corporation, Taiwan is going all out to defend its oil exploration rights in Venezuela, CPC Vice General Manager and Spokesman Tsao Ming said Monday.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views continues to report food shortages of staples like pasta, beef, chicken, milk and sugar. The good news of course, is that there’s plenty of Corn Flakes – is Jerry Seinfeld in charge of food distribution there?

    From Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra, we learn that one of the games of the Copa Americana in Caracas was cancelled to prevent a reoccurance of the protests in the first tournament game – on international television. can’t let the world see that the Revolution is failing, can we? 

    Chavez’ power grabs continue with his new plan for “community councils” which bypass local governments (which are more than likely opposed to Chavez’ vision of a strong central government);

    The discussion was part of a meeting of one of the country’s several hundred new community councils, President Hugo Chávez’s latest, and one of his more controversial, initiatives on the road to what he calls 21st-century socialism.

    The councils are small citizen-run groups that theoretically will eventually take the place of mayors, governors, and other municipal and regional representatives and promote grass-roots democracy. Their money comes from various government institutions that fund their small projects; their power is supposed to come from their local roots.

    ”All power to the community councils,” Chávez said recently. “Power to the people.”

    Not all local officials like that idea, and critics say the Chávez government is trying to use the councils to gain even more power in a country of 27 million people where he already controls the courts, congress, and the military.

    Similar councils are being launched by Chávez leftist ally in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. Saying they are nothing but a Sandinista Party power-grab, several opposition parties have announced plans to strike down the law that created them.

    “Grassroots democracy”? How did the governors, mayors and other municipal representatives get into their offices? They were elected by the people they serve. Who are these new “Community Councils” beholden to? Chavez. Chavez appointed them and Chavez can fire them. So what’s “grassroots democracy” about the community councils?

    As I predicted months ago, Reuters is now reporting that Venezuelans are seeking exile in the US from Chavez in record numbers (h/t Steve Shickles);

    “I have no doubt that the middle class and those with some stake in the old Venezuela have legitimate concerns regarding their future livelihood and in some cases safety as the regime hardens and the state moves into every sphere of economic and social activity,” said Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University.

    “If you have young children, you want out. If you have assets that have been seized, or may be seized, you want out as quickly as possible,” Roett added. “If you have land that will be expropriated, leave sooner than later. As the alta (upper) bourgeoisie becomes more and more of a target, you want to leave before Hugo Chavez shuts the door.”

    The number of U.S. asylum grants put Venezuela in 11th place, well behind nations such as its neighbor, Colombia, and deeply impoverished Haiti. But more Venezuelans were granted asylum last year than were natives of trouble spots like Iraq, a country reeling from nightmarish levels of violence.

    All the while, the rest of the world turns a blind eye. I guess it’s just easier to complain about George Bush than it is to try and stop the dismantling of Latin American Republics and headoff the impending enslavement of the Venezuelan people.