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

Category: Politics

  • Petraeus report dismissed as “Bush Report”

    When I made the public comment days after 9-11 that Democrats would end their charade of supporting this country and it’s national security in short order, I was criticized and chastised. But that’s why I made the comment, I suppose.

    Since then, we’ve had recorded incidences of wounded soldiers being spat upon, we’ve had Little Dick Durbin calling them SS Nazi camp guards, John Murtha calling them murderers, John Kerry telling us that the troops aren’t very smart, John Edwards calling the war against terrorism a bumper sticker phrase, Harry Reid told us the surge had failed before it even started…well, I could go on, but you get the idea.

    Today, the Washington Times’ S.A. Miller writes that they’ve already dismissed the upcoming Petraeus Report;

    Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can’t be trusted.

    “The Bush report?” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq.

    “We know what is going to be in it. It’s clear. I think the president’s trip over to Iraq makes it very obvious,” the Illinois Democrat said. “I expect the Bush report to say, ‘The surge is working. Let’s have more of the same.’ ”

    The top Democrats — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — also referred to the general’s briefing as the “Bush report.”

    Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Gen. Petraeus’ report was potentially compromised by the White House’s involvement in drafting it.

    Imagine that – the Executive Branch actually cooperated among the various agencies to produce a report to the Legislative Branch. Van Hollen, you’re an idiot. That’s what the Executive Branch should be doing. Where did you take civics? In space?

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express sums the current variation of BDS very well;

    These moveon morons can’t see anything because they are just totally consumed with hatred for President Bush and anything Republican. They are still smarting from President Bush’s trip to Iraq this week and the overwhelming support for the CIC demonstrated by the troops.

    Rather than embrace the report from the General that is up to his armpits in the situation in Iraq, the Dems would rather pick their own little reports to refer to. No surprise here – the reports they are banking on are less than optimistic. But why would we expect anything else from the Defeatocrats?

    Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive targets my favorite imbecile, Little Chuckie “the Putz” Schumer who says that the surge is working despite our troops;

    Wow Senator, really. So the Sunni tribes that before had either helped Al Qaeda, tolerated them, or were intimidated into submission by them, decided to fight them on their own. And somehow they chose to show this by allying themselves directly with us and conducting operations with US troops. Hmm go figure, but noted military expert Chuck Schumer wouldn’t just be running his mouth would he? Just standing on the Senate floor flappin’ his gums about things  he is woefully ignorant about, this is the US Senate for cripes sakes.

    And yet there he is, lying in that disgusting tone those collegial jagoffs use.

    Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters disputes “The Putz”;

    The Iraqis aren’t fooled. They named the police station after the man who masterminded the liberation of Ramadi from al-Qaeda. They named it after US Army Captain Travis Patriquin.

    Peejz at Right Voices points out that they haven’t read the darn thing yet, so who are they to judge?

    What is it that they do believe? Well, the GAO report, of course, and why is that? The Democratic Congress ensured that the report would deliver negative “grades” for the Iraqi government by asking the GAO to evaluate whether or not the benchmarks have been met now–just two months after the major combat operations of the surge began.

    And me? Well, the surge working was inevitable – the reason Iraqis are stepping up is they were certain that if the Democrats won the Congress last November, they’d pull US troops out – just like the Democrats told us they would. Instead, Bush sent more US troops – the Iraqis realize that our support to them isn’t hinged on political rhetoric, but genuine commitment. The reason they didn’t step up before was that they were pretty certain that Americans would cut and run and leave them hanging – like we’ve left Vietnamese, Somalians, Haitians, Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians and Cubans hanging. And the iraqi Shi’ites in 1991. Why would Iraqis commit to hanging thier own asses out after we’ve become famous worldwide as cut-and-runners?

    George Bush proved to them that the US is there to win despite the political climate here. And they responded in kind. The Iraqis cowboy’d up.

    My buddy, Kate, likes to quote Jose Marti; Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist. We just needed to show the Iraqis that we are willing to point the way to liberty.

    And Gateway Pundit has all of the good news from Iraq in one neat, handy package. Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs posts pictures of US atrocities in response to Schumer.

    Curt at Flopping Aces, in “The New Democrat Offensive“, parses two articles from WaPo’s Karen Young on the subject “Iraq Army Unable to Take Over in a Year Report Says” and “Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq“. She might have a shred of credibility or at least the appearance of journalistic integrity if she’d ever written an article on the other side.

    Brings to mind Spiro Agnew’s comment about the “nattering nabobs of negativity” from our Viet Nam Era.

  • VA town shuts “day labor” center and KKK leaflets muddy debate

    The controversial “Day Labor” Center in Herndon, Virginia will be closed by the Town Council finally, according to the Washington Post’s Bill Turque;

    The Town of Herndon announced yesterday that it would close its 21-month-old day-laborer center next week instead of complying with a judge’s ruling that the site must be open to all residents, including those who might be illegal immigrants.

    The decision to close the site, which became a flash point in the national debate over immigration, was reached late Tuesday by Mayor Stephen J. DeBenedittis and the six-member Town Council after a 2 1/2 -hour closed-door session. It brings the western Fairfax community virtually full circle in its attempts to regulate — critics say drive out — its large population of Latino day laborers. The center was established in late 2005 as an alternative to the streets for laborers and prospective employers to come to terms.

    Judges are idiots. Period. This country was a much better place before judges started making idiot decisions based on emotion instead of law;

    At issue was an ordinance the council approved in 2005 as a legal companion to the day-laborer center, barring workers and motorists from striking deals for employment on the streets. The courts have generally required that communities barring public solicitation for work — a form of speech — must provide an alternative venue for that speech, such as a hiring site.

    As the town enforced the anti-solicitation ordinance, many residents grew resentful of the center. Reston Interfaith, a group of religious institutions operating under a grant from Fairfax County, did not require workers to document their immigration status. Opponents of the center said the town was essentially abetting illegal immigration.

    Of course, no rational discussion of immigration can’t exclude the completely irrational KKK;

    Dozens of Ku Klux Klan leaflets calling for a ban on “all non-white immigration” were distributed last weekend in Manassas, where a dispute over illegal immigration has raised tensions in recent weeks.

    The leaflets, dropped at night into mailboxes and on driveways along one street, urged “white Christian America” to stand up for its rights. Smatterings of racist literature are distributed in communities throughout the region every few weeks, but this incident struck a raw nerve in Manassas.
     
    Klan officials, who are based in Arkansas, said yesterday that Virginia residents had asked them for Klan literature to deliver in Manassas.

    It sounds like a set-up actually. I’m pretty sure that the pro-illegal-immigration-at-any-cost crowd planted these leaflets in oder to make the debate about racism than about rule of law. I’m fairly sure that no half-way rational person who truly wants to end illegal immigration into Northern Virginia would think that KKK literature would strengthen support there. If I had to pick out the organization most likely to use racist literature, I’d pick an organization with a racist name – like “Mexicans Without Borders” or “La Raza”. In fact it didn’t take long for them to start marginalizing the opposition;

    “Any time lawmakers pass initiatives that . . . single out a segment of the population and try to drive them out of the community, they are laying the foundation for increased bigotry and hatred,” Mexicans Without Borders said in a statement issued yesterday in response to the reports of Klan leafleting. They said a recent wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric had “opened the door to racist organizations.”

    The only racism here from the groups who support lawbreakers merely because they happen to have a certain skin color  – against people who want the law enforced who happen to have lower levels of melanin pigment.

  • So why Fred Thompson?

    Fred Thompson finally came out of the Presidential closet last night. I know this will piss off the Ron Paul freakazoids, but I’m going to have to vote for Thompson. Why? Well, who else is there?

    Giuliani, “America’s mayor”, was a fine prosecuting attorney, he cleaned up New York City and demonstrated a lot of leadership by ignoring the critics and doing what was right. He led NYC out of the dust cloud after the attack on the World Trade Center – great job. But he’s no President. What kind of goofball lives with his girlfriend while his wife is across town with his kid? During a Senate campaign? The same measure I applied to “Wide Stance” Craig, I apply to Rudy Giuliani – poor judgement, not a mark of a true leader. I wouldn’t trust Giuliani with the combination to the restroom. And I’m not a big issues guy, but anti-gun and pro-abortion just shows how poor Giuliani’s judgement really is.

    Then there’s that other northeast Liberal Republican, Mitt Romney. I just don’t trust northeast Republicans – I backed Pataki for governor in ’94. Clearly, he was a better choice than Cuomo, but his time in office accomplished almost nothing. New York is as bad now as it was under Cuomo. Romney spends too much time explaining himself – George W Bush and Ronald Reagan never explained themselves – you just knew what they stood for without waiting for an explanation. And honestly, he’s too nice a guy to deal Hillary what she needs to be dealt. He might make a good Vice President, but….

    John McCain would be a good candidate – probably the most electable out of all of them, except he has the baggage from the Keating S&L scandal – and that crack in South Carolina in the 2000 campaign about George Bush’s “tax cut for the rich”. I made my mind up for Bush then, and I still hold it against McCain.

    Brownback? He can’t make a splash. Hunter? Most of America hasn’t heard of him – mostly because they haven’t been paying attention. Ron Paul? America wouldn’t recognize him without his tinfoil hat. Hucka-what?

    My number one reason for backing Thompson, though, is that the media has spent more time on Thompson’s candidacy than on the others – trying to dig up dirt on him or his wife. I can’t turn the page of a newspaper or watch a news program without some mealy-mouthed, half-wit leftist journalist telling me what’s wrong with Thompson as a conservative candidate. I keep hearing from those media talking heads why I, a conservative voter, won’t support Thompson because of some obscure vote ten years ago.

    Honestly, I’d be a bit wary of a candidate that supported all of my issues – I’m a bit nutty.

    Thompson has the name recognition, the communication skills and the credentials to win the election. And I think he’s just enough of a leader to take this country where it needs to go in the next several years. Most importantly, just by being himself, or that Arthur character from Law and Order, at least, he’ll be able to beat a Clinton/Obama ticket.

  • ACLU; US Military hides attrocities in plain sight

    Yes, the AMERICAN Civil Libeties Union is busy bashing our troops again. I emphasized the AMERICAN part of their moniker because they’ve lost sight the fact that their stated purpose is to protect AMERICAN civil liberties, yet they want to interject themselves into Iraqi civil rights. From an Associated Press article;

    New documents released Tuesday regarding crimes committed by U.S. soldiers against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a troubling pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations and deadly actions.
     
    The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated examples of soldiers believing they were within the law when they killed local citizens.

    Wow! 22 incidents and 10,000 pages – that’s a lot. And the government is hiding this from us? Well, no.

    In the suffocation, soldiers covered the man’s head with a sleeping bag, then wrapped his neck with an electrical cord for a “stress position” they insisted was an approved technique.

    Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush following a January 2006 court-martial that received wide media attention due to possible CIA involvement in the interrogation.

    Oh, so he was convicted in a publicized court martial. That’s hardly being secretive.

    But even after his conviction, Welshofer insisted his actions were appropriate and standard, documents show.

    “The simple fact of the matter is interrogation is supposed to be stressful or you will get no information,” Welshofer wrote in a letter to the court asking for clemency. “To put it another way, an interrogation without stress is not an interrogation — it is a conversation.”

    Oh, I see it’s the government’s fault because this fellow didn’t know that the military frowned upon strangling people. I guess he’s the first person in history to deny culpability in his actions by appearing to not know the difference between right and wrong.

    Considered against recent cases, including soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division convicted of killing detainees in Samarra, Iraq, last year and the ongoing courts-martial of Marines accused of killing 24 civilians in Haditha, these new examples shed light on the frequency soldiers and Marines may disregard the rules of war.

    Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said the documents also show that theres an abundance of information being withheld from public scrutiny.

    Oh, so how do I know about the incidents in Samarra and Haditha if this is all being witheld from public scrutiny WHILE THE INVESTIGATIONS AND TRIALS ARE ALL ONGOING, you pinheaded dorks? Oh, and by the way, most of the Marines in the Haditha incident have been cleared of wrong doing – I guess you just failed to mention that for the sake of space, huh?

    “The government has gone out of its way to hide the human cost of this war,” Bargzie said. Releasing the documents now “paints at least a part of that picture so people at least know what’s going on,” she said.

    They’ve gone out of their way? Then why are they releasing the documents to you? Seems they didn’t can’t go far enough out of their way, does it? ACLU must be having a fund drive this month and they can’t find any US citizens being abused so they’re fishing for some Iraqis to represent.

  • DC Mayor Fenty on gun rights

    I’ve seen some stupid poltical remarks before, but today’s opinion piece in the Washington Post by DC’s new mayor, Adrian Fenty, is probably the most juvenile and faulty writings of any politician – ever. Aside from mistating constitutional precedence, he also mistates the purpose of the US Constitution;

    On a related note, the courts also repeatedly recognized that the Second Amendment is meant to constrain the federal government alone. Another longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Presser v. Illinois, establishes establishes that the Second Amendment simply does not apply to state regulation of gun possession and use. The District should have authority just like that of the states, if for no other reason than to avoid the absurd result that the nation’s capital alone would lack the ability to take the steps the local government believes are needed to keep its residents safe.

    On it’s face, it sounds almost reasonable – except that I wonder how Mayor Fenty would feel if the same principle were applied to the abortion issue. Since the Constitution only applies to restraining the Federal Government, how about we let the several States decide whether they want to ban abortions or not – without interference from Federal courts.

    Or, we could just let the States decide whether or not they want to enforce the 14th Amendment, or, Hell, they can just decide whether they want to fiddle with the First Amendment, for Pete’s sake.

    The handgun ban has saved countless lives, but this fundamental part of the District’s public safety laws will be no more if the Supreme Court does not review and overturn this year’s decision by the D.C. Circuit.

    I’d give a coupla bucks to see how the Hell Fenty can make such an irresponsible statement. Prove to me that the handgun ban has saved lives. There have been 126 homocides in the District this year as of August 31st  (there were four more over the weekend). And the DC cops, according their own statistics at the above link, after thirty years of a handgun ban, still took 1519 guns off the street THIS YEAR ALONE. Your ban isn’t working and only criminals have guns – law-abiding citizens are undefended. Even long-gun ownership is so restrictive that personal protection is impossible. Why do you think the city with the most restrictive handgun laws in the country has the highest murder rate? Stevie Wonder could see the answer from space - the handgun ban isn’t  disarming criminals.

    So, Mayor Fenty, it appears that you’re on the side of criminals in this. And for all of the wrong reasons.

  • Clinton, Clinton & Co.

    The Wall Street Journal’s Jackie Calmes writes that Hillary is easing her “husband” back into her campaign in “Two-for-One Deal” – as if we’ve completely forgotten that 90s brought us to the point where we are today;

    Hillary and Bill Clinton kicked off her fall campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, a rare joint effort calling to mind the uncharted waters of a White House with an ex-president in residence. Many voters in their audiences, even some nonsupporters, saw the potential precedent as a plus.

    The Clintons’ Labor Day weekend of stumping in New Hampshire and Iowa, the states with the first nominating contests in four months, was the third time they have publicly campaigned together this year. The campaign has focused on letting the New York senator make her case independently of her husband.

    Yes, she made her case independently of her husband – and her campaign, using the tactics of her husband’s 1996 campaign, began taking in money from shady characters, as documented quite thoroughly by Curt of Flopping Aces, Gateway Pundit and Michele Malkin.

    mRed at Invicible Armor tells us that, in true Clinton form, Bill says you could have knocked him over with a feather when he found out that yet another Chinese businessman handing the Clinton campaign cash was a crook. You’d think that it’d be the other way around, wouldn’t you? I’d be more surprised that legitimate Chinese businessmen were contributing to the Clinton campaign.

    Bill Gertz in today’s Washington Times recounts some of the events we have forgotten from a decade ago;

    The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigated what it called the Clinton campaign fundraising “scandal” in 1997 and issued a report showing that four persons were linked to large illicit contributions thought to have come from China’s government through Hong Kong.

    […]

    William C. Triplett II, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff member whose 1998 book “Year of the Rat” highlighted the 1996 funding scandal, said he suspects that the Chinese are involved in Mrs. Clinton’s presidential bid.

    “What we saw in 1996 was similar,” Mr. Triplett said. “Whenever the Clintons have money trouble, they turn to the Chinese and the Chinese don’t let them down. Perhaps it is only a coincidence that both 1996 and 2008 are Years of the Rat in the Chinese calendar.”

    The WSJ story quotes the most ominous statement from Hillary yet;

    “The day I’m elected,” she said, “I’m going to be asking distinguished Americans — including my husband — of both parties, to start traveling around the world, and not just talking to governments and leaders, but talking directly to people and telling them that America is back.”

    Yeah, that crooked, panty-waisted America that kept turning the other cheek towards al Qaeda, handed out money to bribe corrupt governements and apologies for things we’d never done  and sold off our defensive technology to China in exchange for illegal campaign cash will indeed be back.

  • The Party of “Choice”

    In 1993, the Hillary Clinton secret committee-created healthcare plan hit the street and was unveiled to Congress. It severely restricted everything related to healthcare – it mandated employer participation, it restricted which doctor a patient could see, how much doctors could charge for treatment, it even regulated who could be what type of doctor. Even longtime liberal, the late Pat Moynihan said “anyone who thinks [the Clinton health care plan] can work in the real world as presently written isn’t living in it.” No one had choices anymore.

    Well, the Democrats apparently haven’t learned anything. According to Associated Press, John Edwards even wants to take away your choice to schedule appointments;

    Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.
     
    “It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

    Sounds nice doesn’t it? Unfortunately, Edwards doesn’t explain what would happen if you don’t make your scheduled check ups. Having some experience with the government, when they mention “require”, there’s usually negative reinforcement involved. I wonder what Edwards “incentive” would be – probably forfeiture of your healthcare. Then we’d be right back where we started, huh?

    But the best part is the cost and how Edwards plans to pay for it;

    Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush’s tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year.

    According to the 2005 tax revenues, he’d have to raise revenue 25% from people making over $200k to get an extra $120 bil. Guess that won’t affect the rest of us will it?  And I guess it plays well to small-minded people who think that people who make over $200k should pay for all of our stuff we don’t want to pay for.

    And I don’t know where he gets the $120 billion number – that’s $400 per person. Unless, of course, universal health care isn’t going to be very universal.

  • Reid snatching defeat from victory

    The public’s perception of the war in Iraq slowly shifts closer to reality claims John Ward of the Washington Times;

    The White House believes it has made significant progress over the past month in swaying public and political opinion toward supporting a continued U.S. military effort in Iraq, one of President Bush’s closest advisers said in an interview.

    “The end of the August feels a lot better than the beginning of August when it comes to where we are relative to perceptions of our Iraq policy and what is working,” said Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president.

    Congress returns Tuesday from a monthlong recess that did not go according to plan for Democratic leaders and the antiwar movement, who were looking to September as a time to force Mr. Bush into changing course in Iraq.

    That moment may still come. But August brought numerous reports from regional specialists and even Democratic members of Congress that the president’s surge of 30,000 troops is producing positive results.

    Of course that’s terrible news for the Democrats. They think they won last November’s election on an anti-war platform, so an improved perception of the war bodes ill for the party that wants to abandon national security issues before the next election. The Washington Post reports that Harry “the war is lost” Reid is still trying to attract RINOs to his failures;

    Saying the coming weeks will be “one of the last opportunities” to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq.

    Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline.
     
    “I don’t think we have to think that our way is the only way,” Reid said of specific dates during an interview in his office here. “I’m not saying, ‘Republicans, do what we want to do.’ Just give me something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of what I want to do.”

    So now he’s willing to compromise with weak-kneed Republican defeatists in order to make himself look less ridiculous. Even though the administration may begin withdrawing troops before Spring without Congress passing any kind of legislation, according to rumors about the upcoming breifing to Congress by General Petreaus, Reid is trying to pull a “compromise” out of his ass to appear as if he still running things.

    And he has the audacity to disclaim partisanship;

    But looking forward, Reid said he will encourage new coalitions to develop, with a more bipartisan hue. “There is no reason that this be Democrat versus Republican,” he said.

    The whole thing has been Democrats versus Republicans since the airliner hit the ground in Pennsylvania. From that point, Democrats warned that their weakness on national defense shouldn’t be an issue in elections – even though it’s the most important issue that should be facing the federal government. 

    The Post outlines what Reid wants most;

    One measure Reid said he will seek to resurrect would tighten rules on the use of troops by requiring soldiers’ leave times to be at least as long as their most recent deployment. The proposal, offered by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), would not set withdrawal terms, but it could effectively limit U.S. force levels. A vote of 56 to 41 in favor of the measure on July 11 fell four votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster, but it had seven Republican supporters.

    That’s just plain stupid – and you’d think whiney-ass Jim Webb would know better, supposedly a combat veteran, but I wonder after reading this. To put restrictions on deployment schedules ties the military’s hands tightly – so tightly that they won’t have the flexibility to react to the situation on the ground. But, i think that’s the whole intent of Webb and Reid – to make it impossible to be at all effective on the ground, and to make it easier for the bad guys to kill our troops.

    And the Jon Ward article in the Times reports this all comes at a time when the war and the Americans’ perception of the war has improved markedly;

    Political reconciliation among Iraqi Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds remains problematic, but even there, all three factions reached a still-nebulous power-sharing agreement last weekend, which Mr. Gillespie cited as an improvement.

    “Even [the lack of political reconciliation] has changed since last week. We are seeing progress now,” Mr. Gillespie said. “I do think there is a general view that the surge is having its desired effect.”

    The latest poll by United Press International/Zogby Interactive showed that 54 percent think the war is not lost, with respondents splitting sharply along party lines on that question. 

    So Reid figures he has to hurry up and do something, anything, before we’re successful in Iraq.

    But if you think you’re mad about Reid, the KosKids are madder;

    [They’re] [n]ot Chamberlain Democrats. Chamberlain was arguably trying for peace.  Harry Reid knows the score and knows the consequences of his actions.  And he doesn’t care.

    The only way to turn this around is 10 million people on the streets, engaged in an organized occupation of every Congressional office in the country. 

    And even if that happened, I think Harry would continue to bend over and wait to get spanked by his Daddy.

    And; 

    The only one REALLY publicly insisting that funds be cut off is Dennis Kucinich in the House.  He has resolutions that he’s been begging people to pay attention to!  He’s been saying it all along.  We need to insist that this (these) resolution(s) come to the floor and get the attention they need to help thwart this very issue. 

    These are the people Reid is trying to please.