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

Category: Politics

  • Venezuela’s students don’t let up pressure (Updated)

    (Photo from Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra)

    Even though the media has pretty much ignored events in Venezuela this week, Venezuela Llora and Venezueal News and Views reports that protests continued yesterday. From Venezuela Llora;

    Professors, workers and the students of the UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela) had called upon a march on Tuesday, the students from all the other houses of study answered. However the goverment refused to allow them to march that day, so the date was switched to Wednesday. Once again the goverment tried to not allow the march to happen, however this time the students decided that theyre were going to march.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views writes that the Venezuelan police tried to stop bus loads of students from entering Caracas;

    …now that we are under a not that veiled military regime, some stupid Captain, thinking he had more power than he really did took upon himself to stop buses coming up to Caracas full of students wanting to join the march. So, this lout thought he would scare students but these just decided that if they could not go up to Caracas no one else could. Soon, as the ARC was falling into a deadly lock everyone was allowed to Caracas. I wonder what that Captain learned today: democracy or shooting first? And that sad scene repeated at many exits of the ARC. Funny detail: Iris Varela claims that the students were sabotaging, “esos niñitos” she said, while Globovision showed the Nazional Guard trucks blocking highway access! Then again Varela has been living in a parallel universe for quite a while.

    This photo is from Venezuela News and Views. The sign reads “Please excuse the inconvenience, we’re working for your liberty”

    The Devil’s Excrement has videos and narratives of yesterday’s events. 

    Mary Anastacia O’Grady explained in an article entitled “The Young and the Restless” from Monday’s Wall Street Journal why it’s so significant that students are protesting;

    Until now, students have not played a role in anti-Chávez activism. Eight years of property confiscations, the jailing of government adversaries and the manipulation of voter rolls and elections prompted almost no student response at all. But the attack on free speech hit a nerve and sent them to the streets. This has captured the attention of the nation because student resistance movements have an important history in Venezuela. In recent days many have been recalling that it was an uprising from the universities that precipitated the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiminez in 1958.

    Still, it is not clear that this is a grassroots movement that will run Mr. Chávez out of town. It is true that the students who are out in the streets attend the large state-run schools and therefore probably do not come from Venezuela’s elite families. But they are not from the nation’s most destitute families either, where Mr. Chávez finds his strongest support. It is safe to say that they mostly represent the country’s middle and lower-middle income sectors. Yet it is notable that the protests have spread beyond wealthy Caracas to include public universities in poorer parts of the country where student bodies tend to be even more humble.

    What is also new, and even more interesting, about this resistance movement is its focus on “freedom” and calls to end “the dictatorship.” Mr. Chávez’s beloved Revolution may have once claimed the moral high ground by asserting that its enemies plotted a nondemocratic coup on April 11, 2002. But now the president and his chavistas seem to be the ones on the defensive, with polls showing more than 70% of Venezuelans opposed to the closing of RCTV. This suggests that the dissatisfaction does indeed cut across economic classes.

    Please read these articles in their entirety, the writings of people on the scene and the very knowledgable Ms. O’Grady (who has been warning us for years about Chavez in the pages of the Wall Street Journal) are all we’re going to get on this important story, apparently. I’m disappointed that the Administration isn’t doing more to stop this two-bit thug – just like I’m disappointed that Congress won’t lift a finger to condemn Chavez.

    Associated Press (by way of Fox News) writes that Chavez is calling for a Latin American socialist defense bloc;

    President Hugo Chavez called for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, while the leftist Latin American bloc announced the creation of a development bank to finance joint projects.

    Chavez said Wednesday that the four-nation Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, which began as a socialist-leaning trade group, should cooperate militarily to become more independent of U.S. influence.

    “It seems to be the moment to establish a joint defense strategy,” Chavez said. He called for joint military aid as well as intelligence and counterintelligence cooperation “to prepare our people for defense so that nobody makes any mistake with us.”

    I guess that way Chavez doesn’t have to worry about using Venezuelan troops to put down the protests in his own country, he can use the police and armed forces of other countries against his own people in the model of Robert Mugabe.

    Chavez also called the failed US call for an investigation of the Venezuelan government’s closing of RCTV “a great defeat for the empire” according to AP; 

    President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that the United States suffered a humiliating defeat in its move to condemn Venezuela internationally for forcing an opposition-aligned TV station off the airwaves.

    Chavez began a news conference by playing a video of heated debate between his foreign minister and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at an Organization of American States meeting in Panama on Tuesday. The OAS declined to adopt a U.S. request to investigate his government’s removal of Radio Caracas Television from the air.

    “A great defeat for the empire,” said Chavez, who said OAS member countries had refused “to play (Washington’s) game” and instead backed his government.

    “It was the greatest defeat _ a moral defeat, a political defeat,” said Chavez, who maintains the government made a proper legal decision not to renew the channel’s license.

    Since the OAS can’t summon the testicular fortitude to stand up to this pompous shrimp, it is a defeat for all of the people of Latin America – their weak-kneed tacit approval of the silencing of Chavez’ opposition can only embolden Ortega, Correra and Morales to crush dissent in their own countries. Ultimately, it’s liberty that has been defeated.

    And at least some Cubans in the United States see the parallels between their plight and that of Venezuelans.

    Speaking of Cubans, I found this on Babalu Blog;

    Cuban workers are also the only ones working at that mysterious “city” that is being built near Carayaca. Those Cuban workers should be the concern of the local criollo unions.

    With the complicity of the Chavez Government they are being subjected to a truly savage exploitation, of the pre-capitalist savage style, a feudal savage style, which would make you laugh at the neoliberal type. They do not contract the workers; the Cuban state does it from them.

    They receive as payment less than the Venezuelan minimum salary and the Cuban Government charges for each worker US$ 600, of which the worker and his family in Cuba, see nothing but US$ 20, in pesos.

    I guess that’s what Venezuelans have to look forward to from the Chavez government. How long before Chavez starts exporting his opponents to work in Cuba to prop up that collapsing regime?  

    UPDATE: Daniel at Venezuela News and Views recounts today’s events at the National Assembly – the studaents had to be transported out by armored car for their own protection from the chavezistas – reminicient of Noriega’s Dignity Battalions.

  • How can ethical Democrats be split on Dollar Bill?

    In the Politico this morning, Josephine Hearn writes that Democrats are split on whether they should even investigate Willam Jefferson, the Congressional Democrat from Louisiana who was discovered to have 90 large in his freezer after being filmed taking a 100 grand for a bribe. This is after the two other people on the same film have already pleaded guilty and have been residing in the local hoosegow for more than a year.

    Ms. Hearn writes that;

    The simmering divisions were evident in the results of a vote Tuesday night, calling on the House ethics committee to investigate Jefferson and report back on whether he should be expelled from the House. Eighteen caucus members supported it, 13 opposed and three voted present. The resolution passed overwhelmingly, 373-26.

    Everyone was writing about Jefferson a few days ago which is why I resisted. Given my limited time to spend on this blog, I figure that I should concentrate on things other people might miss, but, Holy Moley…26 people in Congress – all Democrats – didn’t think there should even be an investigation? 16 people in the House Ethics Committee either voted against the measure or weaseled out with a “present” vote.

    Even a Republican-controlled Ethics Committee voted to investigate Tom Delay, f’Pete’s sake – with no real evidence that Delay even broke the law. But nearly half of the committee voted to not investigate a man caught on video accepting a bribe? Who can believe their lyin’ eyes?

    But, this is how Democrats “drain the swamps” I guess. So what possible reason could anyone have for not voting for the investigation?

    House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), one of Jefferson’s strongest congressional supporters, voted against the resolution. Asked about it Wednesday, he seemed to allude to the civil rights concerns.

    “I came out of the sit-ins, where you were guilty until proven innocent,” he said. “Let’s let justice run its course.”

    So because of what happened in this country more than 40 years ago, the race-baiters use it an excuse to tolerate corruption. Again, who can believe their lyin’ eyes? But Hearn writes that the Congressional Black Caucus doesn’t agree on what course to take;

    “This caucus has spent a lot of time talking about the culture of corruption and holding members of Congress to a higher standard,” said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who supported the resolution. “You have to act on your rhetoric. There’s a separate question (from the Justice Department investigation) of whether he misused his office.”

    Oh, no kidding? The Democrats understand that actions speak louder than words? Since when?

    Speaking of ethics, the Washington Post front page was covered in daily non-stop Delay coverage during that dust-up that led no where, so where are the stories in the Washington Post about Jefferson’s 16 charges and the 1/2 million bucks in bribes? Today’s WaPo has one tiny little story in Paul Kane’s story about how this is a splendid opportunity for some other no-name Democrat to get a slot on the Homeland Security Committee. Huh?

    Everytime the Washington Post goes after this administration or the Congressional Republicans, it’s front pages for weeks. Now the biggest Congressional bribery case in the history of Washington, and the Post can’t be bothered with the story. Instead we get Immigrant Measure Survives Challenges and They Know How to Caucus instead of a front page layout on how the most ethical Congress is about as ethical as a pirate.

    But if you use the search feature on the Washington Post and search on “Libby” you find 25 DIFFERENT articles and opinion pieces in the last two days in the Post.

  • Republican candidates debate an absent Bush

    I have to admit, I haven’t seen any of the debates on either side yet. I know, I’m shirking my civic responsibility, blah, blah, blah…but this election season started last November and I want to stay at 100% through the whole thing. So I figure that if I work at about 50% now, everyone’ll think I’m still at 100% come next November – smart, huh?

    Besides, the Alma Awards were on last night, and given a choice between watching ten guys in dark suits standing at podiums trying to tell me they’re smarter than me or a half-naked Eva Langoria dancing to salsa music…well, you know how that one is going to end.

    But thanks to Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, I can catch up on the hot doings I missed. The one line that hit me right out of the gate was from anti-gun, pro-abortion, wife-cheating Rudi Giuliani;

    Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas all said Mr. Bush’s biggest mistake in recent years was overspending and growing government.
    “Republicans became Democrats,” Mr. Giuliani said.

    I know Giuliani is trying to convince us that he’s conservative, but we all know better. Yes, Giuliani showed great leadership when he ran New York. I admire the way he cleaned up that city and cut welfare spending and cracked down on jay-walkers and littering inspite of the huge wave of criticism he endured, however, a Republican from New York is still a liberal.

    But I guess Republicans attacking the Bush Administration no more weird than the Democrat candidates all trying to prove that each is holier than the next candidate. I wonder which Democrat candidate Jesus would vote for?

    It’s bad enough that Democrats are all running against President Bush (apparently they haven’t noticed that he’s not running next year-but that didn’t stop them from running against him in the last midterm election, so…), but now the Republicans, smelling blood in the water, are circling him, too.

    That’s not going to earn them any points from the base. President Bush is much more popular among Republican voters than the polls give him credit, and if the Republicans are going to act like they’re running for a seat on the editorial board of the New York Times or the Washington Post, Fred Thompson will murder them all without even declaring.

    Curt at Flopping Aces provides a video of Thompson on Hannity’s show last night and he delivers the best line of the evening; “it’s a badge of honor being attacked by some of these bozo’s.”

    How is Fred Thompson NOT going to get the nomination with performances like that?

    By the way, if you haven’t read it anywhere else yet, Fred is taking contributions at I’m with Fred.

  • Mud Season in Vermont

    I lived in Vermont almost 20 years ago – in the good old days when there was a Republican governor (who always rebated tax money because the government hardly spent any revenue), a Republican Senator and the only Congressman was a Republican. It was said there were more cows in Vermont than Vermonters, and that might have been true. When I went to get my driver license in the town where I lived, they told me that if I wanted my photo on my license, I’d have to go to the State capitol in Montpelier because Vermont DMV only had one camera.

    State legislators only made about $6000/year because they were only a part-time legislature. Most had other jobs in their home districts that they needed while they nearly voluntarily served as legislators.

    Burlington, the most populous city in Vermont was run by a whacky Socialist named Bernie Sanders that no one paid much attention. The local joke was “The nicest thing about Burlington is that it’s so close to Vermont” meaning that Burlington couldn’t really be called a Vermont city because it was populated by college students (in one of the five colleges in the Burlington area) and flatlanders from New York (like Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean).

    Well, the joke is on Vermont now. The one Republican Senator they had twenty years ago, Jim Jeffords became a turncoat, Bernie Sanders is now their Senator, they haven’t had a Republican governor (or a tax rebate) since 1990. Flatlanders are running the state.

    There was a tiny faction of people in Vermont who used to, once every year, make the papers by pushing Vermont secession. Everyone chuckled, and agreed “Yeah, we should”. But now, ABC reported the other day;

    In 2005, about 300 people turned out for a secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before.

    “The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable it’s too big, it’s too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

    “We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war,” Williams said. “If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what’s left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire.”

    Doesn’t sound like a bunch of dairy farmers to me – sounds like flatlanders hijacking an entire state. Newbusters’ Ken Shepard did a longer more complete piece on the Vermont Secession movement on Monday, if you’re interested in a hearty laugh.

    James Taranto did a bit on Vermont secession yesterday – I usually don’t pilfer Taranto’s stuff, but it’s so good;

    Some people “want Vermont to secede from the United States,” the Associated Press reports from Montpelier:

    Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre of writers and academics is plotting political strategy and planting the seeds of separatism.

    They’ve published a “Green Mountain Manifesto” subtitled “Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union.” They hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting Day next March.

    Among those urging secession, as blogger Charles Johnson points out, is one Thomas Naylor, who in March issued a list of 20 tenets titled “Radical Nonviolence and the Power of Powerlessness.”

    Anyway, we think Vermont secession is a good idea, if for no other reason than that it’d be a nice morale boost for the U.S., which is weary of the long struggle in Iraq. Vermont has only a few thousand people, and most of them are hippies. It should be easier to pacify than Grenada.

    After all, as Naylor’s second tenet has it, “Violence begets more violence, not the other way around.”

    I also tripped over this article from the Burlington Free Press that the State is looking to end “racial profiling” – regardless of the fact that there are hardly any other races but white people there;

    Close to 50 people crowded into a small conference room at Burlington College on Wednesday evening to begin a dialogue on racial profiling in Burlington.The meeting was called by Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan, who described racial issues in Burlington and Vermont — one of the country’s two whitest state — as “complex, emotional and sensitive. I don’t have all the answers,” he said. “I have to listen and learn.”The exchanges Wednesday, though sometimes angry, resembled a conversation more than a typical public meeting, and a central frustration emerged early and often: Few data exist in the city or state about how often blacks are stopped by the police, let alone whether those stops are justified. 

     

    Well I checked on the racial make up of Vermont;

    Whites; 96.9%

    Blacks 0.6%

    That’s out of a population of 623,000 (that’s about a 20% increase over the population when I lived there) – that means there are 3743 blacks (about the same as when I lived there, give or take a coupla hundred) in the entire state. How big of a problem can racial profiling be?

    And alot of people think that Vermonters are racist just because there are so few minorities in Vermont – that’s not the case at all. When I was teaching at UVM, there was a national search for Black professors to teach there. They were paying huge signing bonuses and big benefit packages to attract them – but nary a bite.

    Vermont is cold in the winter – one December morning I got up to drive to work and it was minus-30 degrees. And from November thru March, there was only one thing to do in Vermont – ski. Or go to hockey games. Not to be racist or anything, but there are probably very few Blacks who ski or enjoy hockey, or have any tolerance for cold weather.

    The first thing our new Black clerk from rural Virginia asked after his first weekend in Vermont was “Where are the jazz stations on the radio dial? I can’t find any”. Cuz jazz wasn’t very popular in Vermont – that may have changed like everything else, but I doubt it.

    The point is; Vermont is not a racist community, but the climate and culture just aren’t what most Blacks are looking for.

    The real problem is that Vermont now has a full-time legislature and legislators make about $30,000/year these days. Now they’ve got plenty of time to sit around and make stupid rules and support stupid secession movements.

  • What the Hell is a bipartisan strategy for war?

    Just doing my daily perusal of the local newspapers, I ran across this beautiful headline in the Washington Examiner (in another Anne Flaherty AP story);

    GOP: Bush Should Adopt Bipartisan Plan

    Actually, Flaherty or her editor got the line from a Lamar Alexander quote;

    “The president needs bipartisan support if the United States is to sustain a long-term position in Iraq,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

    Yep, he does. He needs to find both Democrats and Republicans that support our strategy in Iraq. But, of course that’s not what Alexander (or the AP) is talking about.

    The message that must be sent to the president is, “Let’s see if we can agree on an entire approach so you can have the kind of support you need,” he said.

    Alexander and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., introduced legislation that would make most of the [Iraq Study Group’s] 79 recommendations official U.S. policy. At least six other senators, including three Republicans, signed on as co-sponsors.

    So the same people that gave us airbag legislation that was rushed into a mandatory-use law which started killing small children want to legislate a strategy for war.  The same people who mandated low-flow toilets, the people responsible for the administration of Washington, DC. The people who thought that midnight basketball would solve our inner-city ills.

    Never in our history have we had a legislative body who thought they were tacticians – and with good reason. You can’t fight a war by committee. Our strategy in Viet Nam was developed by political committee – see how well that one turned out?

    There’s a story in Tzun Tzu that I call the concubine story and I’ll try to relate it here in my own humble words;

    Tzun Tzu offered his services to a local warlord to train the warlord’s army to battle another warlord. The warlord told him, “OK, but to show me know what you’re doing first train my stable of concubines to be soldiers. If you can make warriors of them, you can make warriors of anyone – and you’ll get the job.”

    Tzun Tzu agreed and immediately went to work. With the warlord watching, Tzun Tzu started training the concubines in front of the palace. Well, the warlord’s favorite concubine wasn’t too interested in the training and was a smart-ass and only half-assed went through the drills, knowing that the warlord would protect her from tzun Tzu’s wrath.

    Well, after a couple of hours of putting up with this particular concubine’s antics, Tzun Tzu walked up to her in the middle of the formation and chopped her head off. Well, the warlord went supersonic and angrily confronted his new employee about killing his favorite concubine.

    Tzun Tzu replied that the warlord had told him to train the concubines, it was not the warlord’s place to comment or tell Tzun Tzu how to train or or how to deploy the concubines in war. The lesson was that politicians provide the military with the assets to train and fight the army, that it wasn’t politicians’ place to tell the army how to train or how to fight. The same lesson is repeated throughout history, it’s repeated in Clauswitz’ “On War”, the comparison of Viet Nam and Desert Storm was supposed to drive the point home – but apparently the lessons of history are lost on some politicians.

    Alexander and those other three Republicans need to wake up to the realization that no matter how the President handles this war, the Democrats are going to complain and criticize. Why Alexander thinks he can get bipartisan support for anything this administration does is beyond reason – has he been asleep since Novemeber 2000?

    He is right that the President needs the Democrats’ support, but it’s up to the Democrats to cross the aisle and accept the current strategy, then sit down, shut up and let our military finish wiping the floor with al Qaida, et al.

  • “Learning and Labor”

    Oberlin Ohio is located about 35 miles south of Cleveland and its college namesake has all the ambiance of Berkeley. Yeah, like the one in California.  In that vein, the Class of 2007 wore “non traditional” attire, as demonstrated by one young lady dressed like a sixties flower child. 

    Commencement Speaker Connie Shultz, journalist and wife of Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, made the gratuitous Democratic gesture of a “moment of silence” for veterans, then proceeded to get down to the business of injecting anti-war politics into her speech.  Said she to the graduates: “You’re entering a world which we’ve royally screwed up for you, and I’m sorry for that.  But because I know you are better than you think you are, I am filled with hope.”  She did the perfunctory PR about the plight of the middle and working class while decrying U.S. policy in the war against Islamic terrorism.

    Ok, first of all, who’s “we” and why the pessimistic reference about the world?  This planet has never been a hospitable place 100% percent of the time.  If she wants to take the blame for a “screwed up world”, be my guest. But I can tell her this: the reason she and her fellow anti-war mates are able to stand before a graduating class of like-minded leftist ditto heads, is because the veterans she so briefly honored stand between freedom and tyrants who want to take it away and replace it with something not conducive to their way of life.

    If Ms. Schultz thinks that this new generation is “better than they think they are”, let’s see what they do for their families, their communities and their country before we get our hopes up.  Every successive group of graduates has a sense of enthusiasm and hope tempered by a bit of trepidation. From what I’ve seen on my almost 50 years on this earth, we Americans have it pretty good.  Our standard of living is among the world’s best and even the poorest among us has a tax-payer working-class funded government dole.

    And speaking of “royally screwed”, this particular crop of Congressional and Senatorial Democrats are some of the most mentally and emotionally unstable politicians, ever. Once known as the ‘loyal opposition’, they have morphed into a gang of disloyal collaborators. Their distain for George W. Bush and the war against Islamic despots overrides any possibility of a unified, bi-partisan effort for the defense of the United States. 

    Domestically, they are elitist poufs who manipulate the unionized working class, the poor, and minorities into believing that in spite of the stark contrast between their lifestyles and their constituents, they really care. (wink,wink)

    Now that the Democrats run amok, we shall see how the “cut and run” strategy, sympathy for terrorists, and lax attitude toward illegals and national security pans out.

    As long as there are American citizens and Soldiers guarding this country from despicable enemies, Schultz should keep her mea culpas to herself. 

  • WaPo’s Cohen: Thompson is no Reagan

    I have nothing good to write for almost all of Washington Post’s columnists, well except maybe Novak and Krauthammer, but this clown Richard Cohen really writes some stupid crap sometimes. Take today’s column for instance; Can He Find His Motivation?

    Cohen, who also wrote “Wasted Lives“, in which he said our troops were dying for nothing in Iraq and I criticized back in March, claims in this piece that Thompson shouldn’t be allowed to be President for this reason;

    If Thompson’s name came up in some sort of free-association game, he would be a genuine stumper: Thompson and what? There is no Thompson Act, Thompson Compromise, Thompson Hearing, Thompson Speech or Thompson Anything that comes to mind. No living man can call himself a Thompsonite. Instead, Thompson came and went from the Senate as if he were never there, leaving only the faint scent of ennui. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life up here,” he once said. “I don’t like spending 14- and 16-hour days voting on ‘sense of the Senate’ resolutions on irrelevant matters.” As a call to action, this lacks a certain something.

    So because a man doesn’t want to be a career politician, he shouldn’t be allowed to be president, apparently. Cohen loves Obama, the man who has just two years in the Senate and doesn’t have any bills or compromises named for him, either. In fact, the only reason Cohen likes Obama, according to his column back on March 6th;

    …it’s that he had something very important to say to black America. It has to do, I think, with the extraordinary promise of his candidacy.

    Extraordinary promise. Thompson doesn’t have extraordinary promise, apparently. Only people who’ve been in the Senate two years have extraordinary promise.

    Cohen continues on about Thompson;

    Yet he indisputably lacks the passion, the concern, the fire-in-the-bellydom that Reagan had — not just for winning but about issues themselves. Thompson never showed that he was out to change matters, to right some major wrong, to fix the god-awful mess the country is in. I contrast him with a senator I recently chatted with who took virtually childlike delight in being a senator — being able, as he said, to be a player. He savored his power — as one of only 100. What a difference he could make!

    The presidency is where a person can make the most difference. But the emergence of Thompson shows that a fatigued Republican Party is not interested in making any difference at all — just in hanging on. What commends Thompson to the presidency — the only thing anyone ever mentions — is his TV fame. If that’s all it takes, Thompson can look forward to being more than a president. He’ll be an American Idol.

    I know this is a foreign concept to Democrats and Liberals who are looking for the “drama” of politics – Democrats who are always “fighting for” me, the little guy, the working man. Democrats who promise that they’ll “do the People’s work”. But maybe America is tired of all of those empty promises the Democrats are selling.

    George W. Bush was elected because he was a leader, in the military, in business all before we went into politics – and given any situation, his reaction is fairly predictable because he has told us what he believes – and he does what he says he’ll do. That’s why Conservatives get mad everytime the president starts talking about something they oppose – they know he’ll do what he says he’ll do.

    That’s what America needs – a leader – not some ridiculous figurehead who we can lift up as the First Black President or the First Woman President or the First Peace President. Yeah, I know how important empty symbols are to the Democrats – empty symbols of empty promises. But to the majority of Americans, we’re tired of the drama – we want a president who can lead the country effectively, not a symbol of our diversity or whatever idiotic platitude we’re regurgitating this election season.

    That’s all Ronald Reagan did – he led the country effectively. The only time the actor in him came out was when he had to deal with partisan idiots like Cohen.

    Another point in Thompson’s “plus column” is that he’ll probably never cheat on his wife;

  • Washington Post: Americans dissatisfied with country’s direction

    Today’s Washington Post analyzes it’s latest poll on Americans’ perception of the direction of the country. Of course, by direction of the country, the Washington Post means what Joe Sixpack thinks our strategy in Iraq should be;

    Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush’s temporary troop buildup in Iraq has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

    Almost six in 10 Americans said they do not think the additional troops sent to Iraq since the beginning of the year will help restore civil order in that country, and 53 percent — a new high in Post-ABC News polls — said they do not believe the Iraq war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States.

    Of course, this decision is asked from the public an entire weekend after US forces arrived in theater to complete the “surge” as reported in the World Tribune Friday;

    The U.S. military has completed its troop surge for the new counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq.

    Officials said the fifth and final brigade of the troop surge has arrived in Baghdad. They said the brigade would be fully operational by mid-July for the counter-insurgency mission in the Iraqi capital.

    “We are starting to see a shift in momentum that comes with having additional forces on the ground,” Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy operations director at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said according to Middle East Newsline.

    So, since all of the troops have arrived in Baghdad, the Post expects an immediate improvement in operations in Baghdad that would be reflected in an opinion poll from a public that has listened to the media call iraq a quagmire since the first sandstorm on the second day of operations there. I wonder if the Post thought aboout running a story like this one from the Boston Globe;

    US troops battled Al Qaeda in west Baghdad yesterday after Sunni residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.

    Backed by helicopter gunships, American forces joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district.

    The fight reflects a trend that US and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the headquarters of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in the province have banded together to fight Al Qaeda, asserting the terrorist group is more dangerous than American forces.

    Lieutenant Colonel Dale C. Kuehl, commander of First Battalion, Fifth Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the US military’s role in the fighting. He said the battles raged Wednesday and yesterday but died off at night.

    Although Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shi’ite-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.

    Maybe if the Post took a moment and wrote about the real results of the surge, they wouldn’t have to bother reporting on lowered morale in the country. If they’d join the fight against Islamofacists instead of enabling and enboldening them, we wouldn’t need their stupid polls and their stupid advice what to do after the surge.