How Crazy Is Keith Olbermann?

Too crazy for Andrew Sullivan, that's how crazy.

This is what got under Sullivan's skin.

"Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda — worse for our society. It's as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was."

I don't think I agree with Sullivan on this one. I think Sullivan's choice ranks below Olbermann's accusation that the Bush Administration had Pat Tillman assassinated was even worse.

America's Most Corrupt Politicians

Reid, Pelosi, Obama and Huckabee are on the list. My only question is: Where is John Murtha?

Huckaboom Goes Pop!

Now that people are paying attention to Huckabee, they're learning that he's not the guy.

It could be that he's a foreign policy moron.
Or that he's accepted money from fetal stem cell researchers.
Or that he's started parroting Bush bashers.

Clinton Selling Clinton

Bill Clinton is trying to sell his wife to the voters by claiming that her experience as First Lady somehow prepared her to deal with unexpected threats.

Former president Bill Clinton yesterday delivered in stark terms a version of his wife's central campaign message: that her experience in Washington better prepares her to "deal with the unexpected."

Addressing more than 100 supporters at a VFW hall here Saturday, Clinton used the strongest language he has so far in the campaign to describe the threats facing the nation, making an oblique reference to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and saying that the "most important thing of all" in selecting a nominee is the question of who could best manage unforeseen catastrophes.

"You have to have a leader who is strong and commanding and convincing enough . . . to deal with the unexpected," he said. "There is a better than 50 percent chance that sometime in the first year or 18 months of the next presidency, something will happen that is not being discussed in this campaign. President Bush never talked about Osama bin Laden and didn't foresee Hurricane Katrina. And if you're not ready for that, then everything else you do can be undermined. You need a president that you trust to deal with something that we will not discuss in this campaign. . . . And I think, on this score, she's the best of all."

Good grief! We're talking about woman who can't even deal with unexpected questions!

More Bad News For Democrats

Although you might not hear about it on the evening news - good news for America and therefore, Republicans is typically ignored. That explains why news from Iraq is not reported much anymore.

Iraq's interior ministry spokesman said Saturday that 75 percent of al-Qaida in Iraq's terrorist network had been destroyed this year, but the top American commander in the country said the terror group remained his chief concern.

Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said the disruption of the terrorist network was due to improvements in the Iraqi security forces, which he said had made strides in weeding out commanders and officers with ties to militias or who were involved in criminal activities.

Mike Huckabee - Not Ready For Prime Time

Powerline has a roundup of Mike Huckabee's more egregious gaffes during this past week.

He doesn't know east from west in Pakistan, contrary to his claim, John Bolton is not his official adviser on foreign policy, and he thinks that he can make nice with Iran.

And this doesn't even include the disclosures that he's been accepting money from a pharmaceutical firm that does research using fetal stem cells and a gun control organization.

John Edwards' Hand Found In Cookie Jar Again

In the latest episode of "John Edward is a Hypocrite," we find that our hero is again holding others to a higher standard than he holds himself.

The difference is that this time, he's broken the law.

An email obtained by the Times, sent from the head of a Washington State local of Service Employees International Union, describes plans to contact the campaign to determine what level of support Edwards advisers would hope for. The email listed meetings including with Edwards campaign manager David Bonior and top SEIU officials.

Let's see now. If John Edwards earned millions working for a hedge fund because he wanted to learn more about poverty, then perhaps he's breaking campaign finance laws because he needs to learn more bird migrations.

Top Ten Reasons To Belong To Al Qaida

5. You consider television dangerous but routinely carry ammunition in your robe.

4. You've never been asked, "Does this burka make my ass look fat?"

3. You were amazed to discover cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

2. You've never uttered the phrase, "I love what you've done with your cave."

1. You wipe your butt with your bare left hand but consider bacon unclean.

John Murtha's Greasy Pork

Most recently, John Murtha has gained the sort of notoriety that politicians crave by smearing the troops. But he is finally gaining the notoriety he deserved all along, as one of Congress's most corrupt members and most prolific wasters of federal dollars.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence opened its doors in 1991 with a $5 million earmark from a powerful lawmaker. Operating in Johnstown, Pa., the privately run center has received at least $671 million worth of federal contracts and earmarks since then to research and develop pollution-abatement technology and other systems for the Defense Department.

The center's researchers have examined scores of software systems and other gear, including groundwater monitoring equipment, gun cleaners and ultrasonic devices, according to its managers. They said the center had delivered nearly 500 technology products and tools to protect the environment, improve safety and cut Pentagon costs.

But a months-long examination by The Washington Post, including a review of documents and interviews with Pentagon officials, found that little of the center's work has been widely used or deployed by the Defense Department.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence is administered by Concurrent Technologies, another tax squandering entity created by Murtha that enriches his friends and who in turn pour money into Murha's campaigns.

Murtha also helped start Concurrent Technologies, the tax-exempt charity that manages the center. Established in an old high school in 1988, Concurrent has grown into a contracting powerhouse. Its annual revenue is now nearly $250 million, most of it from an eclectic array of Defense Department contracts.

Investigations by The Post this year have shown that in the last four years Concurrent has received $226 million in congressionally directed funding, known as earmarks, from Murtha and other lawmakers, including those who represent districts where Concurrent has opened offices.

Unfortunately, the Post fails where most Democrat-leaning media fail, at the point of assigning blame. By the end of the article, the Post manages to find faulty with the military, and not John Murtha et al, who directed the military to give money to campaign contributors.

Hillary And Obama Can't Even Wait For The Blood To Dry

In some people's eyes, the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto was just another political opportunity.

While aides said Clinton was anxious not to appear to be politicizing Bhutto's death, they nonetheless saw it as a potential turning point in the race with Obama and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.).

"I have known Benazir Bhutto for more than 12 years; she's someone whom I was honored to visit as first lady when she was prime minister," Clinton said at a campaign event in a firehouse in western Iowa. "Certainly on a personal level, for those of us who knew her, who were impressed by her commitment, her dedication, her willingness to pick up the mantle of her father, who was also assassinated, it is a terrible, terrible tragedy," she said.

And how about Obama?

News of Benazir Bhutto's assassination came just hours before Sen. Barack Obama delivered what his campaign had billed as the "closing argument" in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, forcing his campaign to scramble to incorporate the Pakistani opposition leader into his message of change....

Three hours after news of Bhutto's slaying broke, Obama delivered a withering rebuke of Clinton's experience, depicting her lengthy political r¿sum¿ as a hindrance to solving big problems, including crises abroad. In an especially charged moment, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod would later tie the killing to the Iraq war -- and Clinton's vote to approve it, which he argued diverted U.S resources from fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, both al-Qaeda hotbeds.

"You can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it," Obama said. "You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."

And then there's this:

In comments to reporters after Barack Obama's first speech Thursday, his chief strategist David Axelrod seemed to link Hillary Clinton’s vote on Iraq and the death of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister.

"Barack Obama had the judgment to oppose the war in Iraq. And he warned at the time that it would divert us from Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, and now we see the effect of that,” said Axelrod. “Al Qaeda is resurgent. They’re a powerful force now in Pakistan….There’s a suspicion they may have been involved in this. I think his judgment was good. Sen. Clinton made a different judgment. Let’s have that discussion.”Axelrod was responding to reporters' questions whether Bhutto's assassination enhances claims that Clinton's foreign policy experience may make her more fit to serve as commander-in-chief.

But of course, he was responding to questions from reporters who think that everything is about partisan politics.

I would have appreciated it if one of these selfish, ambitious politicians had expressed some sorrow over what this meant for the Pakistani people and some understanding for the setback her loss is to world peace.

Israel's Evil Non-Rape Agenda

Unlike their enemies, the Israeli Defense Forces do not rape the women of their opponents.

And now, their sinister motives have been exposed.

A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.

The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."

The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."

The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.

And not only that, but Israelis are fearful of impregnating Palestinian women.

Nitzan's paper did, however, give much space to the explanation that the Israeli soldiers refrained from rape out of demographic considerations. She explained at length how fearful the Jewish population is of the growing Arab population, and how in cases of wartime rape, the baby is generally assumed to be of the mother's nationality.

Amnon Lord, Makor Rishon editor makes this ironic observation.

"It is noteworthy that Palestinian propaganda around the world frequently accuses Israelis of murder and rape. Such that this situation is unique: An army is found blameworthy of rape, and is also blameworthy of not raping."

But as academics are as irony proof as they are humorless, it's unlikely that any will understand.

Hang Pelosi and Reid Around Democrats' Necks

Democrats gained political traction in the '90's by caricaturizing Newt Gingrich (with the complicity of the mainstream media) and selling the idea that a vote for any Republican was vote for Gingrich.

The great thing about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid is that they require no caricturization and therefore, no assistance from the mainstream media, who would not offer their cooperation anyway.

Pelosi and Reid are exactly who they seem to be and no amount of filtering and media applied pig lipstick can obscure that. So, why not campaign against Reid and Pelosi in every contested Congressional race? Even Democrats recognize the necessity to distance themselves from their party's leadership.

Half a dozen freshman Democrats took to the House floor one late-October morning to cast their lot with Republicans.

Their actions went unpunished by the Democratic leadership that day, as they have on many other occasions in recent weeks. The symbolic gesture -- casting nay votes on approving the House Journal, essentially the minutes of the previous day -- would have no bearing on the leadership's agenda.

While they overwhelmingly support that agenda, the bloc of freshmen has begun casting votes against such minor procedural motions in an effort, Democratic sources and Republican critics say, to demonstrate their independence from their leadership. The number of votes that the potentially vulnerable newcomers to Capitol Hill cast against House leaders is tallied and watched closely by interest groups and political foes.

Such is the political life of many of the 42 freshman House Democrats, a sizable number of them moderates and conservatives who must straddle the fence between supporting their party's interests and distancing themselves from a mostly liberal leadership as they gear up for their first reelection battle next fall.

To confuse statistics that would show how often Democratic freshmen vote with Pelosi, they have begun to cast contrary votes on minor procedure issues as part of a strategy to create a phony record of independence.

In recent months, Democrats in battleground districts have been criticized by Republicans, who have tried to paint them as close to the new House leadership.

"While these Democrats might claim to be independent voices for their districts, the differences between them and Nancy Pelosi are purely aesthetic," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. This year, the GOP committee launched a Web site to track the percentage of votes that 28 of the freshmen cast with Pelosi, whom Republicans say will be a polarizing figure in conservative districts next fall.

That is why procedural votes are important to freshmen, according to Democratic aides. House Republicans this year turned to a procedure known as a "motion to recommit," offering what is typically a routine method of sending bills back to committee as politically charged amendments. With a wink and a nod from Emanuel and Hoyer, some endangered freshmen frequently vote with Republicans on tricky GOP motions to keep their votes from being used against them in 30-second campaign sound bites.

Christmas Thank You

Dear God, Thank you for sending me to Timmy's house, and not Michael Vick's.

Good News For Israel

Russia is selling anti-aircraft missile batteries to Iran.

Russian anti-aircraft missiles weren't much of an impediment to Israel when it needed to deel with Syria.

Journalstic Liars and Cowards

$s Costello<
The year just ending has not been what the Left had in mind. They're in charge, but ineffective. They're confronted with facts that contradict their prejudices. So what has the Left accomplished this year?

They've entertained. And so as we do every year in this little abscess on the backside of journalism, we recognize the silliest and most futile emanations from that ideology ironically misnamed as "liberalism."
I would like to award my first Kozmo to the New York Times. the Times has taken the political position that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror. This became increasingly complicated as the opposition in Iraq called itself Al Qaida and the US military intercepted communications between Al Qaida in Iraq (which it calls itself) and the Al Qaida leadership clearly implicated in the 9/11 attacks.
So, the New York Times adopted the Orwellian tactic of modifying the language to avoid linking the war in Iraq, which many oppose, with the war against Al Qaida which hardly anyone opposes. And so, on the pages of the New York Times and only in the Times, Iraq in Al Qaida became Al Qaida in Mesopotamia. As more and more evidence linking Osama bin Laden to Al Qaida in Iraq surfaced, the Times attempted to preserve its fading credibility by casting doubt on the military's honor and renamed Al Qaida in Mesopotamia as some derivation of "Al Qaida in Mesopotamia that the military claims is affiliated with Al Qaida."
You probably understand what that means, but the Times is hoping that its dwindling, misinformed, loyal readership won't figure it out. And so, we award the 2007 Walter Duranty Memorial Journalistic Disinformation Kozmo to the New York Times.
A few weeks ago, Times editor Bill Keller gave what qualifies as an acceptance speech when he declared that, "we do not work in the service of a party, or an industry, or even a country."
Often, the Times cannot work in service of its own version of the truth. Last year came the stunning scientific discovery that somatic cells could easily be transformed into the equivalent of fetal stem cells, overcoming the moral obstacle to research in this unpromising medical field, as no babies would have to be killed. The Times immediately grasped the peril in this and on its editorial page wrote: "The stunning announcement by Japanese and American research teams that they have obtained highly promising stem cells without having to destroy an embryo could help free scientists from shackles that have long hobbled their efforts. . . . Any claim that Mr. Bush's moral stance drove scientists to this discovery must be greeted with particular skepticism. The primary discoverer of the new techniques is a Japanese scientist who was not subject to the president's restrictions."
In that same edition, the Times front page told a somewhat different story: "When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters," said Dr. Yamanaka, 45, a father of two and now a professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University. "I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way."
Morality respects no borders.
And so, we award the Times our Fake But Accurate Kozmo.
MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell and Newsweek's Evan Thomas split the Truth In Journalism Kosmo. The news media continually pat themselves on the back for keeping America free by speaking truth to power. But Lawrence O'Donnell revealed why journalists prefer pens to swords.
After calling Mormon prophet Joseph Smith a, "madman who
was a criminal and a rapist," he was asked if he would similarly criticize the Muslim prophet Mohammed: "I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I'm afraid for my life if I do... They'll [Mormons] never take a shot at
me. Those other people, I'm not going to say a word about them."

Aren't you glad that your liberty does not depend upon men like Lawrence O'Donnell?
Evan Thomas takes home half a Kozmo for revealing an essential truth about journalism. Regarding the journalistic lynching of the Duke lacrosse team he said: "The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong."
So, from Bill Keller, Evan Thomas and Lawrence O'Donnell we learn that journalists are disloyal, agenda driven cowards.
$e

John Kerry Threatens The NFL

Now I'm certain that John Kerry is every bit the Patriot fan as he is a Red Sox fan.

But, if he really wants to watch the New England Patriots-New York Giants game, why not just ask his wife to pay for it?

Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.

“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.

The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”

Pathetic. Surely Theresa could come up with the subscription cost from coins under the seat cushions.

I also wonder - why NBC? Is it because they support the troops the same way that he did?

Honest Elections, A Partisan Issue?

Democrats have benefited from voter fraud for years, so it's no wonder that they see a threat in honest elections.

"It is exceedingly difficult to maneuver in today's America without a photo ID (try flying, or even entering a tall building such as the courthouse in which we sit, without one)," Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in deciding that Indiana's strictest-in-the-nation law is not burdensome enough to violate constitutional protections.

His colleague on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, Bill Clinton appointee Terence T. Evans, was equally frank in dissent. "Let's not beat around the bush: The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too-thinly veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic," Evans wrote.

I have yet to hear an explanation for why having to produce an identification should discourage one legally registered voter from casting a vote.

Democrats there challenged the requirement as unconstitutional, although they have not produced a person who wanted to vote but was unable to do so because of the law.

How Hillary Made Peace In Northern Ireland

I missed this when it happened last month, but is it seems Hillary Clinton is now claiming that she played a pivotal role in negotiating peace in Northern Ireland.

"I was deeply involved in the Irish peace process," Clinton said. "And I know it’s frustrating. It took years before the Catholics and the Protestants before Sinn Fein and you know, the DUP would even talk to each other,"

Closer to the event itself, here's how she described her contribution.

Hillary met with women leaders of the peace movement. Rather than discuss the difficulties of the peace process, Hillary focused on a teapot used by the women:


“They poured tea from ordinary stainless steel teapots, and when I remarked how well they kept the tea warm, Joyce insisted that I take a pot to remember them by. I used that dented teapot every day in our small family kitchen in the White House...”

It sorta seems that her contribution was akin to, "baking cookies and holding teas."

Mike Huckabee's Creepy Christianity

As an evangelical Christian, I should like Mike Huckabee. But, he has revealed himself on many occasions as a not-ready-for-primetime player. And, even his invocation of Christianity has left me uneasy. I'm not alone.

Invoking one's faith is not unprecedented in American politics and is not, by itself, disconcerting. It can even be reassuring. But it is also fraught with danger. If certain lines -- inherently ambiguous lines -- are crossed and faith becomes a tool in a political campaign, it can damage our civic comity and our politics and demean our faith.

Religious beliefs should play a role in our public life, especially when it comes to great moral questions, as they have from the abolition movement to the civil rights movement to efforts to advance a culture of life. For the most part, America has achieved the right balance -- one that recognizes the importance of faith in our common life while resisting the use of politics to advance sectarian purposes. We believe people of all faiths have every right to be active in politics -- but there are no Christian or Hindu parties in America. That is as it ought to be.

And for those of us who are Christian, there is an important context to bear in mind: Jesus's entire ministry was directed against the pretensions of earthly power, and Christianity is trans-political, beholden to no party and no ideology. The City of Man and the City of God are different, and we should respect and honor those differences.

Mike Huckabee, by all accounts a faithful Christian, may not have crossed any bright lines yet -- but he's edging close to them. He should pull back now, before his political ambitions injure what he claims to care about, and undoubtedly does care about, most.

This is especially disquieting when expression of faith informed policies seem insincere at best.

A Jihadi's Second Thoughts

Sure, it might be one of those death row conversions of convenience, but a highly respected Al Qaida theologian has turned on Al Qaida and terrorism.

One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."

In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.

The Democratic Party's Rich History of Racism

After yesterday's Washington Post article illuminating the subtle racism of Hillary Clinton's campaign, it's worth revisiting the Democratic Party's rich tradition of racism, from the party's founding to the present.

Some of the more recent examples:

"I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes."

--Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961
Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"I'm not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."

--Jimmy Carter, 1976
President, 1977-81
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2002

"The Confederate Memorial has had a special place in my life for many years. . . . There were many, many times that I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors, whose enormous suffering and collective gallantry are to this day still misunderstood by most Americans."

--James Webb, 1990
Now a Democratic Senator from Virginia

* "You cannot go into a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent."

* "My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything [but] a Northeastern liberal state."

* "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy."

* "There's less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4% or 5% that is, are minorities. What is it in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., (D., Del.), 2006-07
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, 1987-95
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2008

And The Rivers WillFlow With Milk And Honey Too

Simply electing Hillary Clinton will cause oil prices to decline.

Rosie O'Donnell will lose weight too.

Christmas In Costello Land

Well, the tamales are made and the menudo is simmering. It's a traditional Costello family Christmas in Arizona.

Meatpaper - My Kinda Magazine

It's about time that carnivores had something to read.

Sample article: Pig slaughter,Montenero Val Cocchiara, Italy

Nicola, the man with the beard, is an intelligent, well-read man. He’d been out of town and worked in restaurants—he sort of has that guru quality. He believed my reasons for wanting to photograph and understand the pig slaughter. He was much more talkative than others I approached, not so suspicious. He’s one of the few people in Montenero who will take a walk with their wife in the countryside and love it. For most of them, nature is a tool, not something they love.

Traditionally, stables were in the village and people would keep their pig under their house, so that every piece of land could be used for agriculture. Eventually, sanitation laws stepped in and the government imposed incentives to build stables outside of town. Nowadays, it’s illegal to slaughter pigs in this traditional way. Pigs are supposed to be sent to a government-sanctioned butcher. There are signs around saying “You’re not allowed to kill pigs.” But it’s expensive to send the pigs to a butcher, and people say that the meat doesn’t taste as good.

Iran Reduces Terrorist Support - I Wonder Why?

We now hear that the decline in violence within Iraq is in part attributable to Iran's withdrawal of support for Shiite militias.

The Iranian government has decided "at the most senior levels" to rein in the violent Shiite militias it supports in Iraq, a move reflected in a sharp decrease in sophisticated roadside bomb attacks over the past several months, according to the State Department's top official on Iraq.

Now, what has happened recently that might have encouraged the Iranians to back down.

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

Barack Obama has criticized Hillary Clinton for voting in favor of this policy

Merry Christmas From Fred Thompson

Islama Rings In The New Year

You don't use fireworks. You use suicide bombers

THE MUSLIM new year has come in with a bang. On the eve of the high holiday of Eid Al-Adha, explosions abound. Outside Beirut a car bomb kills four. A double-blast in Quetta, Pakistan, destroys eight lives. Twin suicide bombings in Iraq's Diyala Province murder 26, including six women and children. Two bombers in Algiers, one a grandfather, claim over 35 victims.
more stories like this

* Bombings destroy holiday calm in Iraq
* Muslims mark religious holiday
* Sunnis mark Eid in Iraq with optimism
* Third guilty plea in Calif. terror case
* Ex-convicts admit planning terror attack
*

This year-end killing spree - whose victims were nearly all Muslim - has again revealed a profound failure to stop violent extremism across the Muslim world. The international community, increasingly numb to a steady tide of slaughter in Muslim lands, has little to say. Muslim leaders offer a ritual disclaimer that the radicals don't represent Islam - a "religion of peace" - and then retreat into silence.

Charlie Wilson's War

It's hard to believe today, but there was once a time when Democrats were not all a bunch of America hating assholes. Some even had a sense of humor.

Wilson arrived in Congress with his cowboy boots and his big booming laugh. He soon met another freshman Democrat -- Colorado feminist Patricia Schroeder -- and he sent her a gift. She opened it and found a picture in a pink frame. It showed a tombstone that read "Wife of Davy Crockett." There was also a note from Wilson: "In Texas, we don't even let women use their first name on their tombstones."

It's All Slick Willie's Fault

Hillary's campaign staffer are blaming Hillary's meddling husband for her decline in the polls.

SUPPORTERS of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy are privately blam ing aggressive campaigning by Bill Clin ton for her recent decline in Iowa's pre-caucus polls.

In their opinion, the former president's strong defense of his wife pushes the contest for the Democratic nomination toward what Hillary Clinton wanted to avoid: a referendum on the Clinton administration, making her a symbol of the past rather than an agent of change.

A footnote: Democrats close to Bill Clinton blame Mark Penn, Sen. Clinton's chief strategist, for her decline. They grumble that Penn, a pollster, relies too much on polls.

Harry Reid's Alternate Universe

Harry Reid explains the pork process in a way that shows that the man is not simply stupid, as I once thought, but truly insane.

As the author notes:

"Call me a knit-picker, but shouldn't the Senate Majority Leader understand the system he plays such a vital a role in enough to know that it makes no provision for presidential earmarks?"

And of course, Harry Reid gets his obligatory alternate universe comment` on Iraq.

"all people in Iraq -- different Shia sects, all of the Sunni sects -- believe that the problem in Iraq is based on that invasion that took place, almost five years ago. And they further believe that we're an occupying force and the only way that things are going to work out in Iraq is if we get out of there."

All people? Really? Every one? I've seen an awful lot of polls that show that the Iraqis do want us out, but not right now. They want us out after stability has been restored.

Harry Reid Discovers Where Babies Come From

Harry Reid finally figures out that the surge is working, or at least it isn't failing.

"the surge certainly hasn't hurt..."

He also pours out this pearl of rhetorical brilliance:

"Well, we've been able to accomplish quite a bit, but not very much."

Here in his view was the greatest accomplishment: Lobbying reform.

"[W]e were able to get things done, with the most sweeping ethics and lobbying reform."

The lobbying reform was, of course, a joke. And what little reform there was, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha watered down.

Here's another pearl for the swine.:

"We were able to get good things done as it relates to a balanced budget."

A balanced budget? What alternate universe does this guy live in? The budget they just passed was about a quarter of a trillion dollars out of balance. It was only that "small" because Bush vetoed the bigger spending bill that the Congress originally sent him. Plus, the budget he ultimately signed contained 11,000 earmarks totally $15 billion worth of pork.

Let's hope that Harry Reid is as accurate with this prediction:

If the election were held today, we would pick up four seats.

Scientific Thuggery - Al Gore's Global Warming Goons

The scientific consensus that Al Gore insists backs him is more a consequence of intimidation than overwhelming scientific evidence.

The hundreds of others in the report — climatologists, oceanographers, geologists, glaciologists, physicists and paleoclimatologists — voice varying degrees of criticism of the popular global-warming theory. Their testimony challenges the idea that the climate-change debate is "settled" and runs counter to the claim that the number of skeptical scientists is dwindling.

The report's authors expect some of the scientists will recant their remarks under intense pressure from the public and from within professional circles to conform to the global-warming theory, a committee staffer said.

Several scientists in the report said many colleagues share their skepticism about man-made climate change but don't speak out publicly for fear of retribution, according to the report.

"Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media," atmospheric scientist Nathan Paldor, professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said in the report.

Democrats Determined To Fail

The rank and file are growing restless with Harry and Nancy's unconditional surrender policy on Iraq, but the Democratic leaders remain committed to failure.

Pressed on her legislative plans for 2008, though, Pelosi reiterated that ending the war is her ultimate goal, promising more oversight hearings on Iraq and the broader Middle East.

And she suggested Democrats would somehow move to decouple the larger Iraq debate from the struggle with Bush and the Republicans over war funding.

“This will always be the pre-eminent issue until it is not there any more,” she said.

“The war, the war, the war: It eclipses everything we do here.”

In the Senate, Reid vowed no retreat on the war either, despite a united Republican Conference that has been able to repeatedly frustrate Democrats by filibustering attempts to force Bush’s hand on the war.

“We have had 33 [recorded] votes on Iraq and we are going to have more votes on Iraq. We are going to continue putting the pedal to the metal,” the Nevada Democrat said.

“We are going to push on this. The American people are dissatisfied with what is going on there.”

But Of Course, Republicans Want To Bury The Clinton Legacy

"The most enjoyable aspect of watching the HMS Hillary take on water is the prospect that Bill — and his cult of personality — will go down with the ship, too."

Jonah Goldberg

I think Bill Clinton's selfish focus on trying to write his own history is to blame for all this. Clinton was so focused on his legacy that he essentially invited attacks on it. Democrats have since responded by attacking Bush's legacy to the detriment of the country's best interests. Who in their right mind really thinks that a humiliating surrender in the war on terror would serve the country?

And now, many Republicans see the upcoming election primarily in terms of poking Slick Willie in the eye one more time. Of course, Bill Clinton thinks the upcoming election is all about him anyway.

Does Hillary Have A Political Philosophy Other Than Bush Bashing?

The U.S. has a chance to break away from failed policies of the past and throw itself behind two new constitutional democracies that occupy critical geostrategic positions in the most dangerous part of the world. Will we seize this moment or let it pass?

One gets the impression that Hillary Clinton will embrace failure if that failure can be attached to George Bush's legacy.

She joined the unthinking chorus of war opponents who saw it simply as another way of institutionalizing "George Bush's endless war." Rather than pressing the administration to offer similar guarantees to another key ally at the heart of the fight against terrorism, liberal internationalists instead attacked the administration.

What sort of strategy is this? Shall we refuse our help to democratic states we helped bring into existence when they are attacked by our common foes? Shall we make a statement that we will not support our friends or that we prefer to support authoritarian regimes?

Mrs. Clinton has said that she expects U.S. troops to be in Iraq until the end of her administration, and quite rightly. But under what terms will they be there, if we do not establish a bilateral relationship with an Iraqi state eager to assert its own sovereignty, and therefore unwilling to continue in the sort of international receivership to which the Security Council subjects it?

As U.S. forces move into former insurgent strongholds in Iraq, the local people, both Sunni and Shiite, ask our soldiers not "When are you leaving?" but "Will you stay this time?" The rise of Iran's power has frightened many Gulf Arab states so much that they now ask the same question: Will the U.S. stand by them this time?

Did The Politico Lie?

Apparently so. Yesterday the Politico had a very disparaging story about a Fred Thompson campaign appearance.

The biggest problem with the story is that some of the facts were just plain made up.

Inside [the fire station], Thompson shook a few hands — there were only about 15 people there — and then Chief Dan McKenzie handed Thompson the chief’s fire hat so Thompson could put it on.

Thompson looked at it with a sour expression on his face.

“I’ve got a silly hat rule,” Thompson said.

In point of fact, the “silly” hat was the one Chief McKenzie wore to fires and I am guessing none of the firefighters in attendance considered it particularly silly, but Thompson was not going to put it on. He just stood there holding it and staring at it.

To save the moment, Jeri Thompson took the hat from her husband’s hands and put it on her head.

“You look cute,” Thompson said to her. She did.

That's not quite the way it happened. Here's the video. You decide if Roger Simon saw what you see for yourself.

Roger Simon used to be a blogger. I guess once you've gone mainstream, you're allowed to make up facts.

Update: Apparently, this is not the same Roger Simon who has a blog. So, that means we have two Roger Simon - Roger Simon the truthful blogger and Roger Simon the biased, dishonest real journalist.

The Democrats Had Luster?

The Washington Post had a strange headline in it story about the Democrats' fumbling this last year.

Key Setbacks Dim Luster of Democrats' Year

Where was the luster that was dimmed? As far as I could tell, the Democrats' year started going downhill as soon as Nancy Pelosi embarked on her suck up tour to Middle Eastern despots and terrorist enablers, hit bottom once she got there and stayed at the bottom ever since.

The Latest On John Edwards' Affair

The National Enquirer now claims that John Edwards fathered a love child. A campaign aide and close friend says that the baby is his.

Oh well. What do you expect from a man who profits from hedge funds, sub-prime mortgages and exploited his wife's terminal cancer to raise money.

But hey! He does have great hair.

Harry Reid: Loser To The End

One has to wonder what cocoon Harry Reid lives in. Once again he has declared Al Qaida the victor in Iraq, although one has to wonder how he squares that with his previous insistence that the was in Iraq had nothing to do with fighting Al Qaida.

But, once again we have word on another rout of Al Qaida.

One wonders how long Senator Reid would have clung to the idea that the earth was flat.

Update: Harry Reid isn't the biggest asshole in Congress. Jim Moran is.

"Sure there’s less violence but that’s because we have ethnically cleansed most of Baghdad.”

But, I have no doubt that if asked, he'll assure us that he supports the troops.

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions, Last Century

NIE 2007 be damned! Iran's been pursuing the bomb for a long time.

Iran orchestrated two bombings in Buenos Aires in the mid-1990s, killing more than 100 people, primarily because it was furious over Argentina's cessation of nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic, a top Argentinean prosecutor said Tuesday, offering chilling confirmation of the ruthlessness with which Iran has pursued its quest for nuclear capability.

These are the people that the Democratic Party says we should be sucking up to.

Democrats - Their Long History of Defeatism

In 143 years, little about the Democratic Party has changed.

Thank You Al Gore

The Gore Effect is well known. When Al Gore arrives to give a speech on global warming, frigid weather ensues. Well now that he has a Nobel Prize, it seems that the Gore Effect has gone global as well.

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina's peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina's apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records extend back to 1872.

Thanks Al!

Fred Thompson For President

My official endorsement.

Keith Olberman Lies? Say It Ain't So

Keith Olberman seems to have joined Bill Clinton in a race to see who can re-write history fastest.

I'm on the air with Chris Matthews on that day with miss-- mission accomplished on May 1st in 2003. And I-- and he's talking about this as George Bush's moment in history and this. And I said, "Don't you think that him wearing a flight suit's going to be a little bit of a problem during the election cam-- "No.

Just as Bill Clinton was always against the war, Keith Olberman's memory seems to be volatile in nature.

Harry Reid's Ally

Ayman al-Zawahri

"We are seeing a triple failure for the Americans in Iraq," al-Zawahri said in the 90-minute videotape. "No matter how much the gigantic propaganda machine in America tries to deceive the people, the reality is stronger and worse than all the deceptions."

He said U.S. forces were "defeated and looking for a way out," and Iraqi forces were unable to keep security

Hillary Collects Another Terrorist Endorsement

Now can add the Tamil Tigers to her list of terrorist endorsements. She already had Osama Bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Why Me?

The goon best known - no, I take that back - known only for his role in attacking Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 has died.

The attending physician said it was natural causes. No word if that means that the was beaten to death with a hubcap.

Carolyn Washburn - The Worst Debate Moderator In History

Those who watched the Republican debate last week will recall the moment when the moderator, Des Moines Register Editor Carolyn Washburn, asked for a show of hands from the candidates on whether or not they believed that man-made global warming was a serious threat. When Fred Thompson asked to elaborate on his answer, she refused permission.

Here's how she remembers it now: "About half wanted to tackle global warming and about half chose not to talk about it."

Huh? No wonder we can't trust the MSM to report the news accurately. They can't even recall events in which they participated. She must be auditioning for a job with the Associated Press.

What Is It With The Clintons And The Truth

Hillary tells a useless lie. Why? Is it because she knows no other way? I think it's just a reflex.

During yesterday's Des Moines Register debate, the moderator asked Clinton: "As president, would you use signing statements to assert that certain acts of Congress conflict with your interpretation of the Constitution and your obligation to enforce those laws?"

The senator responded: "I would use them the way presidents before this president used them. They were used to clarify the law to perhaps make it more coherent with other laws that have been passed. And along came President Bush. He's used them as essentially a form of veto. He did it through a piece of legislation I passed, where it was pretty simple. I said: If you're going to have a FEMA director, it should be somebody with experience handling emergencies ... we actually had to pass it through the Congress. And when George Bush signed the bill it was part of, he specifically used a signing statement to say, 'I don't have to follow that, unless I choose to."

But knowledgeable Senate sources say that is not what happened. Clinton never "passed" the legislation to do this.

Mike Huckabee - Not Ready For Prime Time

Frankly, I don't think that Mike Huckabee could serve competently as president, even with training wheels.

"I may not be the expert as some people on foreign policy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

The world is too dangerous a place for this attitude. It's clear from the Democratic field that, if a grown up is to elected president in 2008, he will have to come from the Republican party. Mike Huckabee is not that man.

2400 Donors in 24 Hours

Fred Thompson's doing a fundraising webathon.

I contributed $50. I already liked Thompson, and I'm pleased to see that there's at least one Republican in the field who won't perform tricks for the media. I don't plan to vote for a trained seal.

A Cackle Too Far

Hillary resorts to her mirthless cackle one time too many.

Nancy Pelosi's Animal House

Is this what happens when the generation that produced Bluto and Otter grows up?

The Wall Street Journal notes that the House of Representatives is a lot like Delta House.

In the movie "Animal House," the fraternity brother known as Otter reacts to the Delta House's closure with the classic line, "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part." To which Bluto, played by John Belushi, replies, "We're just the guys to do it." The movie ends by noting that Bluto becomes a Senator, so perhaps this explains the meltdown among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

If, as Paul Begala says, George Bush is less popular than venereal disease, then what does Nancy Pelosi deserve a comparison to?

Is Nancy Pelosi less popular than leprosy or famine?

This Should Go Over Well With The Pedophile Vote

A pedophile enabler has just endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Clinton Campaign Not Going To Raise The Issue Of Obama's Cocaine Use

Mark Penn let it be known that cocaine will not be a part of the campaign.

"The issue related to cocaine use is not something the campaign is in any way raising," Penn said on MSNBC's "Hardball."

Nope, not gonna say anything about it. If Obama used cocaine when he was young, Hillary's campaign is not going to remind anyone about that cocaine use.

By the way, did you know that Obama used cocaine?

This sorta reminds me of Fred Thompson's apology to Mike Huckabee.

The Case Against Mike Huckabee

Is Mike Huckabee this year's Howard Dean?

Like Dean, Huckabee is an under-vetted former governor who is manifestly unprepared to be president of the United States. Like Dean, he is rising toward the top of polls in a crowded field based on his appeal to a particular niche of his party. As with Dean, his vulnerabilities in a general election are so screamingly obvious that it’s hard to believe that primary voters, once they focus seriously on their choice, will nominate him.

A mostly amiable fellow, Huckabee has so far shown me that he is vastly underprepared for this job. The presidency is not the place for training wheels.

If Only Political Speech Were As Free As Pornography

It is not hard to imagine the horror that would erupt from liberals if someone were to propose stricter pornography regulation. Sadly, I did not have to imagine the silence emanating from left and right when Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission and the state’s Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz recommended greater restrictions on political free speech in Washington. Both proposed that the legislature close the “loophole” that had permitted Dino Rossi to commit political advocacy since losing the 2004 gubernatorial race to Christine Gregoire.
In the interval between the 2004 election and the announcement of his candidacy, Dino Rossi founded and led the Forward Washington Foundation, an economic development think tank. In that capacity, Dino Rossi traveled the state, listening to the concerns of the people who make Washington’s economy work and advocating solutions to government created impediments to economic progress.
Considering that the Corporation for Enterprise Development recently ranked Washington dead last among the fifty states in new business survival and 42nd in “business vitality,” Washingtonians should be thankful that someone is taking the state’s economic health seriously. Certainly the state’s current political leadership does not.
In the process of representing the Forward Washington Foundation, Rossi certainly kept himself in the political limelight during a time when few had any doubt that he intended to renew his challenge to Governor Gregoire’s throne in 2008. When he formally announced that intention, his time as president of the Forward Washington Foundation had kept his name and face fresh and familiar to Washington’s voters and served as a constant reminder of the shady vote counting that put Gregoire in the governor’s office.
So what could possibly be wrong with that? As Attorney General, Christine Gregoire exploited the celebrity of her office to giver her gubernatorial campaign a running start. She even used her office to stroke and groom future political allies and donors. And as governor, she is spending taxpayer money on a Hillary Clintonesque “listening tour” that, except for the source of funding, nobody could distinguish from a campaign.
Nevertheless, Christine Gregoire filed a formal complaint against Rossi, claiming that he had exploited the Forward Washington Foundation as a vehicle to conceal the names of donors who were funding his shadow campaign. She even employed operatives to follow Rossi around on his tours, recording on videotape every one of his events to use as evidence against him.
After reviewing the evidence, the staff of the Public Disclosure Commission found insufficient evidence that Dino Rossi was campaigning for governor while serving as the Forward Washington Foundation’s president and recommended that the governor’s complaint be dismissed. The Public Disclosure Commission itself wasn’t so sure and dismissed the complaint by the narrowest of margins, 3-2.
"There's concern on the part of all commissioners that the statute as written does not address all of the political activity that is taking place today ... with Forward Washington. ... None of them were totally comfortable with the activity that occurred," complained Vicki Rippie, the PDC’s executive director.
Is Ms Rippie uncomfortable with private citizens engaging in political advocacy without strict control? Until he declared his candidacy, Dino Rossi was just that. He was a citizen of Washington State who advocated reforms that would facilitate economic growth.
The truth is that people who run for office are often political activists. It’s the nature of the beast. To suggest that political activists be regulated is an appalling thought. And, it’s particularly offensive as it would never be applied equally. I guarantee that neither Ms Rippie nor Dwight Pelz would be offended if the spokesman for a gay rights organization or the chapter president of the Seattle NAACP launched a political campaign from those positions.
It’s ironic that in Washington, the political free speech rights of private citizens are less secure than the rights of a pornographer. For that matter, the United States Supreme Court has been more protective of pornographers than political candidates. I don’t think that’s what the Constitution’s authors had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.
After the PDC’s vote, Dino Rossi showed his talent for stand up comedy and asked Governor Gregoire for an apology. Christine Gregoire responded with a cackling laugh. She was either taking yet another page from Hillary Clinton’s playbook, or she was the only person who got the joke.
I’m sad to say, that it was probably the latter.

The Ever Vigilant and Unbiased Press Covers The War

As I read ABC News' "The Blotter" I had the creepy feeling that the author was suffering discomfort for having to report a US victory. My instincts were vindicated. At the story's end was this biographical note about the author:

Stephen Grey is the author of "Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA's Rendition and Torture Program" (St Martin's Press). He is an award-winning investigative reporter who has contributed to the New York Times, BBC, PBS and ABC News among others.

The Evil Empire And Steroids

It's amazing how many players named in George Mitchell's performance enhancing drug report played for the New York Yankees.

If Democrats Have Lost USA Today, Have They Lost America?

USA Today scolds the Democrats for refusing to acknowledge facts on the ground in Iraq.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, seem lost in a time warp. They could try to impose new benchmarks that acknowledge the military progress. Instead, too many seem unable or unwilling to admit that President Bush's surge of 30,000 more troops has succeeded beyond their initial predictions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who in the spring declared the war lost, said last week that "the surge hasn't accomplished its goals." Anti-war Democrats remain fixated on tying war funding to a rapid troop withdrawal. Yet pulling the troops out precipitously threatens to squander the progress of recent months toward salvaging a decent outcome to the Iraq debacle.

Al Sharpton Has To Obey The Same Laws I Do?

It's about time Al Sharpton was called to account.

The FBI and IRS are investigating whether Sharpton improperly misstated the amount of money he raised during his 2004 White House run to illegally obtain federal matching funds, a source familiar with the probe said.

Sharpton, although forced to return $100,000 in matching taxpayer funds after an investigation two years ago, denied any wrongdoing at the time.

The feds are also looking into allegations of tax fraud, including whether Sharpton commingled funds from his nonprofit National Action Network with several of his for-profit ventures, the source said.

Let's hope Jesse Jackson is next.

That Was Then, This Is Now

A year ago.



Today.



Don Surber has the story.

YouTube's Watching

Fear of looking like a wuss on Youtube inspired a Dunkin Donuts employee to cold cock a thief.

George W Bush's Successful Presidency

A chronic Bush basher can't help but notice that George Bush's presidency is gathering steam as it enters its last year.

On the domestic front, the tax cuts the president pushed through the Congress have led to remarkable economic growth, low unemployment and record-high tax receipts that members of Congress can hardly wait to spend. New data released last week showed that America added 94,000 jobs in November 2007 — capping a remarkable 51 straight months in which jobs have been created in our economy. Despite partisan claims that the economy is soft, more than 8.3 million jobs have been created since August 2003 and unemployment remains low (4.7 percent). America remains open for business.

More Americans have more money in their savings accounts and in their wallets as a result of the Bush tax cuts. Despite talk on Capitol Hill of rolling back the president’s tax cuts that “benefit only the wealthy” Democrats have been loath to pass legislation and return to their districts to explain why raising taxes and eliminating the popular $500 per child tax credit is good public policy. Not going to happen anytime soon.

Roundly criticized back in 2001 for his position on stem cell research, the president’s resolve and strength to draw a moral boundary line to protect innocent unborn life has been vindicated. Despite the yammering that the president had hampered scientific progress in stem cell research, despite the vicious demagogy and false claims that if the president hadn’t placed restrictions on how federal funds were spent, people would rise and walk from their wheelchairs, scientists announced last week they could produce an embryo-free way to produce genetically matched stem cells. Or put another way, the president’s decision to draw a bright moral line against destroying human life while providing federal dollars for the first time to stimulate stem cell research has proven successful. The silence in the media about this remarkable development has been deafening.

And, things are going better in Iraq.

Absent from media coverage of late is the fact that the central government of Iraq has reached its 2007 budget revenue target of $30.2 billion. This figure is derived from oil revenues — revenues of which the Democrats have criticized the Iraqis and President Bush for not capturing to fund the cost of the new government in Baghdad. This criticism now rings hollow.

Similarly, 40 Iraqi leaders were killed in Iraq during the month of November and Lt. General Ray Odierno has reported that the has been a 23-week decline — nearly six months — in insurgent deaths and attacks upon Iraqi civilians. This decrease in violence has led thousands of civilians to return to the country each and every day to reopen their schools, businesses and neighborhoods that have long been abandoned due to violence.

In Mosul, the airport opened for the first time in 14 years for commercial aviation flights. In a region of the country long associated with violence, Iraqi Airlines is now open for business. While there is always a potential for violence to flare up, Iraqi civilians have returned home to provinces all around the country that had previously been strongholds held by terrorists and Saddam loyalists.

Political stability long thought to be an elusive dream is becoming a daily reality across Iraq.

In summary:

From the surge in Iraq, vindication with his stem cell position and strong economic development on the home front, President George W. Bush has hit his stride and is surging rather than limping into his last year in office. For those who have counted him out, the president remains resolute, perhaps comfortable in the knowledge that history, rather than bitter partisans in Washington, will favorably reflect on his two terms in office for waging an effective war against terrorism while demonstrating capable stewardship and remarkable domestic accomplishments during a time of war.

Hillary's Experience

Brent Bozell has assembled a short list of unresolved questions from the last century that we need answered before being asked to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The Bacon Double Cheeseburger of Death

Really now. Could anything that looks so tasty really be so lethal?

Lawrence O'Donnell - Loud Mouthed Chickenshit

After his disgusting denigration of Mormons a few days earlier, Lawrence O'Donnell sat down with Hugh Hewitt and explained why he refrains from criticizing Islam:

Hugh Hewitt: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?

Lawrence O’Donnell: Oh, well, I’m afraid of what the…that’s where I’m really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I’m afraid for my life if I do.

Hugh Hewitt: Well, that’s candid.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They’re not going to ever…

Hugh Hewitt: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they’ll just send you a strudel.

Lawrence O’Donnell: They’ll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I’m not going to say a word about them.

Hugh Hewitt: They’ll send you a strudel. The Mormons will bake you a cake and be nice to you.

Lawrence O’Donnell: I agree.

Hugh Hewitt: Lawrence O’Donnell, I appreciate your candor.

Poor Teddy, Wrong Again

According to Ted Kennedy, the CIA interrogation tapes were destroyed in response to the 2006 elections. Wrong.

Obama's Contrived Moderation

Barack Obama has an electability problem - himself.

When Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seeking state office a dozen years ago, he took unabashedly liberal positions: flatly opposed to capital punishment, in support of a federal single-payer health plan, against any restrictions on abortion, and in support of state laws to ban the manufacture, sale and even possession of handguns.

Although, to hear his own people talk, his greatest impediment might be his own party.

“His views are very much in the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” said chief strategist David Axelrod, who has known Obama since 1992 and worked with him since 2002.

Abridgement of Free Speech

Why can't political debate be as free as pornography?

Hindus? Christians? Zoroastrians?

I'm just wondering what religion might be responsible for 45 deaths in Algeria.

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Fox?

For Democrats, part of proving your bona fides is pandering to the left.

“At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, ... pandering to the far-left-wing,” [Chris] Wallace added. “And we live with it.”

How can we trust a presidential candidate to deal with Russia and China if they find Fox News intimidating?

And Yet Another Democrat Lie

Steny Hoyer draped himself in the regalia of an anti-pork crusader. But he's slipping millions of dollars worth of earmarks into spending bills, including obvious payoffs to friends.

Even as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has joined in steps to clean up pork-barrel spending, the Maryland congressman has tucked $96 million worth of pet projects into next year's federal budget, including $450,000 for a campaign donor's foundation.

Hoyer (D) is one of the top 10 earmarkers in the House for 2008, based on budget requests in bills so far, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent watchdog group.

A crooked politician. Who'da thunk it?

Among the worthy projects Steny Hoyers force fed: InTune. I know what you're thinking, :InTune? What's that?

Consider the $450,000 that Hoyer inserted into a 2008 education spending bill for the California-based InTune Foundation Group, whose Web site describes it as a music-education nonprofit group.

In 2005, InTune got a previous earmark for nearly $500,000 to develop lesson plans on funk music and Nobel Peace laureates. Asked recently how effective that program had been, Education Department officials said they didn't know. InTune hadn't turned in a report on what it did, officials said.

"It is significantly past due," department spokeswoman Rebecca Neale said, noting that the deadline was September 2006. She said that the department had tried to reach InTune but that its old telephone and e-mail were out of service and there was no contact information on its Web site.

$450,000 for a mystery recipient that doesn't even have a known active phone number. We don't even know what these people do with the money, except that they funnel some of it back to Steny Hoyer. Apparently, InTune's only documentable achievement is $31,000 in donations to Steny Hoyer.

Democrats Confess To Another Lie

All that "pay as you go" business they championed in the last election was just BS. Democrats are just as serious about fiscal responsibility as Republicans. Gosh it hurts to writ that.

In fact, the paygo farce has been unfolding all year. Since the day they took the gavel, Democrats have been using gimmick after gimmick to evade it. The Schip bill for health care, for example, includes a spending "cliff" that disguises its actual cost. It assumes spending would rise to $14 billion in 2012, but then pretends the costs would fall to less than half that level in 2013--which just so happens to fall outside the five-year budget scoring window. Some $60 billion in spending over the next 10 years were hidden through this ploy.

Then there is the House farm bill awaiting action in the Senate. That spending marathon includes between $5 billion and $10 billion in fictitious paygo savings by shifting the date of farm aid payments from one year to another. If a Fortune 500 CEO did that sort of thing, he'd be indicted.

House Democrats realize how humiliating this all is, so they're still vowing to make paygo work. Especially embarrassed are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats for whom "fiscal discipline" is a coat of political protection. John Tanner of Tennessee is so upset he says the Senate paygo abdication "is bordering on criminal," and about 30 Blue Dogs are threatening to vote against AMT repeal without offsetting tax increases. They'd have more credibility if they also opposed the various fiscal gimmicks in the Schip and farm bills, not to mention the 2008 Congressional budget outline that exceeded President Bush's budget request by $22 billion.

Democrats' Opportunistic Outrage

The same Democrats who now express shock and horror at waterboarding, had no such concerns five years ago.

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

Further:

"[T]the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement."

Ah, but they were so much older then, they're younger than that now.

"In fairness, the environment was different then because we were closer to Sept. 11 and people were still in a panic," said one U.S. official present during the early briefings. "But there was no objecting, no hand-wringing. The attitude was, 'We don't care what you do to those guys as long as you get the information you need to protect the American people.' "

Fairness only applies to Democrats when they slip into CYA mode.

Are you surprised?

And there's this damning paragraph:

Only after information about the practice began to leak in news accounts in 2005 -- by which time the CIA had already abandoned waterboarding -- did doubts about its legality among individual lawmakers evolve into more widespread dissent. The opposition reached a boiling point this past October, when Democratic lawmakers condemned the practice during Michael B. Mukasey's confirmation hearings for attorney general.

So, the obvious timeline is that Democrats only became anti-waterboard crusaders after the mainstream media created a political opportunity for them.

A Very Partisan Decision To Refuse The Pro-Troop Christmas Message At NBC

Yawn. The lawyer who advised NBC to refuse the pro-troop advertisement is a devout Democrat.

The NBC lawyer who refused to allow a non-profit group to air an advertisement thanking American troops for their service has donated at least $45,000 to a host of Congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and the campaign committees of House and Senate Democrats, research by the Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) has found.

According to a Fox News report, Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC/Universal, was one of two network officials who decided not to sell ad time to Freedom's Watch, which describes itself as "a nonpartisan movement dedicated to preserving, protecting, and defending conservative principles and promoting a conservative agenda."

But, Democrats do support the troops.

Jim Henley: Except For Being A Lying Jackass, You Can Trust Me

Jim Henley accuses Mark Steyn of racism. There's just one little problem.

Henley now offers this:

I see I made an embarrassing mistake in attribution in the original text of this piece. That was my error, careless on my part, and I apologize for it. I stand by the rest of what I wrote.

Except for being factually wrong, Jim Henley insists that he was correct. Hey, I think The New Republic's hiring with your skills.

Another Hillary Plant

I don't blame Hillary Clinton. I blame the MSM for acting as stooges for Hillary.

In a great many of the media's post-game analyses of the Thursday, December 6th Mitt Romney religion speech, including that of the Associated Press, we are treated to the negative reactions thereto of one Costas Panagopoulos, who is rightly (if only partially) identified as "a political science professor at Fordham University".

So who is Costas Panagopoulos?

Dr. Panagopoulos was selected by the American Political Science Association as a Congressional Fellow during 2004-2005, and he served in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).

This information is deeply hidden in the first sentence of the second paragraph of his personal webpage.

Clearly, the mainstream media isn't even interested in doing an hones job.

Bill Clinton - Been With More Black Woman Than Obama

This is just what Hillary's campaign needs.

Civil rights icon Andrew Young says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is too young and lacks the support network to ascend to the White House.

In a media interview posted online, Young also quipped that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has her husband behind her, and that "Bill is every bit as black as Barack."

"He's probably gone with more black women than Barack," Young said of former President Clinton, drawing laughter from a live television audience.

Now there's a good bumper sticker slogan for Hillary's campaign.

Fraudulent Voter Registrations - Name That Party

About a thousand fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted in New Orleans. No mention of the party.

Because the story makes no mention of a party, you're probably tempted to guess that this group is affiliated with the Democratic Party. You'd be right.

Unfit For NBC

NBC is refusing to air this advertisement.



I report, you deride.

How Smart Do You Have To Be To Give Expert Commentary On ABC?

Not very.

Harry Reid, The Omega Democrat

Call Harry Reid the “Omega Democrat.” A week after the execrable Jack Murtha confessed that “the surge is working,” and two weeks after the New York Times started preparing its readers for disappointment by admitting dramatic progress, the Majority Leader of the Senate of the United States of America once again declared the Iraq military surge a failure.
He’s a lonely man these days. According to the Washington Post: “By every metric used to measure the war -- total attacks, U.S. casualties, Iraqi casualties, suicide bombings, roadside bombs -- there has been an enormous improvement since January. U.S. commanders report that al-Qaeda has been cleared from large areas it once controlled and that its remaining forces in Iraq are reeling. Markets in Baghdad are reopening, and the curfew is being eased; the huge refugee flow out of the country has begun to reverse itself. Credit for these achievements belongs in large part to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, who took on a tremendously challenging new counterterrorism strategy and made it work; to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of that strategy; and to President Bush, for making the decision to launch the surge against the advice of most of Congress and the country's foreign policy elite.”
But, for the dour Senator Harry Reid, the man perhaps condemned to be the last holdout, success is not an option. "The surge hasn't accomplished its goals," he insisted.
Now, the surge may not have accomplished his goals. But as every real American would define success as an enemy defeat, the surge has certainly accomplished that. Reporter Michael Yon has an almost unique distinction that sets him apart from most journalists who report or give expert commentary upon the Iraq War. He’s there. He’s been embedded almost full time for years. He reports what he sees, not the gossipy whispers that the mainstream media rely upon. When the war was going poorly, he reported it. Now that it’s going well, he reports that. And he’s been there for most of the way. A year ago, he was involved in firefights several times a day. Months have passed since he last saw combat.
When the enemy’s leader, Osama Bin Laden, released a tape exhorting his soldiers to renew their efforts, his words fell not on deaf ears, but dead ears. He has made a lot of martyrs and lost a lot of ground.
What’s good for the USA is problematic for Democrats. The Democratic presidential candidates have had to draw deeply on their nuance reserves as they try to recognize progress while insisting that the glass is half empty. No such subtlety for Reid. We’ve lost. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. He’s probably had a speech celebrating the next grim milestone in his hip pocket for months and he fears that he’ll be out of office before he gets to deliver it.
Reid and his fellow Defeatocrats have chosen to focus on the slow political progress in Iraq. Without a doubt, the Iraqi government is corrupt. Its parliament has shown not the slightest capacity to pass any of the significant legislation set before it. It cannot even achieve the modest mileposts it set for itself. Iraq’s political parties have placed selfish partisan advantage above the national interest. Many lawmakers are clearly in league with the terrorists. Who says Iraqis are not capable of a US style democracy? Except for the language, the Iraqi Parliament is indistinguishable from the Congress led by Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
Next week, Will’s Smith’s latest movie, “I Am Legend” opens. It is the second remake of a 1964 classic about the last man on earth after a plague turns the rest of humanity into zombies or vampires. The most recent remake starred Charlton Heston and was called “Omega Man,” omega being the last letter in the Greek alphabet.
Harry Reid declared the surge a failure before it had even started. And now, as the epidemic of patriotic optimism has infected even his own party, he now seems determined to be the last Democrat to succumb to the overwhelming evidence that the surge has succeeded. With his short term future so grim perhaps Harry Reid is hoping that in a couple of decades the movie will be remade again, this time featuring him as the Omega Democrat.

Whip 'Em Out

Dick Cheney derides male Democrats for lacking "big sticks."

In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year.

Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.”

But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

What The Pro Iran NIE Intentionally Overlooks

If Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, then why has it continued to build and bring online its uranium centrifuges?

Didn't Iran just boast that it had developed a nuclear capable missile?

Why is Iran building a heavy water plant which has no civilian power generating application, but no other use other than to produce weapons-grade plutonium?

In today's New York Times, Valerie Lincy and Gary Milhollin, ask why these well known facts are being ignored in favor of snippets of conversation of dubious reliability.

A Glimmer Of Truth On CNN

The most busted name in news will have Michael Yon on its "Week at War" series this weekend.

If you have a Democrat friend, force them to watch.