Holiday Blogging Reduction
Out of town to visit with family for a few days. Blogging to resume upon my return early next week.
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Out of town to visit with family for a few days. Blogging to resume upon my return early next week.
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Rush says he doesn't endorse candidates for the GOP primary, but he came pretty close to endorsing Fred Thompson last week:
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Who reports new from Iraq better than the MSM? Michael Yon, that's who. From Yon's dispatch:
Despite spending enormous energy trying to win their war in Iraq, it seems safe to say that al Qaeda has lost or will lose in Iraq. Yet even on the ropes, al Qaeda is still dangerous. They still blow up bridges and attack power stations. But so many groups have turned on al Qaeda that they are having a difficult time just breathing. They are still present and dangerous, but even Ansar al Sunhah has turned against them. When a group as crazy as Ansar al Sunnah turns against al Qaeda, AQ must be evil.
(HT: Little Green Footballs)
Americans are growing more positive about war in Iraq.
Meanwhile, what are Democrats in Congress doing to reward our soldiers and employees of our military? Why, throwing them out of work, of course.
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The Wall Street Journal asks some pointed questions about the NIE that was released this week. The US intelligence community declared that Iran was developing nuclear weapons before they declared that it wasn't. Ed Morrissey thinks that the facts fit the "Iran continues to develop nukes" scenario.
Turns out that the Iran NIE was not a consensus finding.
The Israelis don't believe the latest NIE.
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Gays in the military was not an issue in the 2008 presidential campaigns, at least not before CNN manipulated the Republican debate last week to set it up as a wedge issue. This is exactly the sort of thing that Hugh Hewitt was posting about earlier this year when he strongly advised the GOP not to agree to a YouTube debate. Now Jack Cafferty at the New York Times is promoting the whole Gays in the Military schtick.
Some are calling for: Save the Debate, Ditch CNN (HT: Instapundit)
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I don't like his populist-ish domestic record and inclinations, but wow, gotta give the guy credit.
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Rush Limbaugh, American Thinker and Ace have linked to the best ever list of everything that has been blamed on global warming. Check it out! Totally awesome!!
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Chances are that you'd rather hear Merry Christmas than Happy Holidays when you're out shopping for the holidays.
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GOP retirements in both the House and Senate since the party lost in 2006, makes the task of winning back congressional majorities daunting. Plus Republican donors are not donating.
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Forget the MSM spin about poverty stricken old people in the US:
When it comes to wealth, the average net worth of people 65 years old and up is several times that of people under the age of 45. The highest average net worth in any age bracket belongs to households headed by people aged 70 to 74.
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Important, researched post about embryonic stem cell advocates that the lies they tell:
But those "officially" involved in the embryonic research debate have been lying so consistently for so long that their lack of integrity is hardly questionable: the politicians especially, and the referendum campaigners and yes, even some of the scientists. If we really are at the end of the debate over embryonic research, we should look back and ask why they had to lie so much if their position was supposedly so strong. Given what they have said in the past, who knows what they'll start saying now?
And here is a stem cell morality essay.
And there's always the embryo stem cell Rush Limbaugh factor...
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This is disturbing, alarming and horrible-shame on Harry Reid, shame on Democrats.
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Huge, major positive changes in Baghdad?? Reported on the NY Times? That story must be on page one, right? Er, not so much.
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Mark Steyn poses the question.
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More bad news for Democrats, Prime Minister al-Maliki in Iraq has authorized the trials of two Shi'ite leaders. So it looks like the political reconciliation in Iraq that the Democrats have been complaining about is going forward.
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Rush Limbaugh characterizes Hillary as being like one's ex-wife. Sounds exactly right. "You can't put in what God left out."
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Democrats have clearly defined themselves as the party of defeat in Iraq and in the War on Terror. With the success of The Surge in Iraq, and violence in that country continuing to drop, the Democrats in the US House unbelievably predictably want to force us into defeat.
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What's going on? I thought George W. Bush ruined the US reputation abroad. Turns out, er, not so much...
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And for the record, the people of the US, really really do not like illegal immigration.
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...and pulls the rug out from under Hillary Clinton.
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Who knew? According to the new radio ratings system in New York City, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have lots more listeners to their radio programs than Arbitron's old ratings system indicated. Hip Hop radio stations are big losers because the new (and more accurate) ratings system in New York show that Hip Hop radio stations have a lot fewer listeners than the old ratings system shows. Hip Hop radio advertisers will not be happy.
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Bin Laden is a brilliant guy? Er, not so much. He definitely does not understand how to make friends and influence people.
Yep, The Surge is definitely turning Iraq into a big win for the US.
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Leftist, feminist MSM reporter, Ruth Marcus, wasn't wowed by Hillary's debate performance this week:
The Hill newspaper, listening in on a conference call with Clinton fundraisers, quoted chief strategist Mark Penn being even more explicit about the "backlash" he was detecting among female voters: "Those female voters are saying, 'Sen. Clinton needs our support now more than ever if we're going to see this six-on-one to try to bring her down.' "
Please. The Philadelphia debate was not exactly a mob moment to trigger the Violence Against Women Act; if anything, this has been an overly (pardon the phrase) gentlemanly campaign to date. Those other guys were beating up on Clinton, if you can call that beating up, because she is the strong front-runner, not because she is a weak woman.
But, in typical liberal fashion, Marcus ultimately comes to Hillary's rescue. But Ed Morrissey capably fisks her column.
Hillary set that last cause back a few steps, and Marcus fails to realize it. By playing the damsel in distress, she wants to eat her cake and have it, too. Hillary wants to project strength but pull a fainting spell when other candidates treat her as an equal -- and as a frontrunner -- by challenging her on her policies. A fainting spell might serve as a distraction from the two disastrous answers she gave in the debate, but America won't elect Scarlett O'Hara as President. The voters want strength in the Oval Office, not passive-aggressive hypocrisy.
Here's a disturbing factoid that's related to whether or not illegal immigrants should have drivers licenses (and, consequently, be able to vote):
After 9/11, the Justice Department found that eight of the 19 hijackers were registered to vote.
And, yes, after her Democrat debate debacle, Hillary confirmed that she supports giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.
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The NTSB is thinking design flaws and overloading as to why the bridge went down. But the agency hasn't ruled other causes. Ed Morrissey is speculating that faulty gusset plates make sense at least part of the reason that the bridge collapsed.
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Brendan Loy, hurricane blogger extraordinaire, has long thought that Rudy Giuliani will be the GOP presidential nominee. Loy notes that Frank Rich of the New York Times is only now discovering that maybe American's aren't as narrow minded as he thought:
Why is Rudy doing so well? People in the know used to think the rubes just didn't realize Rudy has dressed in drag and once lived with 2 gay guys; they just remembered him as the star of that 9/11 show they saw on TV that one time.
But now it's dawning on the pundits that Americans probably know all that stuff by now, so why isn't Rudy sunk? They're shuffling around for explanations. You could say "terrorism fears trump everything," or "the rest of the field is weak." But Rich thinks the right answer is that Americans really aren't as narrow-minded as they are portrayed...
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The S-CHIP passed the Senate (again!), 64-30. The Democrats are framing the this as needy children vs. The War - and with Democrats the war always has to be the loser.
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The Iraqi Islamic Party is saying, "Al Qaeda is Defeated":
“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.
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File this under, They Had Better Pass This Law. With no time to lose, the House and the Senate passed a law prohibiting the taxing of the internet for 7 years. The previous extension will expire Nov. 1st, which is today. President Bush will sign the bill.
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A boy was playing with matches, started one of the wildfires in California that destroyed 21 homes last week.
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Hillary Clinton, the Democrat candidate of inevitability, was a mess last night when it came to illegal immigration. Here's one really smart conservative guy who doesn't think that she won that debate.
UPDATE: Be sure to read Ed Morrissey's post, where he describes just how bad Hillary's answer was to this illegal immigration problem, just what a bureaucratic nightmare multiple drivers licenses will be for the state of New York.
UPDATE II: Hugh Hewitt's got more:
We now know something that we did not know before: When Hillary Clinton has a bad night, she really has a bad night.
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With the Republican presidential candidates each claiming to be the true conservative, it's good to revisit the core conservative principles. Redstate has a great post that demonstrates how conservative principles have held steady through the decades:
- First and foremost, he needs to understand that, by the tens of millions, true conservatives do exist in our country. That their unbending beliefs make them -- not only the backbone of this nation -- but the hope for a better future. That they unashamedly love their country and have reached the point of no return with regard to political correctness and pandering politicians who place themselves above the welfare of our Republic.
- He needs to understand that they have a deep and abiding belief in God. A belief that is under a daily, escalating and obscene assault from those on the left who only use the word “Christian” as an insult, a punch line, or as an identifier to be added to a blacklist to deny employment at most schools, colleges, newspapers, and television networks. He needs to understand that this is a belief that must be acknowledged, respected, and defended. He needs to understand that all life is sacred and that it begins at conception.
- He needs to understand that true conservatives believe we live in a sovereign nation with clearly defined borders that must be protected. Period. He must understand that the invasion of illegal aliens is not only a threat to that sovereignty, but widens the pathway for terrorists to infiltrate our nation. A scenario that the House Committee on Homeland Security has already documented as becoming a reality. He needs to accept that there are those in our country who would turn the United States of America into part of a “North American Union.” A suicidal strategy that was recently pushed and admitted to by former Mexican President Vicente Fox.
- He needs to understand that we are engaged in a world-wide war against Jihadists and extremists who mean to wipe our nation off the face of the Earth. For that reason and more, it is imperative that we retain a national defense that is second to none. He needs to understand that true conservatives believe that the young men and women who serve in our military represent the very best of our nation and must be given every consideration. That without their heroic service, we will be vanquished.
- He needs to understand that true conservatives do believe that large segments of the entertainment industry are purposefully and systematically exposing our children to the vilest forms of smut. That they do so first, to make money, and second, to indoctrinate as they continue their quest to subvert the morals, ethics, and character of our nation.
- He needs to understand that true conservatives actually do believe in lower taxes and fiscal responsibility. That if you proclaim yourself to be a “Conservative” and turn your back on these tenets, then you are worse than those on the left who believe in neither. He needs to understand that true conservatives understand the value of limited government and expect their leaders to be just as enlightened.
- He needs to understand that true conservatives believe in strict enforcement of the rule of law. That aside from the terrorists from without, our nation is at war with hundreds of thousands of violent gang members from within. That in many cases, these gangs are aligning themselves with drug cartels, terrorist groups and foreign nations. That if we don’t acknowledge this war and win it, then many of our cities and much of our border, will spiral into lawlessness and unchecked murder as these gangs prevail.
- He needs to understand that the appointment of judges is an overriding issue for true conservatives. That they believe in having a strict-constructionist Supreme Court. That there can be no compromise in this area.
- He needs to understand that if he panders to them now to win the nomination and then stabs them in the back to try and win the general election, he has lost them forever.
- And finally, he has to understand that true conservatives will never vote for the “lesser of two evils” come November of 2008. That to do so, would be to betray all that they hold sacred. Faith, family values, and conviction can never be compromised.
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The Wall Street Journal today, Rep. Charlie Rangel's new tax increase plan is explained. (And if Rangel's behind this, we know that it's really Hillary Clinton's tax increase plan.) Tax cuts increase revenue to the US treasury and reduce the deficit. Plus tax cuts result are good for the economy because tax cuts fuel economic growth. That's what President Bush's tax cuts have done.
But as surely as the sun rises and sets, after the Democrats won majorities in both the US House and Senate, the Democrats are looking to raise our taxes:
Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, last week introduced an estimated $3.5 trillion tax increase that would raise the capital gains tax rate from to 19.6% from 15% and places a surtax of as much as 4.6% on people making more than $150,000 a year. Mr. Rangel applies it not to current taxable income but to adjusted gross income, thus phasing down itemized deductions such as charitable contributions, home mortgage deductions, and state and local tax deductions. Together with the end of the Bush tax cuts, Mr. Rangel's plan would increase the top income tax rate to 44% from 35% for individuals, small-business owners and farmers, who make up about three-fourths of taxpayers in the highest bracket.
Now there, is an economic nightmare. All you Republicans who sat out the 2006 elections-how stupid are you now??
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Good news: our Iraqi allies managed to rescue anti al-Qaeda sheiks because the locals gave up the bad guys by informing on them.
But Michael Yon thinks that we could lose Afghanistan.
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First they said that there would be a catastrophically huge number of hurricanes this year, then they took it back. Now they say that there will be unbelievable bunches of wildfires caused by global warming. Now they're saying that global warming is causing too many cyclones.
Besides, global warming has meant fresh cauliflower is available in Greenland.
Senator Inhofe gave a historic speech last week on the floor of the Senate, that spoke truth to global warming believing environmentalist wackos:
In conclusion, I would simply point out that climate alarmism has become a cottage industry in this country and many others, but a growing number of scientists and the general public are coming around to the idea that climate change is natural and that there is no reason for alarm. It is time to stop pretending that the world around us is headed for certain doom and that Kyoto-style policies will save us - when in fact, the biggest danger lies in these policies themselves. As I have noted, new studies continue to pile up debunking alarm and debunking the very foundation for so called "solutions" to warming.
I know this was a long, long speech, but I just want the real people, not the money driven liberals and the Hollywood elitists, but the real people who are out there raising their families and working hard to know that help is on its way and that all the UN and media driven hype to sell American down the river will fail.
And that truth, as Winston Churchill said, "is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is."
But, the narrative has been decided by the MSM, who are (as Ace says), The Deciders.
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Bobby Jindal is a second generation Indian-American, and he won the election in Louisiana to become governor of that state. The MSM/media has constructed a narrative that the Republican party has pursued a "Southern strategy" to change the once Democrat south to the now Republican south. Plus, Governor-Elect Jindal is not only a Republican, he is a movement conservative:
Bobby Jindal, a second generation Indian-American, is going to be the new Republican Governor of Louisiana. Although governors who are black have been elected in Virginia and Massachusetts, this election marks the first time the support of white Southern voters has propelled a non-white governor into office. Jindal's election is evidence that the much-reviled Republican "Southern Strategy" has actually produced one of the greatest advances for civil rights in the history of the United States.
Here's is Michael Barone's analysis of the Jindal win.
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As I noted last week, it had been reported that Jamal al-Badawi, had been released from prison in Aden, Yemen. Badawi is a suspect in the USS Cole Bombing, an al-Qaeda terrorist attack on our country.
The State Department now says that Badawi is now in prison in Aden, Yemen.
More excellent information is here and here.
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How much humiliation can one woman take? A whole lot, if Hillary is the standard of comparison. She suffered humiliation on a world-wide scale through Bill's Monica Lewinsky affair/impeachment. Why didn't Hillary leave Bill Clinton? Because furthering her own political ambitions is more important to her than her dignity.
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For all you Macintosh fans out there.
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President Bush tells Democrats in Congress that Recycling the same old S-CHIP expansion legislation is wasting his time. (HT: Michelle Malkin) Ed Morrissey criticizes, and asks, how come the Democrats can't accomplish anything after winning both houses of Congress in 2006.
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A Guatemalan native was arrested by police in Los Angeles because people saw him lighting a fire on a hillside. Catalino Pineda is said by authorities to currently be on probation for making excessive false emergency reports to law enforcement. Michelle Malkin adds a lot of important immigration background in this video clip:
Previous post: California Fires Caused by Arson - Is Terrorism Involved?
UPDATE: Members of the Iraqi Army have collected a donation for the San Diego, CA fire victims.
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Conservative Republican churchgoers are backing Fred Thompson for the GOP presidential nomination. Fred now ties John McCain with this group of voters. Some conservatives think that Fred was the winner of last Sunday's Republican candidate debate on Fox News.
And Thompson is sending the kind of signals I like on illegal immigration and national sovereignty-at least as far as the Law of the Sea Treaty is concerned.
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While Hillary has a lock on the Democrat nomination, Rasmussen's poll indicates that Rudy and Fred are both, within the margin of error, in the lead for the GOP nomination. Hillary is leading in head-to-head polls against all of the top tier Republican candidates. Patrick Ruffini is theorizing that the nature of the center right political blogosphere could be better structured to positively impact GOP 2008 chances, a very interesting read. He has a great example here of the superior Democrat fundraising operation.
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The environmentalist wackos and their left leaning media supporters are claiming that global warming caused the horrific California wildfires, but it looks like arson is the cause. And the arson could have been and act of jihad terrorism, as the FBI recently warned. There has recently been suspicious activity at California fire stations.
Via Instapundit, here's a California wildfire news aggregator.
One arson suspect has been killed and another arrested. Here's +http://michellemalkin.com/2007/10/24/socal-arson-suspect-killed-another-arrested/trackback/ post.
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She's right, when it comes to defeating al-Qaeda, the individual will save the day. In this particular case, a US citizen, Joseph Shahada is knocking deadly dangerous militant Islamist websites off the internet.
As to waging war against al-Qaeda in Iraq, Michael Ledeen writes that we could actually be winning the war In Iraq-in real terms. This is notable, because Mr. Ledeen expressed reservations about invading Iraq in the run up to the invasion there. It's notable also because Ledeen is an expert on the Middle East, especially Iran:
Should we declare victory over al Qaeda in the battle of Iraq?
The very question would have seemed proof of dementia only a few months ago, yet now some highly respected military officers, including the commander of Special Forces in Iraq, Gen. Stanley McCrystal, reportedly feel it is justified by the facts on the ground.
Captain's Quarters comments on Ledeen's piece.
The Asia Times reports that Pakistan has declared all out war on terrorists in Waziristan:
Just how important is this coming battle?
This could prove to be the turning point in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan while setting al-Qaeda’s operations back to where they were in 2003 after the Taliban was defeated. A “qualified” intelligence estimate is that pacification of the Waziristans would reduce the capability of the Afghan resistance by 85% as well as “deliver a serious setback to the Iraqi resistance” who depend on the bases in Waziristan for money, weapons, and logistical support.
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The Democrats want to socialize medicine in the US, to turn the health care in our country into a European-like system. As an American who is now WAYYYYYYYYYY beyond middle age (I am middle aged if you expect to live a very, very long time), the idea of socialized medicine in the next decade is a frightening thing. As Mark Steyn writes at National Review:
I’m in favor of tax credits for child health care, and Health Savings Accounts for adults, and any other reform that emphasizes the citizen’s responsibility to himself and his dependents. But middle-class entitlement creep would be wrong even if was affordable, even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it every month: it turns free-born citizens into enervated wards of the nanny state. As Gerald Ford likes to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” But there’s an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn’t big enough to get you to give any of it back. As I point out in my book, nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism: once a fellow’s enjoying the fruits of Euro-style entitlements, he couldn’t give a hoot about the general societal interest; he’s got his, and who cares if it’s going to bankrupt the state a generation hence?
That’s the real “war on children”: In Europe, it’s killing their future. Don’t make the same mistake here.
The Republicans in the Congress want to see the S-CHIP program continue, at the previous rate of funding. So that families earning up to $80,000 are not covered-which what the Democrats are looking for in the current proposed S-CHIP expansion. Joe Knollenberg, A Michigan Republican congressman writes that Nancy Pelosi's health care bill will affect illegal immigration rates:
But this story gets worse. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill lowers the standards for proving one’s citizenship. This will open the flood gates to identity theft, fraud, and make it possible for illegal immigrants to qualify for the expansion of taxpayer-provided health care. That’s just wrong and I can’t accept it.
Democrat Congressman, Pete Stark (see the deranged video at the link) manages to draw a parallel between the S-CHIP entitlement expansion, President Bush and the war in Iraq:
Rep. Pete Stark starts blabbering about Republicans who don’t want to spend money on children, but instead want to spend it on “an illegal war” to be fought by children whom Republicans want to send to Iraq to “blow people up” and “get their heads blown up” for “his amusement.”
Stark: “Bush just likes to blow things up!!!”
There's a fine public servant for you, heh? (Insert sarcasm tag here.) I'm sure it's just a bit of Democrat nuance.
Ed Morrissey live blogged the S-CHIP debate in congress.
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Prime Minister John Howard of Australia is one of my all time favorite world leaders, but he's behind in the polls before the election.
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House Democrats have pulled the legislation that would have changed the FISA law for the worse:
House Democrats have been forced to pull their proposed legislation to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because they couldn't round up enough support among Dems who need the votes of non-liberals to be re-elected. You probably recall that the Democratic leadership was embarrassed two months ago when these same non-leftist Dems joined with Republicans to pass a temporary FISA fix so that our intelligence agencies could monitor the overseas communications of terrorists without obtaining a warrant. Still unwilling to provide the administration with the FISA fix it needs to ensure the gathering of information vital to the national security, the Democratic leadership has been slapped down again by members of its own caucus.
Michelle Malkin has more.
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The president may have miserably low approval ratings, but he keeps on beating the Democrats...good times, good times:
The Democrats misunderstood the message of 2006. Voters wanted an end to spending and corruption, not an amplification of either or both. Republicans lost in Congress because they acted like Democrats, spending like drunken sailors. Now they want to attack Bush by spending even more wildly than the Republicans and expect him to retreat, but Bush has finally found a hill on which he can fight successfully. The S-CHIP debate showed that, and the budget-busting proposals from the Democrats will return the GOP to the side of fiscal responsibility in 2008.
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