Is this real?

Hillary Clinton thinks this helps her? Who told her this display of blatant arrogance is a good idea (as if these "gifts" are hers to pass out)?

H/T: Instapundit

Why One Laptop Per Child will fail

The inevitable grumblings have already begun. The much vaunted One Laptop Per Child was doomed before it ever started. Even if Nicholas Negroponte was somehow magically able to get 200 million laptops into Africa at absolutely no cost to anyone, the program would still fail. The laptops are cool and might be worth buying in their own right -- but the greatest technology in the world will not turn the continent around. Here's why.

Prosperity is not built on technology -- it is built on a platform of fundamental human rights. Prosperity can only be created in a society that respects property, the rule of law and free markets (not something the left is yet adept at defending or understanding). One Laptop Per Child succumbs to the Jeffrey Sachs fallacy - the "Poverty Trap" lie.


From the OLPC website:
The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

Education in and of itself is not a recipe for freedom and prosperity. At the end of the day, OLPC-type initiatives end up being self-serving "feel good" exercises in futility that keep the leftists chugging along in justifying their atrocious record in securing peace and prosperity across the globe. As the program fails, expect the usual finger pointing -- blaming US for not doing enough. Don't buy it...

This should not be confusing or controversial. For millennia, human prosperity flat-lined. It is only within the past 300 years that humans have learned to save and generate wealth. The "secret sauce" is not hard to discover - property rights, minority (individuals) protections from governments, justice in the courts, and capitalism. Before laptops, Africa needs fewer Mugabes, Mandelas, and Thabo Mbeki's and more "Declarations of Indepedence."

To no longer be human

British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings

An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws.

Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry.

The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones".

John Murtha - The Face of DC Corruption

Here is a man so obviously corrupt; a man who stands for absolutely nothing except staying in power. His screaming attacks against a military he once served in was a pragmatic power move, endearing him to a loud minority of anti-American socialists desperate for influence and willing to ignore any indiscretion.

Berkeley's Confused Children Unite in the Struggle to Defend Radical Islam

Kudos to Zombie for another great report. It is a must see.

"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is a nationwide series of lectures and presentations organized by conservative writer David Horowitz and his various organizations. On the evening of October 22, dozens of famous speakers gave lectures at universities around the country, mostly on the subject of Islamic extremism. The presenter at U.C. Berkeley that evening was Nonie Darwish, an Arab-American author and feminist who has become a Muslim apostate and vociferous critic of radical Islam.

Her appearance at Cal was sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans, and strongly opposed by several left-wing groups and Muslim organizations, including World Can't Wait, the Muslim Students Association, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Her speech was even condemned by the ASUC, the official student governing body at Berkeley.

The Unabomber's Manifesto explains why the modern leftist can't help themselves - they are compelled to rise up and defend any group they feel is repressed (even if it is a disgusting ideology they have to defend). The struggle itself is as far as the left can see - it is their vision-less end game. Sick and sad and disgusting.

11. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights advocates have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftist anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the word "primitive" by "nonliterate." They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)

12. Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual, white males from middle-class families.

13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals), or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit it to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not suggest that women, Indians, etc., ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology).

Owell's 1984 - “What a great idea!”

I just enjoyed a comment from reader "MattR" responding to this post on Andrew Bolt's blog:

"It’s like the moonbat media read nineteen eighty four and thought “what a great idea!”"

Reuters shows their economic ignorance as Quebec institutes a global warming tax

Reuters:

Quebec province slapped the country's first carbon tax on energy firms on Monday, as Canadian business leaders urged "environmental taxation" to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions.

...

It wasn't immediately known whether the oil companies, including Petro-Canada and Imperial Oil, would pass along the cost to consumers.

Such taxes are ALWAYS passed back to the end consumer. Always.

It is also implied in the article that businesses are behind this 100%.

Separately, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives said Canada should become "an energy and environmental superpower," and suggested higher energy prices to help cut emissions, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.

No context is given regarding the nature of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and their pro-State advocacy going back almost 30 years. The CCCE is made up of 150 CEOs, many of whose businesses are directly tied to the Canadian State. No where in the article does Reuters offer an opinion on how this might affect the other two and a half million businesses in the country. The non-questioning reader may walk away assuming everyone is behind this new tax. Ignorance or bias or both?

A Collective Mess of Ineffectuality

(From Age of Hooper) Hilarious. What do these clowns do in their off time when they aren't participating in a collective mess of ineffectuality? Nice breasts at the 6:00 mark, btw.



Update (via LGF):
Check out the flag burning bliss. Greatest day of his life.

Wishing it was 1965 all over again?

Sorry, nope...it isn't. The punishments in this deplorable Jena 6 case were not fair to the deeds, yes (clearly, the white students involved deserved assault charges). Was there racism involved in the justice? Perhaps....but to pretend this is 1965 all over again? Why perpetuate this victim status and feed human scum suckers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Are we regressing out of a need to struggle for the sake of it?

La. Protests Hark Back to '50s, '60s

As she trudged up a hill to a rally at a park, 63-year-old Elizabeth Redding of Willinboro, N.J., remembered marching at Selma, Ala., when she was in her 20s.

"I am a great-grandmother now. I'm doing this for my great-grandchildren," she said.

France's new dance crave?

This??? via Drudge.

Leftists turning against each other over the war

Mainstream leftist, Dan Gerstein, turns on the far left, blaming the rabid anti-war movement for Congress's inability to undermine President Bush's Iraq strategy.

They may not say it publicly, for fear of arousing the grass roots’ wrath, but the realist wing of the party seems to think the Democrats’ biggest problem on Iraq these days is not that there’s too much Bush Lite but that there’s too much Bush Left.

...the best the Democrats could do after several months of pressure tactics was, in that July showdown, to get four Senate GOP-ers to back a timeline for troop withdrawal, leaving them seven votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster and political light years away from the 67 needed to overcome a veto.

Intransigence. The anti-war movement has rightly castigated Bush for his reflexive inflexibility and, specifically, his maddening decision to stick with the same failed strategy in Iraq

Who do Bush opponents insist on re-stating the lie that Bush is sticking "with the same failed strategy in Iraq" when he clearly is not?

Was a troop surge and the decision to bring troops out of their fortifications and back into the streets (a strategy that is clearly achieving positive results) the "same failed strategy" as before?

Anyway...divide and conquer this bunch. Expect the left and far-left's cat fight to become louder going into the 2008 presidential elections. This is 1972 all over -- and the insane anti-war crowd is on the wrong side of history.

The modern anti-war movement shows its stuff

This is a classic video compilation put together by Charles Ryder at Age of Hooper who embedded with these fools over this weekend's confluence of anti-war, anti-american, anti-everything moonbats in Washington DC. He has been churning out epic material all weekend. Check out his blog to see the full extent of hilarity.



I suggest you watch the video and then follow it up by reading this essay/rant written by a disgruntled leftist:

The American Left's Silly Victim Complex

The sad truth is that if the FBI really is following anyone on the American left, it is engaging in a huge waste of time and personnel. No matter what it claims for a self-image, in reality it’s the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God’s green earth. And its ugly little secret is that it really doesn’t mind being in the position it’s in – politically irrelevant and permanently relegated to the sidelines, tucked into its cozy little cottage industry of polysyllabic, ivory tower criticism. When you get right down to it, the American left is basically just a noisy Upper West side cocktail party for the college-graduate class.

And we all know it. The question is, when will we finally admit it?

Lock this person up for 20 years

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vandalized

What must it be like to feel no shame?

And now there is this. How do Al Gore lackeys keep lapping up the hypocrisy that constantly is sharting out of his mouth?

(or is that his ass?)

An Inconvenient Snafu

NASA says that 1998 is actually not the warmest year on record? How does this affect all those climate models championed by prophet Al Gore and his merry band of followers? How does it change their rhetoric?

Coyote Blog is all over it:

Climate scientist Michael Mann (famous for the hockey stick chart) once made the statement that the 1990's were the warmest decade in a millennia and that "there is a 95 to 99% certainty that 1998 was the hottest year in the last one thousand years." (By the way, Mann now denies he ever made this claim, though you can watch him say these exact words in the CBC documentary Global Warming: Doomsday Called Off).

Well, it turns out, according to the NASA GISS database, that 1998 was not even the hottest year of the last century. This is because many temperatures from recent decades that appeared to show substantial warming have been revised downwards. Here is how that happened (if you want to skip the story, make sure to look at the numbers at the bottom).

Thomas Sowell: Moral Paralysis

A must-read from Thomas Sowell at the Atlasphere, comparing pacifist Europe in the mid-1930s to America and western world today.

“Moral paralysis” is a term that has been used to describe the inaction of France, England and other European democracies in the 1930s, as they watched Hitler build up the military forces that he later used to attack them.

It is a term that may be painfully relevant to our own times.

This ethanol boondoggle is getting costly

While politicians and corrupt farmers (note: Archer Daniels Midland -- kings of farm subsidies corruption) extol the virtues of ethanol, the opportunity costs (those unintended consequences Washington DC so eagerly ignores), continue to pile up, snowballing into a very dangerous situation that can only get worse from here, as the percentage of US corn slated for ethanol production continues to increase. These disgusting subsidies are the only reason the market has adjusted, and they must stop immediately before it is too late.

Farm land prices are going up. This will inevitably increase the costs of other core food crops that Americans depend on.

Many poor Mexicans are now unable to afford the staple of their diets - tortillas.

The price of nearly every food is going up. Beef, pizza, coffee, everything.

Al Gore's global warming idiocy is being exploited into a government-sponsored raping of our heartland and core food supply, funneling billions of dollars from the poor and middle-class consumers into bullshit farming lobbies. End the ethanol subsidies now!

Scientific Consensus = the law of thermodynamics, evolution of species, the periodic table of the elements, the speed of light, and global warming

Power lust will make you say some pretty stupid things...

Yahoo:

"There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community," Gore said at a forum in Singapore. "In actuality, there is very little disagreement."

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."

Some people actually cheer for the pathological liar, John Edwards...

Seriously...there are actually some real, live people out there who clap their hands and stomp their feet and get cherry red in the face dreaming about John Edwards, the "populist" candidate, gutting out a victory over his democratic compatriots, vanquishing GOP cannon fodder in the general election, and carrying this trial lawyer into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the address from which he will make poverty history, bring Christopher Reeves back from the dead, and end all bad things, period....BAM!

I can't help it. I get a kick out of it. Lots and lots of people love this fraud. He is exposed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. No matter. We have to increase the minimum wage, save the whales from global warming, and help the poor and stuff...

The more his wife Elizabeth dabbles in public discourse, the easier it is to see how much these two are meant for each other. Are they both compulsive liars or just simpletons in over their heads? Sadly, contracting cancer clearly does not make one intelligent or honest.

In spite of it all, it remains quite enjoyable to sit back and watch the ineffectual supporters of these frauds spend money and get excited over a big cloud of nothing.

Yahoo News:

Plunging headlong into the Internet era, all seven candidates fought for the support of the powerful and polarizing liberal blogosphere by promising universal health care, aggressive government spending and dramatic change from the Bush era.

Edwards received a loud cheer when he suggested his rivals were tinkering around the edges — "I just heard some discussion about negotiation, compromise" — rather than overhauling government. He said the nation needs "big change, not small change."

The party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, Edwards called on the field to join him in refusing donations from Washington lobbyists. He suggested that accepting lobbyists' money would make Democrats no better than Republicans.

"We don't want to trade their insiders for ours," said the former North Carolina senator.

As Jack Marshall says:

Why are so many Americans willing to consider candidates for national office who obviously think the public is made up of morons?

Authoritarian Love Fest for the Mentally Challenged

"In the name of the peoples of the world, President Bush, withdraw the troops from Iraq. Enough already with so much genocide," Chavez said before an auditorium packed with his red-clad supporters.

Penn sat near the front, at times applauding and nodding in agreement. He is the latest in a series of celebrities who have visited Caracas, including Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.

Is Obama stupid or just corrupt?

Here he is, telling us how eager he is to negotiate with the most illegitimate and dangerous regimes in the world - for the sake of "repairing" busted bridges. Obama is a smart man who usually says a lot without saying anything at all. But in this case, he must know better that negotiation with thuggery legitimizes thuggery. Agreements made with thugs always requires a compromising of our interests (presumably in sharing freedom) and ultimately leads to a further erosion of support from countries that would normally be our natural allies in liberty.

For example, the elder George Bush sold out Lebanon to Syria for support in Iraq War 1. In doing so, he legitimized the thuggery of Syrian Baath Party leaders, agreeing to let them occupy a democratic Lebanon, destroying the trust we built with this nation under Reagan. With Nancy Pelosi tripping over herself in the rush to re-establish relations with Syrian thug-master Bashar al-Assad, we're telling freedom-loving people within Lebanon that the US will turn its back on them once Democrats assume the presidency. Why should these people support the US and Israel when Obama is telling the world that he can't wait to talk to Syria and Iran?

Obama can't be this stupid, can he?

You Tube Debate: Unintentional Comedy Scale off the Charts

Tonight's Democratic Debate was hosted by YouTubers -- and the unintentional comedy scale was off the charts. The self-importance of the questions from these people has me in stitches...Have these people ever even voted before? These are truly embarrassing - who are these people and what do they do in real life?

Here are some highlights. But check them all out - every one elicits a laugh.
























This lady is getting a bit ahead of herself. Universal health care for the world, paid for by you.


Pimple-faced, yet so superior in his dogmatic "secularism." All he wants to do is show off his atheism. Good for you, buddy...good for you...

"I want to believe in climate change"

"I am a partisan democrat - and climate change is good for my candidates. I am very clever. I am an advocate for science and reason."

- roughly 25% of the US population

The sun appears to drive climate change

The sun? What does the sun have to do with any of this? Are you serious?

Professor Tim Patterson of the University of Carleton explains why he believes sun spots and solar activity are central to the Earth's climate change. Occam's razor at work.

National Post: Read the sunspots

When a liar is exposed

John Kerry campaign manager Bob Shrum:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else.

From one salesman to another

Larry Flynt on Jerry Falwell:

I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling.

These guys clearly knew how to profit from one another. The religious right knows that the hedonists and the far left is good for their business, and vice versa. Symbiotic and annoying.

Religion

From the Global Warming is a Neo-Religion files; It gets more overt every day.

Bloomberg News:

Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

They'll also find the Gaia equipped with waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper as it marches toward becoming California's first hotel certified as ``green,'' or benevolent to the environment. Similar features are found 35 miles south at San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, which competes for customers with neighboring luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont.

Senator Reid - "To be brief, your words are killing us."

Via Michelle Malkin,

LT Nichols in Baghdad:

Senator Reid: When you say we've lost in Iraq, I don't think you understand the effect of your words. The Iraqis I speak with are the good guys here, fighting to build a stable government. They hear what you say, but they don't understand it. They don't know about the political game, they don't know about a Presidential veto, and they don't know about party politics.

But they do know that if they help us, they are noticed by terrorists and extremists. They decide to help us if they think we can protect them from those terrorists. They tell us where caches of weapons are hidden. They call and report small groups of men who are strangers to the neighborhood, men that look the same to us, but are obvious to them as a foreign suicide cell.

To be brief, your words are killing us. Your statements make the Iraqis afraid to help us for fear we'll leave them unprotected in the future. They don't report a cache, and its weapons blow up my friends in a convoy. They don't report a foreign fighter, and that fighter sends a mortar onto my base. Your statements are noticed, and they have an effect.

Finally, you are mistaken when you say we are losing. We are winning, I see it every day. However, we will win with fewer casualties if you help us. Will you?

Respectfully,

LT Jason Nichols, USN
MNF-I, Baghdad

Addicted to Jihad in Iraq - Sunni Al Qaeda wants more dead Sunni Muslims

Regarding the Tal Afar bombing...

Back talk:

This attack was carried by al Qaeda, not Sunni insurgents (look it up if you don't believe me). Why would al Qaeda do that? Are they in a civil war with the Shiites, too? No. This bombing in Tal Afar, like many such bombings, was definitely not part of the civil war. Instead, it was an act of terror designed to provoke the Shiite militias back into the battle against the Sunnis. Do you understand the difference? The bombing is not an example of a retaliatory attack carried out by Sunnis against Shiites (that's the civil war schema). It is, instead, an example of Sunni al Qaeda trying to get Shiite militias to kill more Sunnis. And al Qaeda is doing that to further its jihadist objectives -- objectives that Sunnni insurgents do not share. I am just amazed that these virtually indisputable facts are not more widely appreciated.

Seeking Victimization

Jason Whitlock:

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

NY Times Officially in Love With Obama

Who are they kidding? Is this is news or free advertising?

For most Democrats, Mr. Obama is the Illinois senator who riveted the Democratic National Convention with a keynote speech that marked him as one of the most powerful speakers his party had produced in 50 years. But as Mr. Obama methodically worked his way across swaths of rural northern Iowa — his towering figure and skin color making him stand out at out diners and veteran’s homes, at high schools and community colleges — it was clear that he is not presenting himself, stylistically at least, the way he did two years ago when he gripped Democrats at the Fleet Center in Boston.

He is cerebral and easy-going, often talking over any applause that might rise up from his audience, and perhaps consciously trying to present a political style that contrasts with the more charged presences of John Edwards, the former trial lawyer and senator from North Carolina, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

You want cerebral? See my 6.3 Obama Cliches Per Minute post.

Global Warming is a Neo-Religion

This topic has been a constant source of posts on this blog through the years and it is encouraging to see a lot of other opinionated folks are picking up on this as well.

See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

My question is, how did so many in this generation get duped into becoming so religious? And how come these people have the gall to call it undisputed science? It strikes me funny in the same way when I listen to the laughable "creationist scientists" (the folks who believe the "earth is 6000 years old and we have proof").

Just like the Church banned heretics in the dark ages, so too would the greens like to shut down dissenting voices. The mentality boils down to: "There is no debate - there is only consensus. Think otherwise, and you are going to hell." The environmentalists just have changed who is who.

God = Gaia
Messiah = Al Gore
Holy Spirit = The Atmosphere
Original Sin = man as consumer
Repentance = carbon offsets

There is ample proof that this movement, just like any other religion, is primarily a tool for controlling people. If carbon dioxide is the big worry, there is a safe, inexpensive alternative - nuclear power. But these people are against the most rational answer to their supposed problem. Until their religion gets behind nuclear power, nothing good will come of their prayers.

Not many people deny the greenhouse effect exists or that the earth hasn't warmed up over the past 100 years - that is science. What no one in the religious global warming community can answer is how much of that warming is due of mankind, how much is from the sun, how much is from cow farts. There is not a single model that can explain or forecast this phenomenon. When they figure that out, perhaps they will have something real to say on the topic. Until then, "100% consensus" type rhetoric/lies is meaningless and only serves the political elites who seek to command and control through fear.

The answer to my above question is:
Earth worship is perhaps the only place remaining for the old left to hide their agenda of command and control. And that is the funny thing about the old left - Marx recognized religion as the opiate of the masses. Communism kicked out the Church and put the State in its place. If global warming is the best God the old left can come up with now, I'm feeling pretty good about things.

The lesson of the 20th century is that free markets, private property, and individual rights is better than anything the left can serve, 100% of the time, on every last patch of earth, even where the ice is melting.



Update: The NY Times is even getting in on it:

Cliches Just Pouring Out of Obama's Mouth

Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone:

Obama, on the other hand, can close his eyes and the cliches just pour out of his mouth in huge polysyllabic paragraphs, like Rachmaninoff improvisations. In this sense he's exactly like Bill Clinton, who had the same gift. He is exactly what is meant by the term bullshit artist. My usual instinct when presented with this type of Zelig-esque, Eddie Haskell, non-stick personality is to violently reject it. But over the course of the last few weeks I've found myself increasingly amused by the Obama phenomenon.

"Guaranteeing Defeat"

By Donald Kirk via the NY Sun:

So great was anti-war pressure across America that Nixon, soon after announcing the foray into the communist base areas, placed a strict limit on the presence of American troops in Cambodia — no more than 60 days. Nor would they go down much beyond the Ho Chi Minh trail network which Hanoi had been sending supplies to for years.

That wasn't all. Just to pin down American forces still more tightly, the next January, our Congress passed the Cooper-Church amendment barring military operations inside Cambodia as a condition for the military budget.

The North Vietnamese suffered devastating blows while American troops were there but had plenty of time to regroup and mount a full-scale invasion of South Vietnam two years later — the Easter offensive — in which they were again thrown back, only to recover and return one last time in the winter and spring of 1975 when all American troops had gone.

Now Congress is playing the same game. Forgetting the lesson of 1970, the House and Senate want to set a limit on the duration of U.S. military operations inside Iraq.

The voting on this maneuver has broken down largely along party lines — the Democrats shouting down the Republicans, but you don't have to be a card-carrying conservative or a Republican to recognize this bid for legislative command of the armed forces as a betrayal of our troops.

We are not going to win a war, or get out with any semblance of honor, by telling our enemy to just lie low for a while and next month or next year we'll be gone. America lost in Vietnam as a result of anti-war opposition at home.

Read the rest.

Pork is Pork, Unless it is a Pet

Don Surber:

Dana Milbank’s page two-er today, “Senate’s Bold Proposal for Iraq: Sugar Beets and Rural Schools — in the U.S.” in the Washington Post, broke down some of the items added to the emergency spending bill for the war on terror.

Milbank did not tell readers the Democratic Senate used this bill to ladle out its annual $20 billion in pork.

In fact, the word “pork” did not appear even once in his story.

He called it “pet projects.”

That has a much nicer sound, doesn’t it?

Al Gore’s "Faith-Based Initiative"

Jonah Goldberg:

Global warming is what William James called a “moral equivalent of war” that gives political officials the power to do things they could never do without a crisis.

As liberal journalist James Ridgeway wrote in the early 1970s: “Ecology offered liberal-minded people what they had longed for, a safe, rational and above all peaceful way of remaking society … [and] developing a more coherent central state.”

This explains Gore’s relentless talk of “consensus,” his ugly moral bullying of “deniers” and, most of all, his insistence that because there’s no time left to argue, everyone should do what he says.

Soros is trying to make the left unelectable

At least that is how I see it...

Obama Rebuffs Soros - New York Sun

The Soros article puts Democrats in the awkward position of choosing between Mr. Soros, a major funder of their causes, and the pro- Israel lobby, whose members are also active in campaign fund-raising.

How can a man be committed to open society overseas while simultaneously destroying it here where it all started?


soros, eli lake, conspiracy, obama, moveon, politics

Mugabe's Meltdown - How Zimbabwe is Destroying Itself from the Inside Out

Classically Liberal puts you inside the mind of Robert Mugabe, friend to dictators world-wide (Chavez, Castro, Mandela, Iran/Sistani).

2.04 Mitt Romney Cliches Per Minute

Not that I care about bi-partisanship, but I get an uneasy feeling listening to Mitt Romney stump around, flip-flopping, et al, so I decided to compare his cliches per minute to Obama's insane 6.3 per minute rate. I sense that Romney is the type of guy who needs to be a politician; its all he knows...and he needs the love and adoration and power. It almost feels like he is begging us for it, which would explain why he changes positions so easily.

Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy today in an 18 minute and 38 second speech. (From 3:30 to 22:08). Below is my count of his cliches and non-speak.

38 cliches and non-speaks in total for a total of 2.04 per minute. Not quite as high as I expected and he almost looks Jeffersonian compared to Obama.

Cliches highlighted in bold below.

"I am happy to be in Michigan this morning. I'm happy to have my brother Scott and Sister Lynn here. And I'm proud to have all my children and grandchildren here too.

"Michigan is where Ann and I were born. It is where we met and fell in love. I still love Ann. And I still love Michigan!

"During my parents' campaigns, I visited all 83 Michigan counties, doing my best to convince Michiganders that Romneys and Republicans could lead the state back to prosperity.

"You know my father as a business leader, a governor, and as an advocate of volunteerism. But he came from humble roots. He labored with lath and plaster. He never graduated from college. But like many other Americans, he made his dreams come true.

"And he made a difference. My father worked here to improve Detroit Schools. He worked to write a new state constitution. And he worked as your governor for six years to get Michigan on the move. His character and integrity left an impression that has lasted through the decades.

"It was Mom who did the lion's share of raising Lynn, Jane, Scott and me. Dad said, that as a successful Mom, she had accomplished more than he. Later she worked in charities, in foster care, in music and the arts, and in volunteerism. She even ran for U.S. Senate.

"I always imagined that I would come back to Michigan someday. That's why I took the bar exam here. I hadn't imagined it would happen this way, but I sure have come back to Michigan today.

"I chose this site for a number of reasons. It's filled with cars and memories. Dad and I loved cars. Most kids read the sports box scores. Dad and I read Automotive News. We came here together, him teaching me about cars that were built before my time.

"The Rambler automobile he championed was the first American car designed and marketed for economy and mileage. He dubbed it a compact car, a car that would slay the gas-guzzling dinosaurs. It transformed the industry.

"This place is not just about automobiles; it is about innovation, innovation that transformed an industry, and in doing so, gave Americans a way of life our grandparents could never have imagined.

"The DC 3 above us was the first true commercial airliner. It transformed aviation from a luxury to a standard mode of transportation.

"Next to us is a Ford hybrid. It is the first giant step away from our reliance on the gasoline engine. It is already changing the world of transportation.

"Just outside is Thomas Edison's laboratory. There, electricity that Benjamin Franklin discovered was transformed from a novelty into a necessity.

"Innovation and transformation have been at the heart of America's success. If there ever was a time when innovation and transformation were needed in government, it is now.

"We have lost faith in government, not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government.

"We are weary of the bickering and bombast, fatigued by the posturing and self-promotion. For even as America faces a new generation of challenges, the halls of government are clogged with petty politics and stuffed with peddlers of influence.

"It is time for innovation and transformation in Washington. It is what our country needs. It is what our people deserve.

"I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician. There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements ... and too little real world experience managing, guiding, leading.

"I do not believe Washington can be transformed by someone who has never tried doing such a thing before, in any setting, by someone who has never even managed a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world.

"Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation. It has taught me the vital lessons that come only from experience, from failures and successes, from the private, public and voluntary sectors, from small and large enterprise, from leading a state, from being in the arena, not just talking about it. Talk is easy, talk is cheap. It is doing that is hard. And it is only in doing that hope and dreams come to life.

"This Christmas, Ann and I gathered my five sons and five daughters-in-law to ask them whether I should run for President.

"We talked about the special time this is in the history of America - the challenges and the opportunities. We talked about the qualities that are needed in our leaders. They were unanimous. They know our hearts. They know our values. They know my experience innovating and transforming, in business, in the Olympics, and in Massachusetts. And they know we love this country.

"And so, with them behind us, with the fine people of Michigan before us, and with my sweetheart beside me, I declare my intention to run for President of the United States.

"It has been said that a person is defined by what he loves and by what he believes and by what he dreams.

"I love America and I believe in the people of America.

"I believe in God and I believe that every person in this great country, and every person on this grand planet, is a child of God. We are all sisters and brothers.

"I believe the family is the foundation of America – and that we must fight to protect and strengthen it.

"I believe in the sanctity of human life.

"I believe that people and their elected representatives should make our laws, not unelected judges.

"I believe we are overtaxed and government is overfed. Washington is spending too much money.

"I believe that homeland security begins with securing our borders.

"I believe the best days of this country are ahead of us, because ... "I believe in America!

"At this critical time, we must 1) transform our role in the world, 2) strengthen our nation, and 3) build a brighter future for the American family.

"Today, as we stare at the face of radical violent Jihad and at the prospect of nuclear epidemic, our military might should not be subject to the whims of ever-changing political agendas. The best ally of peace is a strong America!

"Our role in the world must be defined not only in terms of our might, but also by our willingness to lead, to serve, and to share. We must campaign for freedom and democracy in our own hemisphere, now threatened by a second aspiring strongman. We must extend our hand to Africa's poor and diseased and brutalized. We must lead the world's civilized nations in a partnership that will support moderate Muslim nations and peoples, to help them embrace principles of modernity and defeat violent Jihad. We must link arms with all responsible nations to block Iran from realizing its nuclear ambition. America must never engage and negotiate with Jihadists who want to destroy us, destroy our friends, and destroy our way of life!

"Across the nation, there is debate about our future course in Iraq. Our desire to bring our troops home, safely and soon, is met with our recognition that if Iraq descends into all-out civil war, millions could die; that Iraq's Sunni region could become a base for Al Qaeda; that its Shia region could be seized by Iran; that Kurd tension could destabilize Turkey; and even that the broader Middle East could be drawn into conflict. The possible implications for America and for American interests from such developments could be devastating. It could mean a future with far more military involvement and far more loss of American life. For these reasons, I believe that so long as there is a reasonable prospect of success, our wisest course is to seek stability in Iraq, with additional troops endeavoring to secure the civilian population.

"And no matter how Iraq is resolved, we must honor and care for the veterans who risked their lives, and for the families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice. Our nation has a sacred pact with those who defend freedom. It is a pact we must never break!

"America must regain our standing in the world. Our influence must once again match our generosity. Over the entire 20th century, no nation gave more, shed more precious lives, and took less for itself than America. Our sacrifice for freedom and for human dignity continues unabated. But this is not the way it is seen by others. America's goodness and leadership in the world, must be as bright and bold as our military might!

"America can also overcome our challenges and seize our abundant opportunities here at home, but only if we follow the right course.

"There are some who believe that America's strength comes from government - that challenges call for bigger government, for more regulation of our lives and livelihood, and for more protection and isolation from competition that comes from open markets.

"That is the path that has been taken by much of Europe. It is called the welfare state. It has led to high unemployment and anemic job growth. It is not the path to prosperity and leadership.

"I believe the American people are the source of our strength. They always have been. They always will be. The American people: hard working, educated, innovative, ready to sacrifice for family and country, patriotic, seeking opportunity above dependence, God-fearing, free American people. When we need to call on the strength of America, we should strengthen the American people, not the American government!

"We strengthen the American people by giving them more freedom, by letting them keep more of what they earn, by making sure our schools are providing the skills our children will need for tomorrow, and by keeping America at the leading edge of innovation and technology.

"Our government has become a weight on the American people, sapping their strength and slowing their climb. We must transform our government - to become a government that is smaller and less bureaucratic, one with fewer regulations and more freedom for our people. The innovation we need today is to make government more responsive to the needs of everyday American citizens. It's time to put government in its place, and to put the American people first!

"At America's core are millions of individual families: families of children and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents, foster parents. There is no work more important for our nation's future than the work done in the home.

"But the work done in the home isn't getting easier. Values and morals that have long shaped the development of our children are under constant attack. In too many cases, schools are failing. For some, healthcare is inadequate. Family expenses and government taxes take a larger and larger bite. America cannot continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home.

"How is the American family made stronger? With marriage before children. With a mother and a father in the life of every child. With healthcare that is affordable and portable. With schools that succeed. With taxes that are lower. And with leaders who strive to demonstrate enduring values and morality.

"This was the agenda I pursued as Governor of Massachusetts. This is the agenda I will pursue if elected President.

"When I was a boy, the American dream meant a house in the suburbs. The American dream today must mean more than a house. The new American dream should include a strong family, enduring values, excellence in education, dependable and affordable healthcare, secure employment and secure retirement, and a safe and prosperous homeland. It's time to build a new American dream for all of America's families.

"How will this new American dream be built? Our hopes and dreams will inspire us, for we are an optimistic people. But hope alone is just crossing fingers, when what we need is industrious hands. It is time for hope and action. It is time to do, as well as to dream!

"As we look around us in this museum, we see the evidence of American innovation - airplanes, automobiles, appliances. But these are not America's greatest innovation. America's greatest innovation is freedom. Without freedom, we have nothing. With freedom, nothing can hold us back.

"Freedom has made the American dream possible. Freedom will make the new American dream possible. And with the work, sacrifice, and greatness of spirit of the American people, freedom has made America - and will keep America - the greatest nation on earth. God bless America."

Tags: mitt romney, politics, cliches

6.3 Obama Cliches Per Minute

Every time I hear Obama speak, I can't help but laugh. For the sake of my own entertainment, I counted and highlighted the cliches from Obama's speech announcing his run for the Democratic nomination. 126 cliches in total, and according to the C-Span video, it lasted 20 minutes (from 6:30 to 26:30).

6.3 cliches per minute. It's even worse than I thought; hiliarous and scary at the same time.

Cliches highlighted in bold below.

Thank you so much. Praise and honor to God for bringing us together today. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to see all of you.

Let me begin by saying thanks to all of you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today.

I'm fired up.

We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling to see a crowd like this , but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me. No, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe that we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.

That's the journey we're on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state. I moved to Illinois over two decades ago. I was a young man then, just a year out of college; I knew no one in Chicago when I arrived, was without money or family connections. But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for the grand sum of $13,000 a year. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea — that I might play a small part in building a better America.

My work took me to some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings. I saw that the problems people faced weren't simply local in nature — that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in schools could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to violence, I came to realize that there's a hole in that boy's heart no government could ever fill.

It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had, and where I learned the meaning of my Christian faith.

After three years of this work, I went to law school, because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need. I became a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law, and after a time, I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate. It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this capital city as a state Senator.

It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge — farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. I made lasting friendships here — friends that I see in the audience here today.

It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable — that it's possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we're willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.

It's why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken. That's why we were able to give health insurance to children in need. That's why we made the tax system right here in Springfield more fair and just for working families, and that's why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed.

It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people — where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

Now listen, I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.

The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed. And we should take heart, because we've changed this country before. In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees. In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free. In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty. We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west, we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King's call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call.

For that is our unyielding faith — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. Because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people — as Americans.

All of us know what those challenges are today — a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We've heard them. We've talked about them for years.

What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics — the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle the big problems of America.

For the last six years we've been told that our mounting debts don't matter, we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion, we've been told that climate change is a hoax, we've been told that tough talk and an ill-conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight. And when all else fails, when Katrina happened, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.

And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that kind of politics is over. It is through. It's time to turn the page right here and right now.

Now look, we have made some progress already. I was proud to help lead the fight in Congress that led to the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.

But Washington has a long way to go. And it won't be easy. That's why we'll have to set priorities. We'll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes that we need, more money and programs alone will not get us to where we need to go. Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility — for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children, for adapting to a more competitive economy, for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation.

Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America. We can do that.

And as our economy changes, let's be the generation that ensures our nation's workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let's protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let's make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement. Let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle-class again. We can do that.

Let's be the generation that ends poverty in America. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills, and afford child care so their kids can have a safe place to go when they work. We can do this.

And let's be the generation that finally tackles our health care crisis. We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment for the chronically ill, and using technology to cut the bureaucracy. Let's be the generation that says right here, right now, we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president's first term. We can do that.

Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars. We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases. We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation, and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world. Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.

Most of all, let's be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day and confront the terrorists with everything we've got. Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore — we can work together to keep our country safe. I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law that will secure and destroy some of the world's deadliest weapons. We can work together to track down terrorists with a stronger military, we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities and finally get homeland security right. But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions of people around the globe. We can do those things.

But all of this cannot come to pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraq. Most of you know that I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been. America, it is time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war. That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace.

And there is one other thing that is not too late to get right about this war — and that is the homecoming of the men and women — our veterans — who have sacrificed the most. Let us honor their courage by providing the care they need and rebuilding the military they love. Let us be the generation that begins that work.

I know there are those who don't believe we can do all these things. I understand the skepticism. After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises, and I expect this year will be no different. All of us running for president will travel around the country offering ten-point plans and making grand speeches; all of us will trumpet those qualities we believe make us uniquely qualified to lead the country. But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.

That's why this campaign can't only be about me. It must be about us — it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice — to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not. This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

By ourselves, this change will not happen. Divided, we are bound to fail.

But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.

He tells us that there is power in words.

He tells us that there is power in conviction.

That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people.

He tells us that there is power in hope.

As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, he was heard to say this: "Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through."

That is our purpose here today.

That is why I'm in this race.

Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.

I want to win that next battle — for justice and opportunity.

I want to win that next battle — for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care for all.

I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.

And if you will join with me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations, then I am ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you. Today, together, we can finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth. Thank you very much everybody — let's get to work.

Tags: obama, politics, cliches, president

Britain is looking up...

Hilarious article by a perplexed Robert Booth of Sunday Times looking the scourge of Great Britain's most selfish Generation Y.

Generation Y speaks: it’s all us, us, us

Research by the Henley Centre, a research consultancy, shows that for the first time in 10 years a majority now believes the quality of life in Britain is best improved by putting the individual first.

The latest generation of graduates — Generation Y — shows the most extreme traits of self-absorption.

...

“It’s all about what they can get away with so they can go out and have a good social life with their friends,” said Linsey Perry, vice-president of the AGR.

Bring back Thatcher...

"Want to talk cowardice? Want to talk chickenhawk?"

Via Ace of Spades HQ:

The Democrats are now actually trading American lives for votes.

You're So Vain...

U.S. lawmakers hammer Bush's new Iraq plan (Reuters)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects to have the votes, with the support of some Republicans, to pass a non-binding resolution opposing the new deployment, which would bring American troop levels in Iraq to more than 150,000.

But leading Democrats stopped short of threatening to block funding for the new forces, mindful that would give Bush and his allies a chance to accuse them of abandoning the troops.

...you probably think this song is about you.