-By Warner Todd Huston
Looks like the Associated Press has fired all its editors… or at least all the editors that can spell. Either that, or the good folks at the AP are so unfamiliar with matters military that they don’t know that the name for the beginning of the day’s activities in the military is “reveille.” As you can see below, the AP misspelled it “Revile.”
Anyway, I just found it amusing. Probably because I “revile” the Old Media so often.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Peter Gadiel’s son James was killed when Muslim murderers crashed a plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In memory of that horrible day, James’ hometown of Kent, Connecticut wants to erect a plaque memorializing James’ death but there has come a snag to the city’s plans: James’ father, Peter.
Peter Gadiel wants a specific line added to the plaque making the city fathers squeamish. He wants the plaque to say, “murdered by Muslim terrorists.”
Town officials have been scandalized by this all too trenchant line that Peter wants added to the memorial to his son. Kent’s city officials are playing the can’t-we-all-get-along game.
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Father Wants ‘Murdered by Muslim Terrorists’ on Son’s Memorial”
-By Warner Todd Huston
I am not a Mark Kirk fan. For me he is and always has been far too “moderate” on social issues and his now (maybe) retracted Cap and Tax vote sticks in my craw pretty badly. But Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly blog Political Animal unfairly and illicitly slammed Kirk on something he said in an interview with The News Gazette of Danville, Illinois.
Benen was ticked at Kirk’s answer about the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy of the U.S. Military. In an effort to show all his LGBT, or BLGT, or BLT fans… whatever they call themselves this week… Benen jumped on Kirk’s claim that DADT works well and that “keeping that all out of the workplace makes common sense.”
But, Benen’s pandering to the fringe, militant gay lobby isn’t my concern here. Benen’s other jab at Kirk was as follows:
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Where I Come to Mark Kirk’s Aid”
-By Thomas E. Brewton
Candidate Obama charmed inexperienced, poorly educated youth and disaffected elders with promises of an undefined abstraction called change. That change, we now can see, was to be forcible imposition of Obama’s true religion, secular socialism.
Change that candidate Obama promised turns out to be restructuring society to achieve social justice, which in the socialist lexicon is egalitarian redistribution of income and wealth. That means higher taxes, tight regulation of all sectors of the economy, and further enervation of a population increasingly dependent upon the political state for its sustenance.
The president’s pattern of industry czars and heavy new regulations, along with government financing and partial government ownership of major private companies is reminiscent of Mussolini’s Fascist State Corporatism in the 1920s and 30s, as well as of Hitler’s tight regulation of German industry after 1933. In neither case did these dictators seize full ownership of private industry, which liberal-progressives tell us is the definition of socialism. Instead, Mussolini and Hitler followed the prescription of socialism’s early theorists: regulation alone is sufficient to impose socialist statism.
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The Meaning of Change”
-By Thomas E. Brewton
Wolf Blitzer needs to continue his fact checking.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recently devoted time to fact-checking a Saturday Night Live skit that cast a less than favorable light upon failure of The One to deliver on his campaign promises.
Surely Mr. Blitzer will follow up with an analysis of the lack of basis for the Nobel committee’s awarding its Peace Prize to President Obama.
He will find his rebuttal work easy.
The President has done exactly nothing in the way of concrete action to stabilize volatile foreign conditions or to restrain rogue states (Iran, Russia, North Korea) that continually work to destabilize world political and economic conditions. No effective action, just talk, talk, talk. All of that talk has been ignored by rogue states, which have contemptuously dismissed Obama’s empty words and continued unrestrained in their campaigns to dominate Asia and the Middle East.
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Oslo Edition of Saturday Night Live”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It has been used to excuse the chopping off of hands and feet, it has been used as an excuse to stone women that have been victims of rape, and it has been used as an excuse to jail women merely for wearing a pair of pants, driving a car, or smoking a cigarette, but Barack Obama’s Muslim advisor told a British TV audience that Shariah Law has just been “misunderstood.”
Obama Muslim affairs advisor Dalia Mogahed (pictured) was a guest on a London-based TV show hosted by a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahir al-Islami party (Islamic Party of Liberation), Ibtihal Bsis.
Hizb ut Tahir al-Islami seeks to eliminate western democracy and replace it with an extremist view of Islam which includes the creation of a world Islamic caliphate.
On the TV broadcast, Obama advisor Mogahed sat quiet while other guests and the host said that women should not be allowed to hold positions in government and that western democratic tradition was a “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism.”
But worse than not speaking up to these anti-woman and anti-western sentiments was what she herself added to the conversation. Speaking on the barbaric practice of Sharia law, Mogahed said:
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Obama’s Muslim Advisor Says Sharia Law ‘Misunderstood’”
-By Frank Salvato
I have long said that we, the citizens of the United States, must demand good government over politics from our elected officials. The need for this demand has grown exponentially over the past four decades. While We the People were pre-occupied with the trappings of the self-centered 1960s, the self-absorption of the 1970s, the greed culture of the 1980s and the falsely elevated self-esteem culture of the 1990s, political opportunists and special interest operatives, cloaked in the façade of public service, quietly took control of our federal government. Now we are paying the price of cronyism politics over good government.
The Founders and the Framers conceived of and created our Constitutional Republic with the understanding that every American citizen would cherish the Charters of Freedom – The Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution and The Bill of Rights – as a contract, a covenant between citizen and government. In keeping up our end of the contract, the Framers took for granted that we would work to be constitutionally literate while providing governmental oversight. It never occurred to them that we would abdicate our responsibility to liberty, to freedom, the gifts they fought a Revolutionary War to attain for themselves, for us and for future generations of free Americans. It never occurred to them that those who would be bequeathed liberty and freedom would ignore their maintenance in deference to a culture of narcissism.
Today, looking upon what our government has become – a gaggle of political opportunists, special interest courtesans and revolutionary neo-Marxists – the Founders, Framers and revolutionaries would have to wonder if it was all worth their sacrifices and the sacrifices made by their families.
It’s Time to Pay Close Attention to the Politicians”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Associated Press employed some interesting rhetoric in its recent wire story on Obama’s coming decisions on the war in Afghanistan. It is rhetoric that might mislead a casual reader as to how many casualties the U.S. has incurred in Afghanistan and just when they’ve occurred as well as both Obama’s and the Bush administration’s stance on the war.
Perhaps it is just clumsy writing, but it is hard not to wonder if the AP meant to give Obama a bit of cover on the worsening situation there. And what is that cover? It’s another attempt at the “it’s Bush’s fault” media group think.
Obama, who inherited the war when he took office last January, is examining how to proceed with a worsening combat situation that has claimed nearly 800 U.S. lives and sapped American patience. Launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to defeat the Taliban and rid al-Qaida of a home base, the war has lasted longer than ever envisioned.
There are three problems with this AP paragraph. First it ignores that Obama campaigned on the concept that Afghanistan was “the good war,” second it misleads the reader into imagining that all these 800 casualties were lost in this current phase of a “worsening combat situation,” and third no one in the Bush administration ever said that the effort in Afghanistan would be short lived.
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Associated Press and Misleading Rhetoric on Afghanistan”
-By Frank Salvato
There has been quite a bit of criticism directed at President Obama for his handling – or mishandling – of the Afghan theater in the global conflict with radical Islamists. To be certain, it should be the number one or, at the very least, number two item on his list of priorities. That it is not is deserving of criticism. But the catalyst for this dysfunctional thinking emanates from the reality that we, as a nation, don’t have a proper understanding of the conflict at hand and, therefore, have very different opinions – some based in fact but most influenced by ideology – as to the consequences of implementing the wrong strategy.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, then candidate Barack Obama identified the Afghan theater as the only “legitimate” military theater in which the US military was engaged. He did so in a politicized attempt to paint the Iraqi theater as illegitimate; an optional battle theater championed by his opponent. Whether or not you agree with that belief is irrelevant to the fact that Mr. Obama identified the Afghan theater as being “the good war.” This declaration, along with his promise to support the generals on the ground, intimated that he was going to respect the judgments and opinions of the field commanders with regard to strategy and assessment. That understood, it really shouldn’t be too much for the American people to expect their president to follow through on his campaign promises.
The Enemy
Ongoing military campaign aside, we have never really accurately profiled the enemy and therefore have never really been about to honestly contemplate a successful strategy for achieving victory in not only the Afghan theater but in the overall global conflict with radical Islamists.
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The Only Real Strategy for Afghanistan”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The left is in an uproar today. They got their panties in a bunch over a piece that ran on the conservative newsblog NewsMax.com where it was suggested that Obama’s irresponsible actions as president could result in a military coup that would “restore” the Constitution.
Not completely without reason, many lefty blogs have lost their tiny little minds over this article. The piece was written by NewsMax blog contributor John L. Perry and talked of a “bloodless coup” where “Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.” Perry wondered if some “patriotic general” might confront the president (or a president of the future) and demand that he allow the military a shared power in government or face a military overthrow.
It was all speculation and phrased as a question, not asserted as fact or presented as imminent, of course. But this sort of over-the-top foolishness really does not add to the national debate, I have to agree. So, the lefty sites that railed against this NewsMax.com piece were right on that base level.
NewsMax.com has since removed the article and issued a statement that Perry is an unpaid member of NewsMax.
But there is one tiny, little, bitty fact about this story and its author that every single one of these lefty sites that are railing about this story have left out.
The fact of the matter is that John L. Perry is not a conservative. In fact his bio page says that he’s worked for Jimmy Carter, a Democrat governor of Florida and other Democrat Party institutions.
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Lefty Outrage at ‘Conservative’ Article Misses Key Fact, Writer Isn’t Conservative”
-By Dan Scott
We have been hearing in the news lately that President Obama and his cadre of advisors are stumped as to what to do with Afghanistan. The Left is telling him to cut and run and the Right is accusing him of being soft on terrorism. Obama’s response so far has been to dither. Politically, Obama is in a tough spot because he painted himself in a corner. Only the incompetents paint themselves in a corner. If Obama doesn’t lay out a concise plan to get out of Afghanistan then Nancy Pelosi will have no choice but to throw Obama under the bus as she is beholding to the lunatic left fringe. Any plan that doesn’t involve a quick exit strategy or gives the appearance of slogging it out with terrorists (freedom fighters and aggrieved poor not on US welfare to the left) means he is merely following the policies of the hated George W Bush. On the other hand, if Afghanistan falls into chaos where the Taliban and al Qaeda go back to business as usual pre-911, Barack Obama will go down in history as the one who led the US (a superpower) to defeat at the hands of a group of people who don’t even own a tank or fighter jet. He will be known as Jimmy Carter the second, you know the guy who gave us Khomeini. The repercussions at the 2010 and 2012 elections would be decisive in toppling the Democrat Party from power.
Any reading of the liberal criticisms regarding both Iraq and Afghanistan will be consistent with Obama’s current remarks about his dithering on sending more troops to Afghanistan. This is the same group of people who said the Surge wouldn’t work.
fundamental objectives President Obama announced in his March 27 speech, “…to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.”
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The Reason Why Obama Is Stumped On Afghanistan”
– By Steve McGregor
Dissent over the Obama Administration’s strategy in Afghanistan is as close as the President’s top military advisor: the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.
Last month Admiral Mullen wrote an article critical of “strategic communication,” which happens to be a key tenant of the plan Obama presented in March. But the Admiral isn’t a critic for reasons you might expect. His essay in the Joint Forces Journal is a dangerous cocktail of one part self-loathing, one part delusion, with a dash of politicking. Has the Admiral been sharing too many drinks with the Democrats on Capitol Hill?
For example, Admiral Mullen claims, “The problem isn’t that we are bad at communicating or being outdone by men in caves… our biggest problem isn’t caves, it’s credibility.” I thought our problem was those pesky extremists who keep blowing us up. If only we could reason with the enemy—after all it worked in Iran.
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Guest Contributor: The Admiral Says Sorry”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many elitist American leftists like to go about claiming that it is only Americans that are dunces on foreign matters. There is some truth to the accusation that Americans are not knowledgeable about the rest of the world but if a column in the UK Telegraph is any indication it isn’t much better for Britain’s understanding of American politics. Worse, it is plain that even a British journalist hasn’t a clue what he’s on about when attempting to discuss the differences between a Democrat and Republican in today’s climate.
At issue is the incredibly garbled take on American Democrats and Republicans as posted by U.K. Telegraph writer David Lindsay, who claims himself to be a “freelance writer and tutor at Durham University.” One wonders why he doesn’t get a real job.
In “Why real American conservatives should register as Democrats,” Lindsay’s main point seems to be that Republicans really support what the Democratic Party supports and so GOP voters should resign from their party and join the left side of the aisle. But Lindsay’s reasons prove that he doesn’t know a thing about what he’s talking about.
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Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Mark Kirk may not be on the right side of economics, abortion, the homosexual lobby, and a host of other issues, but he is 100% right on his position that President Obama is wrong with his decision to reverse course on the European missile shield.
On Thursday morning, after Obama’s announcement of the missile shield policy change Kirk came out swinging against the president saying that “History is not kind to leaders who sacrifice our Polish allies.” Kirk went on:
Illinois Republican Representative Mark Kirk called the president’s decision a blow to Poland and an encouragement to Iran.
“Iran, a state sponsor of terrorists, now makes the longest-range missile of the terrorist world,” said Mark Kirk. “The administration’s decision is particularly ironic because Poland just announced it would be sending more troops to serve alongside Americans in Afghanistan. America is going to let Poland down, sending a message of weakness to our Polish allies and the people building Iran’s new missile arsenal.”
Kirk is right on with this. Obama has bent over backwards to appease our enemies in Russia and has opened the door for the proto-Soviet Putin to begin to bully surrounding democratic states without fear of a weak Obama crossing him. Obama has abandoned our Eastern European allies with this horrible decision.
Sadly, it appears that every time a Democrat becomes president, no ally can be sure of American support afterward. Democrats simply can be trusted with neither our foreign policy nor our security.
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Kirk Lambastes Obama Over Missile Shield Policy Change”
-By Dan Scott
Since the opening shot by Iran at Khobar Towers in 1996, the response of the US handling the conflict has been confused at best and misguided at worst. Iran has been battling the US in the Middle East on a number of fronts using proxies for decades with little consequence to itself. In terms of a military strategy for a smaller country against a superpower, it has been a resounding success. This is not to say that the initiator of a proxy war is immune to consequences such as economic ones. Iran’s research and development on nuclear weapons has been certainly hampered but ultimately not stopped.
The beauty of a proxy war for a small country with designs of expanding it’s power and influence is to frame a conflict in limited terms commensurate to their resources and abilities. In other words, Iran has chosen to fight at the time and place of their choosing. This strategy limits the response of a superpower like the US to only reacting to the circumstances of the confrontation instead of pro-acting against the actual perpetrator, the initiator or mastermind. Because of this, US efforts have had limited success repeatedly due to the failure to recognize and properly respond to Iran in addition to the proxies. Obama has confirmed this continuing failure of response by saying he is focusing on killing Osama Bin Laden and defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Iran’s front in Iraq has now been mostly settled by the surge, a reactive strategy to Iran supplying weapons, IEDs, training and money to insurgents attempting to destabilize Iraq. The objective by Iran was to cause an intractable situation of an ungovernable and deadly Iraq to re-create the Vietnam War scenario. It almost worked. Now that the Iraq front is not panning out for the current moment, a new front in Afghanistan has been opened. Do not be lulled into a sense of complacency that the situation in Iraq is settled, Iran is merely waiting for the circumstances on the ground to change back to its favor in Iraq. There will continue to be sporadic bombings and incidents in order to probe the readiness of both the Iraq and US militaries.
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Update On The (Proxy) War With Iran”
-By Frank Salvato
“The floor is completely engulfed. We’re on the floor, and we can’t breathe, and it’s very, very, very hot…I’m going to die, I know it. Please, God, no. It’s so hot, I’m burning up!” These were some of the last words of Melissa Doi, 32, one of the thousands of innocent victims that perished at the hands of radical Islamists on September 11, 2001. In all, 3,017 souls were lost and 6,291+ people were injured on that fateful day by al Qaeda terrorists in New York City, Arlington County, VA, and Shanksville, PA. Now, eight years later, one of the biggest fears held by counterterrorism experts and experts on radical Islam is coming to pass and we are less safe for it.
One of the biggest fears advanced by myself and people who I have had the honor of working with in the quest to educate Americans on the threats and dangers posed by radical Islamists, is that the American people would soon forget the horrors of September 11th; that they would start to forget the sense of helplessness they felt as they watched the World Trade Center collapse into the streets of New York City, the carnage at the Pentagon and the despondency of rescuers demonstrated in a field in Shanksville. We all understood that there would be a waning of the immediacy felt in the aftermath of the attacks – immediacy of response, education and prevention – but we feared the encroachment of apathy to the grotesque loss of life and butchery foisted upon the American people on that day. We feared it because we all understood – and still believe today – that to abdicate vigilance to the threat of Islamist aggression is to set the stage for another catastrophic event.
In the days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Liberal media (formerly referred to as the mainstream media) began to remove the images of the attacks from our television screens. Gone were the images of dust-covered people wandering the decimated streets of New York. We were no longer able to see the images of heroic firefighters and Pentagon workers frantically searched for people to rescue. And we were no longer provided the images of frustrated first responders – professionals trained to save lives – milling about the wreckage of an airliner in a field with no one to save. The media explained the removal of these images – these realities – by insisting it was done in the name of preventative tolerance; to quell any hatred, any catalyst for retribution toward the Muslim community.
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“Please, God, No…It’s So Hot, I’m Burning Up””
-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, folks, starting September 8 you’ll only have ten days to pony up a winning bid on ebay for a dinner with Governor Palin. And the starting bid is $25,000. If yours is the winning bid, you and four of your closest friends are invited to dinner with the Guv.
If this meal with Mrs. Palin is not in your price range, perhaps a $7,500 bid for lunch with Karl Rove is closer to your level?
The first annual Ride 2 Recovery ebay charity auction will begin soon with the several dinners to be auctioned off to help recovering military vets.
Ride 2 Recovery is a program where wounded vets are helped to rebuild confidence and strength by hitting the road on bicycles of all sorts. So, this is a worthy cause.
So, look inside that wallet, folks. But, if these two dinner auctions are a tad too high faulting’ for you but you still want to donate to this worthy cause, contact Ride 2 Recovery at R2Rinfo@aol.com or go to the Ride 2 Recovery main page and see the donation tab at the bottom of the webpage.
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$25,000 for Dinner With Sarah!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Over at Media Bistro, we find an odd story that has it all: foul language, boorish behavior, sexual harassment, a male U.S. Navy officer, and a female journalist. Only the story isn’t what you might think it would be considering the ingredients. In this case it is the naval officer filining a complaint aganst the female reporter for sexual harassment.
Media Bistro has learned that US Navy Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg with Gordon claiming that Rosenberg made comments about Gordon’s “sexual orientation,” repeatedly showered foul language upon him, and made comments of a sexual nature to him in the presence of others.
Naval Cmmdr Sues Journalist for ‘Sexual Harassment’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Salon.com has a disheartening story about the troubles at the national cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, those sacred grounds were thousands upon thousands of our nation’s heroes and notables have been buried. Infuriatingly, it seems that cemetery records are a mess, some of them not corresponding to headstones, many garbled or lost.
This is the nation’s most revered cemetery yet some soldier’s names are lost to the permanent record, some burials are unknown because of failed record keeping, it is even thought that some headstones are on the wrong graves.
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Arlington Cemetery Records a Mess”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Representative Alcee Hastings (D, Fla.) is touting his amendment to H.R.2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. Section 524 stipulates a “prohibition on recruitment, enlistment, or retention of persons associated or affiliated with groups or associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons of the United States government.”
As Hastings congratulates himself on a job well done — you know, cuz no one else will — one has to wonder exactly who it is that will determine what a “hate” group is in order to keep the armed forces free of “hate-related violence”? It turns out Hastings has given this power to the office of the Attorney General of the United States. That would be Eric Holder, the guy that wants to release Guantanamo terrorists into the interior of the country.
Alcee Hastings’ Amendment Prevents ‘Hate Groups’ in Armed Services, But Who Determines ‘Hate’?”
-By John Armor
I was asked to write a brief history of the Church of the Incarnation, in Highlands. North Carolina, for a local magazine. The piece was intended to be about the building itself, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built in 1896. But you cannot research the history of a church without also researching the history of the people who brought that church into being.
Of the dozen people who formed the congregation for this church, one was Sarah Whiteside Norton. She was the first non-native American child born in the Highlands area, the daughter of Barak Norton, who moved to Whiteside Cove in 1825. The town of Highlands itself, did not exist until its land was purchased and mapped by Kelsey & Hutchinson in 1879. But that’s another story.
The priest for the tiny Episcopal community in Highlands was the Rec. Deal. On a starting salary of $100 he traveled on horseback and on foot among four widely separated communities, holding the first service in Highlands in 1879. Shortly after, there was a meeting in the home of the Postmaster, David Norton, to petition the Bishop to create a mission in that area. That was the first step toward creating a church, David Norton was the grandson of Barak Norton.
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Seven Generations of Service”
-By Selwyn Duke
It has been interesting watching the response to the Honduran military’s recent ousting of its nation’s president, Manuel Zelaya. Barack Obama called the action “not legal” and Hillary Clinton said that the arrest of Zelaya should be condemned. Most interesting, perhaps, is that taking this position places them shoulder to shoulder with Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan’s roaring mouse, Hugo Chavez, who is threatening military action against Honduras. Now, some would say this is an eclectic group — others would say, not so much — regardless, what has gotten them so upset?
Let’s start with what they say. They are calling the ouster a “coup” and claim that Zelaya is still Honduras’ rightful president. Some of them say we must support democracy. But they have said little, if anything, about the rule of law. And most of what they have said is wrong.
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The Ugly Face behind the Mask of Liberalism”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last Friday the Wall Street Journal once again excoriated the president and his henchmen in that mis-educational system so larded with self-interested union thugs (and other Democrats) by pointing out how these ne’er-do-wells are attempting to kill the D.C. school voucher program that has done so much good for so many minority, inner city kids in the Nation’s capitol.
But the end of the editorial also pointed to the fact that Obama wants to perpetrate the same misdeeds against the educational opportunities of our soldier’s kids. It turns out that because the D.C. voucher program is such a success, military families are asking for a similar program. Democrats and Obama are desperate to head this idea off and kill it before it is fairly born — and Democrats have a lot of experience killing things before they are born, we all know.
As far as parents and kids that have had the benefit of the soon to end voucher program, the whole thing is one they don’t want to lose.
Why do Democrats Hate Our Soldier’s Kids?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The heinous act of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, formerly Carlos Leon Bledsoe, a prison convert to Islam, is a perfect example of why terrorism cannot be fought using police procedures and is more effectively fought under military auspices. The fact that Muhammad was under FBI surveillance and already under suspicion of possible terrorist activities but got away with murdering one soldier and seriously injuring another is a lesson of how police procedures are prone to failure in stopping terrorism.
Many on the left in America lambasted President Bush for utilizing military tribunals and for his contention that the capture of foreign terrorists was a military matter. They said that these terrorist’s “civil rights” were being violated by the quick military actions and they abhorred the limited availability to legal council such procedures offered to suspects. The solution the left commonly offers is for the full American justice system to be placed at the disposal of foreign terror suspects. The left claims that doing so makes our own actions “consistent” with our traditions of justice.
Ark. Killing of Soldiers Shows Why Terror Isn’t a Police Matter”
-By John Armor
Dear Sonia, May I call you Sonia? We’ve just met but I feel I’ve known you forever, because of your “compelling story.” I’m an elderly, white male who’s a lawyer. But wait, I’m not that dull and dismissible. I’ve had my “story” moments.
Remember that psychologists’ list of the ten worst things that can happen to a person? Losing your job, or house, getting divorced, going bankrupt, facing death, burying a child. You know, nasty stuff. I’ve been through almost everything on that list, some more than once. You pick yourself up and continue on as best you can. Big whoop.
Having a “story” does not qualify anyone for the Supreme Court (or other high offices). Here are some examples. There have been four men who fit the following definition: They were born in humble circumstances, far from the centers of power in their nations. They suffered many losses and defeats in their early careers. Still, each of them became the leaders of their nations at a time when their nations faced potentially fatal wars.
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An Open Letter to Sonia Sotomayor”
-By Frank Salvato
It couldn’t have been planed more perfectly. President Barack Obama uses the power of the presidential bully pulpit to show his dismay with anyone and everyone who dares to question his version of morality where the war on terrorism is concerned. Just moments later, former Vice President Dick Cheney effectively rebuts the president and dismantles several of the president’s talking points. The “impromptu” tele-debate made for great television. What it didn’t do was move anyone to question what they believe on the issues that were presented. In fact, it simply ensconced each to his or her position.
The American public has long suffered from what I call a sitcom attention span (I blame Norman Lear but I digress). Truth be told, the limited attention span of the American people goes back to well before the invention of television, having become an increasing problem ever since the American Revolution. Politicians recognized this malady – or opportunity as they see it – right off the bat and have been taking incredible advantage of the public’s limited attention span for almost as long as our country has been sovereign. It is for this reason that troublesome reports, testimonies and declarations are usually released after 2pm on Friday as Americans turn their brains off in preparation for the weekend. Where they may be outraged at something on Friday at 2pm – if in fact they even become aware of it then – by Monday it is just one more reason why all politicians can’t be trusted and anyway, what are you going to do about it, right?
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Obama, Cheney & The Bright Shiny Thing”
-By Frank Salvato
“I think this is the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I have seen in my lifetime…She is a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowest of purposes…She dishonors the Congress by her behavior.”– Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich
Well, well, well…it would seem that Nancy Pelosi has outed herself as a liar…a disingenuous, political opportunist, hell-bent on making sure that her ideology is placed above the importance of honesty and good government. It is stunning that the White House and the Democrat leadership haven’t counseled her to limit her media liability. With each session at the podium, Pelosi either changes her story, creates another firestorm or both. Had she been a Republican her resignation would have already been filed.
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Nancy Pelosi: Damaged Beyond Repair”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Lanny Davis Wants it both ways: truth commissions without the truth commissions
In a recent Washington Times editorial, former Clinton Special Council Lanny Davis has decided that former vp Dick Cheney should be brought up on charges even though he has formerly spoken against such prosecutions. Why the sudden flip flop? Apparently his only reason is that Cheney has had the audacity to appear on a few TV talk shows to defend himself.
It is somewhat ironic that Davis, with Clinton a man that appeared all over TV during the Lewinski scandal to defend themselves, is upset that Cheney is appearing all over TV to defend himself. But the sad thing is that Davis has had to twist himself into a pretzel to excuse his revenge against Cheney. Davis’ legal logic leaves quite a bit to be desired with this about face.
Here is what Davis claimed changed his mind from opposing these destructive truth commissions to now accepting them:
Vindictive Former Clinton Lewinski Lawyer Out for Cheney’s Head”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Some may look at Obama’s defense funding request coming in at about $144.6 billion as a welcome reduction over the 2008 budget of $186 billion. Some may also be tempted to claim that Obama is ramping down America’s war efforts. But that would be a hasty conclusion because the numbers are a bit deceiving. On top of that some of the areas that Obama wants to shift the money to shows that the president is heading down the wrong path to a successful conclusion of our Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts and that he is perhaps foolishly expecting Pakistan to follow his lead when it is already plain that she won’t, maybe even can’t.
Pakistan
Obama’s negotiation team had already gotten a “rude shock” last month when Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen were rebuffed by Pakistan when the pair proposed a joint operation against al Qaeda and the Taliban in her violence wracked tribal regions.
Obama’s New War Priorities Deceiving, Maybe Wrongheaded”