An Iraq Veteran has a personal message for Barack Obama…
Military
Obama’s politics of new ideas
-By Michael M. Bates
Barack Obama maintains he’s the candidate of new ideas. When clinching his party’s nomination, he boasted that it’s “our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face.” The senator’s acceptance speech at the convention noted, “Change happens because the American people demand it – because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.”
A good place to find some of these new ideas is the Democratic platform, which documents the party’s official position on issues.
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Never Forget Sept 11, 2001
This morning, as we begin to observe the terrible day of September 11, 2001, let us not fall into mere rote actions and unthinking memorial. We cannot forget that this is not some long past, historical situation that we can comfortably relegate to remembrance on a single day of the year, the rest of our days to go on as if it is but a distant memory. We must keep at the forefront of our minds that we are still in extent danger of another 9/11 at any time and it is only because of the hard and dangerous work that our men and women in uniform are doing every single day that keeps the next towering inferno from our TV screens. The inhuman enemy that caused those Towers to fall, those planes to tumble from the sky, are still out there planning anew. 9/11 is fresh still. Let us remember with a keen pang of loss and rage lest we complacently imagine we are back to a 9/10 world when we are not.
Let us now take a moment to remember those innocents who lost their lives so unexpectedly ad illegitimately that day. And let us thank the many thousands of our first responders who risked it all by jumping immediately to give aid to their fellows.
9/11 is in our hearts and minds and we say with a unified voice, never again.
Obama Lies About Signing Up for the Draft
-By Warner Todd Huston
Barack Obama told another whopper about his storied life on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. In one segment Stephanopoulos asked Obama if he ever considered joining the U.S. military as a youngster. Obama then goes on to say that he did when he was required to sign up for selective service in 1979 when he graduated high school.
One little problem… there wasn’t any requirement to sign up for Selective Service in 1979!
As Tom Blumer of NewsBusters.org and BizzyBlog.com notes, “Obama could not have registered upon graduation from high school as he claimed. His actually registered occurred roughly 45 days after… registrations took place in 1980. Obama’s statement, that ‘I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school,’ is inarguably false.”
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In a Dangerous World, No Time For Barack’s On the Job Training.
Barack’s very OWN vice president said he isn’t ready to lead… now they are great pals?
Since Media Won’t Help, Time for McCain to Really Exploit His Stance on Iraq
-By Warner Todd Huston
Some how, the Old Media has missed the good news on Iraq. On August 27, the Rasmussen polling organization published a poll that showed American confidence is at its highest level ever in support of the War on Terror since they’ve begun tracking in January of 2004. This poll got little notice by the Old Media, of course, but it illustrates an issue that McCain should exploit to his benefit — especially after Obama’s acceptance speech last night.
Rasmussen found that Fifty-four percent of American voters now think that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq and forty-eight percent think the situation will get even better in the next six months. Further, Rasmussen reports that this turn around in public opinion has been sharp when just last year only twenty-seven percent thought things were going to get better in Iraq.
Ominously for the Obama campaign, the poll also found that sixty-two percent of men agree that the U.S. is winning the War on Terror while forty-six percent of women do. Less than a quarter of women now think the terrorists are winning with just fourteen percent of men feel that way.This growing support augers against Obama’s continued anti-war stance.
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LATimes Brooks Thinks Russia/Georgia War is Funny
-By Warner Todd Huston
The L.A. Times’ Rosa Brooks has done it again, taken a serious subject and made an uninformed romp of it. One wonders how the old Georgian lady seen in news photos standing wounded among the ruins of her apartment building, or the Georgian Mother running down the street, infant in her arms, trying to escape Russian tanks might feel about the humor with which Brooks brings to bear upon their plight? But, there it is for all to see in Brooks’ “The Cold War, reheated” wherein Brooks puts the funny back in war. It’s been too serious for too long for Brooks, apparently. We need the sunny side of ethnic cleansing, brutal invasion, and crushing occupation, don’t we?
Oh, and let’s not forget the skewed history, incorrect conclusions, and partisan inanities that Brooks blurted out with her little attempt at “Springtime for Gorbachev.” Only with this production, Brooks is seriously trying to absolve the U.S.S.R.
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Dem Mantra of More Deaths By Terror Under Bush Disproven
-By Warner Todd Huston
A new independent study shows that deaths from terrorism have actually declined by more than 40 percent since 2001. This flies in the face of the constant Democrat mantra that states the opposite, that terrorism has increased since Bush initiated the War on Terror. It is a mantra that the media have helpfully spread for their friends at the DNC.
We’ve heard it again and again from the left in this country; deaths by terror have increased under George W. Bush and his War on Terror has failed. Along with so many on the left side of the aisle in the U.S., Barack Obama has said this several times in the past, too. At the Democratic debate at Saint Anselm College on Jun 3, 2007, for instance, Obama said that Bush’s war has failed. “We live in a more dangerous world,” Obama said on that stage, “partly as a consequence of Bush’s actions…”
Of course, this talking point ignores one small bit of common sense. When a battle is joined, casualties are sure to rise until an end is declared. After all, when both sides are joined in battle (as opposed to but one), deaths are sure to rise before they fall, it being always darkest before the dawn, and all.
But that bit of common sense aside, the Democrats have been fond of using a study by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, research fellows at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law, to prove that terrorism is worse under Bush. In fact, this study appears right on Obama’s own website in an entry by one of his bloggers, Deb Henry.
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No More Vietnams
-By Jeff Lukens
The war in Iraq may be ending in much the same way the war in Vietnam appeared to be ending in 1973 with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. We had finally won in Vietnam, but then lost the peace two years later. The outcome of the 2008 presidential election could determine whether Iraq becomes “another Vietnam” should there be a significant renewal of insurgent activity.
The Left would have us believe we were stuck in Iraq in an endless and unwinnable quagmire like they said we had in Vietnam. That comparison, however, has not held up. While much about the two wars is similar, a key difference was Lyndon Johnson’s muddled strategy in Vietnam compared with George W. Bush’s winning strategy in Iraq.
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Georgia/Russian War: Blame Obama
-By Warner Todd Huston
General Wesley Clark had one thing right during his tenure as a general in the U.S. military. He understood the portentous nature of the Russian’s move to take control of the airport in Pristina, Kosovo at the end of the 1999 NATO engagement in Yugoslavia. He ordered NATO forces to gear up to prevent the Russians from taking the airport but was opposed by British Gen. Michael Jackson, at the time head of the Kosovo peacekeeping forces, who reportedly told Clark that he wouldn’t help him start a third World War.
I don’t know if Clark fully realized what the investment of the Pristina airport might have meant for future Russian actions, but he seemed to know then that it wasn’t a good thing. In retrospect, we can see that, even though they backed down in 1999, it taught the Russians the lesson that they could act with impunity without fear of any real consequences. Later, though, the Russians found that they could not count out any action with Bush in the White House.
Now, let’s face the truth about Russia. She has never, ever been part of the club. No Russian leader has ever seemed convincingly interested in joining the western world and act as a responsible member of an international community. Oh, there was that brief, shining hour when Boris Yeltsin came close, and then only just. But none before and certainly none after have been interested in joining the enlightened world. And, once again, we are seeing Russian belligerence hold true. In this case, instead of purely militaristic aims, we are seeing a Russia planning on an energy hegemony over Europe and willing to act the bad boy to achieve those aims.
Certainly the weakling states of the European Union haven’t the guts nor the military to force Russia to behave herself. Just as certain, the members of the EU have no will to stop Russian plans to control all energy in the region. Only the U.S.A. has displayed the will to oppose moves such as Russia’s in the world today and even that will is anemic.
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NYT Complaint: Not Enough Photos Of Mutilated American Soldiers in This War
-By Warner Todd Huston
** Now With Update… A Soldier Speaks **
The New York Times is miffed. They aren’t happy that there has been a dearth of news photos showing dead American soldiers in the war in Iraq. The Times is lamenting that there have been “4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images,” so more carnage and death is their druthers. Well, more American dead, anyway. They aren’t interested in the dead of the enemy, to be sure.
Using the story of photog Zoriah Miller who had his embed status removed when he publicized photos of dead U.S. Marines after a suicide bombing, the Times reveals their pique over the fact that not enough dead Americans have been peddled to the American public. The Times denounces the military for protecting the troops and their families saying, “after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.”
Complaining for opponents of the war that the lack of casualty photos has created a a situation where the “public portrayal of the war is being sanitized,” the Times wonders if the homefront is being badly served because we here are not seeing the “human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans.”
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The 180lbs. “Guerrilla”: China’s Military Aspirations
-By Nancy Salvato
As the mainstream media is dominated by its attention to the preparations for Beijing Olympics being held August 8-24 this year, an obvious truth is being ignored or going unaddressed. The more important story is that China is on a mission to dominate the United States and the rest of the world militarily by building nuclear weaponry meant to defeat the United States on the world stage. The actual Olympics pale in comparison to this upcoming event. And while our people continue to be distracted by a variety of “shiny things” meant to divert their attention, the Chinese continue their march to dominance in the military sphere. What serves to distract our nation from such an important subject?
Let’s first look at the notion of Global Warming. Despite the fact that, “There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution,” (Daily Tech) the mainstream media continues to report on a phenomenon that has not been proven as though it is fact. Furthermore, policy around carbon emissions is being developed based on this misinformation. “In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years…Mars, Jupiter, Neptune’s largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth.” (IBID)
The upcoming election serves as a distraction — in that the really important issues are not discussed and instead media attention is focused on Barak Obama’s associations, i.e., Jesse Jackson using the “N” word (in two different ways, mind you); Jeremiah Wright and the novel idea (sarcasm) that there is a contingent of black people who do not like white people; fellow democrat Kucinich, who during his first presidential campaign quoted the Koran and roused his Muslim audience to chant Alahu akbar (Daniel Pipes) wants us to spend oodles of tax payer dollars to impeach George Bush (and at the end of his term of office, completely irresponsible), and Tony Rezko, a slumlord connected to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (who may also, rightly so due to his mismanagement of Illinois government, face impeachment). None of this enlightens the electorate on Obama’s strategic plan for the defense of our country, if he was to be elected to the highest office of the land. If Obama had plans to aggressively fight terror, secure our borders, and defend our sovereignty, I think it would be safe to say that most of the people who want to see this on his platform would ignore all the rest.
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It’s Official…James Baker Has Lost His Mind
-By Frank Salvato
Anyone familiar with the threat posed by the advancing American Fifth Column understands all too clearly that our Constitution is under attack. Whether it is the insistence that the Constitution is a living document meant to conform to the will of the times or the institution of political correctness – a shadow set of laws effectively usurping the laws of our Constitutional Republic – the American Fifth Column is slowly, incrementally, systematically, chipping away at the wisdom as set forth by our Founders and Framers. With news that a non-governmentally charged commission is introducing a measure that would impose “group think” on the Commander-in-Chief, it is evidenced that the American Fifth Column is on the march.
Recently, a story surfaced regarding the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
The resolution states:
“… the President of The United States of America can send troops into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if the United States of America is already under attack or serious threat. The War Powers Act requires that the president notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to military action and forbids troops from remaining for more than 60 days without an authorization of force or a declaration of war.”
This is already a stretch on the authority placed in the Executive Branch by our Framers. Article II, Section 2 of the United State Constitution states:
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Andrew Breitbart: ‘Something’s Desperately Wrong’ in Hollywood
-By Warner Todd Huston
Andrew Breitbart, CEO of Breitbart.com, had a great op ed in the Washington Times yesterday about how Hollywood oppresses Republicans and conservatives in La La Land. Detailing the travails of Republicans in Hollywood — including destruction by Hollywood’s liberals of personal property owned by identified Republicans — Breitbart laments the “bullying” the self-proclaimed tolerant lefties mete out to those who walk the Republican side of the street.
Breitbart says of this ideological inbreeding:
But Los Angeles is a one-company town. And because of bullying (or what Democrats would call blacklisting or “political discrimination” if the shoe were on the other foot), Hollywood has become a one-party town. History will show this dynamic hurt both the creative and the political processes. In the absence of checks and balances we end up with a system that creates a mainstream film about Ronald Reagan — written, produced and directed by narcissistic and myopic partisans who only viewed the Gipper through the lens of partisan AIDS activism. Like anyone would watch an epic movie about America’s victory in the Cold War.
Hollywood is so left-wing that it hurts its own bottom line by constantly producing films that no one wants to see. Especially their current crop of dreck about the war in Iraq. Breitbart mentions the many failures of these left-wing, anti-Iraq war films.
More than a dozen box office failures vilify the troops without a single counter-perspective seeing the light of day. Yet one impactful and heartfelt pro-war film, Brothers at War, dares to tell the story of a noble and patriotic American family yet can’t find a distributor.
But there is another way to see how little America cares for these anti-American bombs. It is instructive to take a quick look at the box office takes for these unmitigated disasters to see how Americans have reacted to these films.
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Media Celebrates Successful U.S. Military Recruitment Stats? Not Really!
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Armed Forces Press Service issued a press release on Thursday morning, July 10, in celebration of the fact that the U.S. military has had 13 consecutive months of meeting and/or exceeding recruitment goals. Sadly, the media stayed sullenly quite all day, taking no notice of the success of our military on OR off the field.
Regardless of the fact that the media ignored the good news, there is good news, indeed.
The June recruiting and retention figures reflect recruiters’ hard work and young people’s continued willingness to step up and serve, Lainez said. The Army signed up 9,365 new soldiers in June, 101 percent of its 9,250-soldier goal. The Marine Corps recruited 4,531 Marines, topping its monthly goal of 3,934 recruits by 15 percent. The Navy met its goal of 4,209 sailors, and the Air Force brought in 2,203 airmen, six recruits over its June goal.
The numbers for the reserves and National Guard were also strong and retention also rolled on a pace.
Of course, when the media does bother to report on military recruitment being up they still have to focus on the supposed “unpopularity” of the war even as they report that the military seems to have little trouble making their recruitment goals.
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Once Again, It’s About Associations and Judgment
-By Frank Salvato
There has been much ado about Barack Obama’s associations and the judgment used in maintaining and entering into those associations. Obama’s associations with Jeremiah Wright, Williams Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, the Progressive-Left activist group ACORN and his ideological association with Saul Alinsky are all perfect examples of his judgment, his willingness to associate with radical and troubled individuals and organizations. Is it fair to judge Barack Obama by his associations and the judgment used in acquiring and maintaining those associations? Sorry Mr. Colmes, all is fair in love and war…and politics.
Many of us have a friend or acquaintance that may possess a questionable background. Such is life. Many of us like to believe that, with our help, these individuals can straighten out their lives, or “see the light,” setting themselves on a path of health, prosperity and productivity. It is noble to want to help those in need or those whose full potential has not been recognized. It’s what Americans do. But we Americans expect more from our leaders. We do so because we want to believe in them, in their judgment. We want them to have vision and foresight, judgment that proves to us that they possess the ability to stay above the fray. This is exactly the problem that Barack Obama is having with the electorate. His judgment hasn’t allowed him to “stay above the fray.” In fact, by his own refusal to readily explain and disassociate himself with the less than savory characters and organizations noted above, he chooses to remain “in the fray.” Not a good place to be for someone who wants to be the leader of the free world.
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He Shall Forecast His Device, The Evil of “Being Deceived”
-By Resa LaRu Kirkland
…he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time….. Daniel 11: 24
FORECAST–1 a: to calculate or predict (some future event or condition) …2: to serve as a forecast of : intransitive verb: to calculate the future
DEVICE–1: something devised or contrived: as a (1): plan, procedure, technique (2): a scheme to deceive : stratagem, trick b: something fanciful, elaborate, or intricate in design c:…f: a piece of equipment or a mechanism designed to serve a special purpose or perform a special function.
al-TAQIYYA–Concealing or disguising one’s beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time a shiite feels it is beneficial.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. — 2 Timothy 3:13
I could end this article now. I mean, given the first five paragraphs, even the most reason-impaired hairy-legged butt-ugly feminist would get the gist of it; yes, it is THAT self-explanatory. But that wouldn’t help the easily led, easily fooled hippies, the complicit commies, and the DEVICE-driven Islammunists.
So for the logic impaired—and the wickedly involved—here is the excruciatingly obvious.
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Flight 93 Update…
Muslims can earn goodwill by helping to stop the crescent plot
Al Qaeda’s 9/11 sneak attack cast suspicion on all Muslims. After the hijackers hid amongst us, pretending to be trustworthy friends while plotting acts of war, how can we know that other Muslims are not doing the same?
American Muslims could undo much of this suspicion by helping to expose the terrorist memorial mosque that architect Paul Murdoch is trying to plant on the Flight 93 crash site.
Non-Muslim Americans can tell themselves that the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent is esoteric or unimportant (even if they go by semi-Islamic sounding names like Allahpundit), but every Muslim will instantly recognize this orientation as the central symbol of Islam.
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An Open Letter to General Wesley Clark (Ret.)
-By Vince Johnson
Dear Wesley:
Your recent comments on MEET THE PRESS June 29, 2008 are disturbing and entitled to rebuttal:
For example: You said: “He (John McCain) hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron.”
Don’t you realize that the entire United States Senate will be unhappy to learn that you do not believe serving in either House of Congress involves executive responsibility?
Do you really believe it is wise to belittle John McCain’s six years in the House and his twenty years in the Senate when your candidate, Barack Obama is in his first term in the Senate? This also invites your opposition to point out that your candidate has never been qualified to command any “large squadron” at any time in his life.
Your most shocking statement was this: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
As a retired general with your many years of service, you should know there is a huge difference between flying an airplane and riding in one. In your eagerness to belittle John McCain’s background, you have insulted every pilot that ever flew a fighter plane since World War I.
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CNN Finds NEW Way to Count Body Bags, Now in Afghanistan
-By Warner Todd Huston
We’ve taken notice that Iraq is suddenly out of the news now that things are consistently going so well for U.S. forces there. Well, since CNN can’t find much bad to talk about in Iraq they’ve finally found some “bad” news they can use as a needle to stick in the Bush Administration’s collective eye. In Coalition troop deaths in Afghanistan surpass Iraq, CNN has discovered that they can make a body bag contest out of casualties between Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, joy!
For the second month in a row, U.S. and allied troop deaths in the Afghan war have surpassed those in Iraq, according to official figures tallied by CNN… In June, 46 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 31 troops died in Iraq. In May, 23 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 21 died in Iraq.
Stop the presses! And, did you notice that now they are adding foreign troops up because they can’t get enough American deaths to report? Can you remember the last time the American press was worried about the casualties among our foreign coalition?
It also doesn’t escape notice that the headline is a bit misleading. Read standing alone, one would think that the headline is saying more troops have now died in Afghanistan than have died in Iraq for the entire war. After all, the headline doesn’t restrict itself to just the two months in question! A lazy reader might tend to take away the wrong impression by this badly composed headline.
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A Lefty That Says ‘Bush never lied to us about Iraq’
-By Warner Todd Huston
James Kirchick, assistant editor of The New Republic, has come under my scrutiny for his bias before, of course. I see one of my roles as keeping an eye on the bias in the media and to document and analyze that bias. But while I naturally focus on when the media get it wrong, I also like to point out when those who I’ve criticized get it right. Here is a case when a member of the media that I usually criticize did, indeed, get it right and this time it might get him in Dutch with his lefty pals in the nutroots. After all, the surest way to get the nutroots upset at you is to say Bush did not lie about the war. But that is exactly what Kirchick just did and he did an admirable job chronicling it, too.
In an editorial in the L.A. Times on the 16th, Kirchick said that “Bush never lied to us about Iraq” and then went on to substantiate his claim in a style that runs contrary to the Media and nutroots meme that “Bush lied and people died.”
Kirchick started his piece with a recounting of the flip flop that Mitt Romney’s father, George, undertook when he reversed his support of the Vietnam war as he geared up to run for president in 1968. Romney initially supported the Vietnam War but later claimed that the administration and war supporters “brainwashed” him into believing in the war. With his flip flop he claimed that he had seen the light, but critics said that he was merely playing to a perceived anti-war changing tide and trying to capture that vote — in other words, Romney’s flip flop was only calculated to get votes. This, Kirchick says, is the same thing that politicians like John F. Kerry have done with the Iraq war. They voted for it before they voted against it.
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Police Threaten to Arrest Pastor for Anti-Islamic Tract!
-By Don Boys, Ph.D.
The police detective who headed the city/county Hate Crimes Division entered the office of a Baptist pastor, sat down and laid a tract (with the church’s imprint) titled “Allah Had No Son” on the pastor’s desk. (Allah may not have a son but he has three pagan daughters– al-‘Uzza, al-Lat and Manah!) The detective told the pastor that the content of the tract and the church imprint was enough evidence to charge him right there and then. The pastor and church were guilty of a hate crime: telling the truth about Islam. I have read that tract and it is historical and biblical. Yes, it would offend a Muslim who is not interested in the truth and it might offend a confused, compromising, and craven, Christian. However, for one who believes the Bible (with its command to evangelize the world) and who knows history, the tract would pose no problem.
My wife and I had services in four Canadian independent Baptist churches, one of them the above church. The pastor told the detective that the particular tract was not part of his convictions and he would use another tract with the same message but without the “offensive” drawings. As far as we know, the detective was satisfied. The pastor told him that if he were told not to preach or distribute the Scriptures, he would refuse and go to jail. Furthermore, the pastor told him he would continue to evangelize the 40,000 Muslims in London Ontario.
U.S. pastors had better get ready because the same thing will happen here. When it does, how will pastors react? Of course, no one knows for sure how he would respond until he is faced with the threat. While a particular tract would not be part of my “convictions,” I don’t have plans to do any negotiating. I would tell the police to remove themselves from my office since they were out of line.
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Liars
-By Thomas E. Brewton
The liars, it turns out, are liberal-progressives, not President Bush.
Read ‘Bush Lied’? If Only It Were That Simple. by Fred Hiatt, the Washington Post editorial page editor. In the editorial dated June 9, 2008, Mr. Hiatt writes:
Search the Internet for “Bush Lied” products, and you will find sites that offer more than a thousand designs. The basic “Bush Lied, People Died” bumper sticker is only the beginning.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, set out to provide the official foundation for what has become not only a thriving business but, more important, an article of faith among millions of Americans. And in releasing a committee report Thursday, he claimed to have accomplished his mission, though he did not use the L-word.
“In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent,” he said…
But dive into Rockefeller’s report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.”
Repeatedly in his summation, Mr. Hiatt quotes Senator Rockefeller’s report as stating,”…The president’s statements “were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates.”
…But the phony “Bush lied” story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.
Mr. Hiatt’s summation is not to be dismissed as a conservative view point. The Post is, along with the New York Times, one of the premier liberal media voices in the nation.
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Democrats Try to Make Military Press Conferences Illegal
-By Warner Todd Huston
Congressional Democrats announced early in May that they wanted to make “military propaganda” illegal. To achieve this goal they passed new legislation that strengthened previous legislation that is supposed to ban the Pentagon from indulging in “propaganda” for the military.
This bill is supposed to stop the military from sending “any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes or behavior of the people of the United States in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.”
In other words, the military is not allowed to talk to the American people or Congress for fear of disseminating “propaganda.”
The only way to fulfill this idiotic policy is to stop anyone in the military from ever speaking in public because, when you get right down to it, nearly any communication from the Pentagon, or any command staff in theater, will have the effect of “influencing” those who hear it. That is the nature of human communication, after all.
Of course this is a silly concept that the Democrat Party has come up with. Every single thing that man conceives of must be “sold” to everyone else to get implemented. The idea is born in the minds of one or a few and then those disciples of the idea go forth and begin a campaign to convince those who can put that idea into place that the idea is worthy of support. In essence, that is propaganda in its simplest form. The happy face is put on, the hands are shaken, and the plan is laid out for discussion. This is called being human! It’s how we all get things done.
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Just Waterboard Me
-By Lee Culpepper
Yes, it is natural to panic now. America is in trouble when both presidential candidates consider thirty-five to ninety seconds of coerced gagging and panic to be torture. Haven’t liberal politicians and judicial activists been ramming painful ideology down our throats for years?
Maybe it is just a coincidence, but liberals and their news media seem to bring up the word “morality” only if it helps to undermine America’s ability to defend itself against Islamic butchers. Perhaps the relentless pistol-whipping of political correctness has knocked the sense out of most liberals. How else could they assert that President Bush authorizing interrogators to seriously frighten three high-ranking terrorists — in an effort to save American lives — is comparable to Allah (or whoever) commanding terrorists to mutilate, gang rape, and brutally execute innocent victims?
Call me intolerant, but a culture that contains a fantasy where suicide bombers inherit 50 black-eyed virgins in a “heaven” that indulges every debauchery it forbids on earth is not a moral culture. But a culture that values innocent human life is moral.
Continue reading “Just Waterboard Me”
TNR’s James Kirchick: Pat Buchanan is a Nazi Because His Father Was?
-By Warner Todd Huston
The New Republic has a rather interesting “book review” penned by James Kirchick on its website. It is a piece of work that really takes the cake for name calling, guilt by association, sins of the Father being visited on the son and serves as an all around typical example of a piece that lacks seriousness. It begins well enough, yet ends devolving into simple name calling with Kirchick basically saying author Pat Buchanan is a nazi lover and in sympathy with “authoritarians” because Pat’s father liked “General Franco.”
This TNR posting is supposed to be a review of Buchannan’s latest WWII book where Pat makes the claim that WWII should not have been fought and that the chief culprit for creating an unnecessary war was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Buchanan levels a healthy dose of criticism on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too. Instead of a serious book review, though, and in stark violation of the old Internet rule that calling someone a Nazi pretty much ends any serious debate, Kirchick wildly went for Pat’s throat. The TNR headline says it all, too: “From Pitchfork Pat to Brownshirt Buchanan.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, like William F. Buckley, I am not prepared to say that Pat Buchanan is necessarily innocent of all the charges that Kirchick hurls at him in this TNR “book review,” but Kirchick’s vitriol just seems a bit over-the-top in its tone and seems to lack any serious claim to being a real book review.
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Rep. Pete Stark is a Stupid Man
-By Warner Todd Huston
Usually we like to stay high-minded here on Publius’ Forum. We don’t usually resort to out-right name calling but here is a case where we just can’t help it. Once again Represent Fortney Hillman “Pete” Stark (D – CA) is a stupid little man whose knee-jerk reactions are based on no knowledge whatsoever. There really is no other way around it Petey boy is just plain stupid.
Why do I say that? Well, it isn’t just my assessment because he proved it for us a few weeks ago.
You see, on the 16th, Petey was on the floor of the House of Representatives as they were debating and voting on the war supplemental spending bill. As he was staring off into space, probably drooling a bit, good ol’ Petey noticed some “Army officers” sitting in the gallery observing the deliberations.
Well, this made Petey mad. He thought that these officers were just lollygagging about Congress when there was a war being fought out there. Petey, you see, imagined that these “flag rank Army officers” were shirking their duty. So, he sprinted back to his office to have one of his mindless little aides write a complaint letter to the Secretary of Defense.
May 16, 2008
The Honorable Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301Dear Secretary Gates:
Yesterday, while voting on the war supplemental spending bill in the House of Representatives, I couldn’t help but notice a contingent of approximately 20 flag rank Army officers sitting in the House Gallery watching the debate and vote for a couple of hours. I was looking from below so I thought they were Army, but there could have been other branches present.
It’s possible they were on leave time or vacation. If so, I obviously have no concern. However, if they were doing this on military time, I want an explanation of why they were there.
At a time when our nation is at war, our troops are over-extended, and the Administration is literally asking for emergency military spending, what good to the “war on terror” is having US Generals and other top ranked officers – who were likely accompanied by staff and escorted by their chauffeurs – spending hours sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives?
Please provide for me the name, rank, branch, and duties of each of these officers, as well as the number of additional staff and drivers that were used to facilitate their attendance yesterday. I would like this information by Monday, May 19th.
If they were here on official duty, this was an abhorrent misallocation of our military resources at a time of war.
Sincerely,
Pete Stark
CC: The Honorable Ike Skelton, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services
CC: The Honorable Jack Murtha, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense
Well, there’s some high dudgeon, to be sure.
So, what was the explanation of this “abhorrent misallocation of our military resources at a time of war”? Why were these “20 flag rank Army officers” just sitting about Congress when they should have been fighting a war?
First of all, a “flag rank Army officer” is usually a term used for Navy officers, not Army officers. Second of all, the soldiers Petey saw in Congress were not high ranked generals. Third of all they weren’t out on a lark, they were there as part of their class work at the Army War College in Carlisle, PA.
Even more ridiculous for this stupid man, all of those officers are combat veterans, so they had not shirked any combat, and their tour of Congress was arranged for far ahead of time.
Continue reading “Rep. Pete Stark is a Stupid Man”
Garrison Keillor Mocks Patriotism
-By Warner Todd Huston
I guess out on Lake Blowbegone, patriotism isn’t kosher? Keillor just seems, nose in the air, to find all that lowborn patriotism so woefully gauche. At least, one might get that impression by reading the attack penned by Garrison Keillor against the patriotism evinced by the folks who don their red, white and blue, along with their leather jackets and hop on their Hogs to join the long line of motorcycle riders at “Rolling Thunder” on Memorial Day in Washington D.C. This year, Keillor was so put off by the patriotic bikers that he was driven to his keyboard to regale us all with his bad metaphors and surly disposition.
With “The roar of hollow patriotism,” Keillor found that he just couldn’t stomach the loud patriotism expressed by the Harley riders in D.C. He also seemed to say that if you are a “fat man with a ponytail” you shouldn’t be allowed to express that patriotism in a manner you so wish to express it.
Three-hundred thousand bikers spent Memorial Day weekend roaring around Washington in tribute to our war dead, and I stood on Constitution Avenue Sunday afternoon watching a river of them go by, waiting for a gap in the procession so I could cross over to the Mall and look at pictures.
A “river” of motorcycles? Seems a rather inapt metaphor, doesn’t it? Maybe “stampede” or “herd,” might make more sense, but when I think “river” I think a serene scene of nature as opposed to the cacophony of motorbikes.
But, bad metaphors abound. They get more vicious, too.
A patriotic bike rally is sort of like a patriotic toilet-papering or patriotic graffiti; the patriotism somehow gets lost in the sheer irritation of the thing. Somehow a person associates Memorial Day with long moments of silence when you summon up mental images of men huddled together on LSTs and pilots revving up B-24s and infantrymen crouched behind piles of rubble steeling themselves for the next push.
I find myself mouth agape at the hate expressed by Keillor against these patriotic folks. Is this vitriol warranted?
I also paused after that paragraph searching my mind for a mean way to describe a liberal’s patriotic rally of some sort. But, after wracking my little head for 10 minutes, I realized that it is impossible to describe something that has never happened. At least Keillor had seen a biker’s rally so that he could lampoon them! I’d have to make up what a liberal’s rally might look like from pure imagination. And I just cannot justify the waste of time.
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Memorial Day… A Great Time For Stories About How Bad Our Troops Are
-By Warner Todd Huston
On the weekend when America finds her citizens taking just a little time out of their cluttered and busy lives to pause and memorialize the sacrifice of those who have served and protected us all, the media always sees fit to make their observance of Memorial Day the issuance of stories about how bad our solders are, how bad they have it, or how bad they deserve to be treated. This year is no different, at least for the New York Times News Service, as we find a story about how a soldier was caught stealing money from a stash of U.S. cash found in one of Saddam Hussein’s captured palaces and how this theft ruined the soldier’s life.
This report has it all as far as the news media are concerned. It has a soldier that turned bad. It has the presumed injustice of the military and the war. It also has the excuse making where that soldier turned thief was somehow driven to his thievery because he came from a poor Kentucky town. It also has the “benefit” of being a tale used to denigrate our military on Memorial Day. In the warped estimation of the MSM it has every aspect of how bad it is for our military all rolled up in one. Yes, this is the perfect story as far as the MSM are concerned.
The whole admittedly messy and sad story revolves around the bad choices made by Pvt. Earl Coffey who served in Baghdad in April of 2003. The Army sniper was one of the first men to enter one of the many palaces owned by the Hussein family, in this case the palace of son Uday. There Coffey and a fellow soldier found a safe with a large amount of U.S. dollars in it, from which according to Coffey they took some $500,000.
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Four for Posterity
-By Warner Todd Huston
This weekend, there are millions of Americans ready to celebrate the adventures of Indiana Jones. There are those talking of American Idol winner David Cook. Many are excited about racecar driver Danica Patrick’s upcoming attempt to take the Indianapolis 500. These names come easily off the tongues of our fellow citizens. But there are four names that no one seems to know and more is the shame for it. For this we can thank a media that refuses to serve the people, but we can also worry if it is a failing in where we’ve come as a society.
In any case, these four names belong to some true Americans whom we all owe a great debt, one that can never be repaid except by remembering their efforts. The four names of which I speak are those of the most recent Medal of Honor winners who sacrificed their last breath for all of us.
So, with this season’s Memorial Day message, I’d like to take a few moments to remember these four men who gave their all in service to their country.
Corporal Jason L. Dunham, USMC received the MOH for his heroic actions of April 14th, 2004 in Karabilah, Iraq. There he covered an insurgent’s grenade with his own body to save the lives of his fellow Marines.
Master-at-Arms Second Class Michael A. Monsoor, USN also shielded his fellow soldiers from a grenade blast using his own body in September of 2006. His selfless action saved the lives of the rest of his squad.
Army Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith dispatched as many as 50 enemy soldiers by manning a .50 caliber machine gun mounted in an exposed position in order to beat back an overwhelming enemy attack. Sgt. Smith lost his life in the attack.
Lt. Michael P. Murphy, USN also lost his life in an attempt to call in air support to get his fellow troops extricated from an untenable position. To do so, Lt. Murphy had to place himself in an exposed position and under enemy fire so that the radio would find reception. His actions saved the lives of the rest of his team.
In a nation that is seemingly losing its sense of self, its feeling that heroes walk among us, we take just a few minutes this weekend to remember those who have served us. To every member of our armed forces, alive and passed, in combat or support, we thank you for your service. No matter what your job was, we thank you for your service.
But, to those who gave their last best efforts we bow our heads to remember their sacrifice of life and limb. We thank them all for suffering for us.
Happy Memorial Day and God bless our armed forces.
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