:: Netmarcos' Notes ::
Musings and rambling commentary on current events, politics, music, and other cultural issues mixed with a few personal references.
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:: Friday, December 17, 2004 ::
The Kyoto Protocol is Dead:: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 ::
R.I.P.
:: Mark 5:10 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...
Freedom of expression in the UK:: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 ::LONDON (Reuters) - Police have arrested the leader of the far-right British National Party after he was secretly filmed calling Islam "a wicked, vicious faith".
The arrest of Nick Griffin, one-time host of French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, was warmly welcomed by Muslims, some of whom said the government should ban the BNP altogether.
:: Mark 9:12 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...
Chris Muir is back at last. Be sure to welcome him.:: Friday, November 05, 2004 ::
:: Mark 10:29 AM [+] :: (1) comments
...
Rocco Buttiglione - Italy's minister of European affairs - contemplates matters "Of God and Men" and reaches some surprising conclusions...At least surprising to anyone not living in one of the red states.We still live in a world in which resources are limited, we have to work hard to have our share of them, we need the support of a family and we need the old traditional virtues that had been too easily dismissed. Americans have become aware of this state of affairs sooner than Europeans. This is another explanation of the difference between the two sides of the Atlantic. But we can expect also in Europe a change of attitudes within a comparatively short period of time. Our struggling economy and ageing society can survive and be modernized only if we recover at least some of the values of the past -- among them the ethics of hard working and caring fathers and mothers.:: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 ::
This is difficult to accept in Europe because our intellectuals were always convinced that modernity brings with itself the extinction of religious faith. Now America, the most advanced country in the world, shows us that religion may be and indeed is a fundamental element of a free society and of a modern economy.
:: Mark 1:39 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Voter registration fraud? In Philly?Tell me it ain't so!:: Monday, October 11, 2004 ::In Philadelphia County alone, the Republican State Committee sent 131,206 congratulation letters to new registered Philadelphia County voters from March 1 to the end of August. 30,000 new primary voters were factored in to be on the safe side. "The 527 groups started registering people very very early in the process," adds Pfeifle, explaining why primary voter registrations were included in the mix.
What the RNC found was shocking. "In our early analysis of those, we had a little more than 10,000 returned letters," said Pfeifle, who notes that the certified letters were sent to voters of every party.
"310 have been returned as addresses of vacant buildings or abandoned lots, 5 were returned as the individuals are incarcerated, 15 came back as the people were deceased, 3,300 came back as attempted but not known," states Pfeifle. "130 people have moved, and 35 were marked with forwarding order." 1,172 came back as not deliverable as addressed and another 35 came back with forwarding orders.
:: Mark 11:24 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A post-debate reality check on stem cell research.
:: Mark 7:42 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Voter intimidation and disenfranchisement in FloridaOpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail:: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 ::Last week, in Orlando, Fla., approximately 60 union protestors stormed and ransacked the local Bush-Cheney headquarters causing considerable damage and injuring one campaign staffer, who suffered a broken wrist.
:: Mark 7:36 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties -- 10/04/2004
:: Mark 8:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Just what do Winds of Change.NET: John Kerry and Owen Wilson have in common?:: Friday, October 01, 2004 ::
Kerry's long record in public life - both upon his return from Vietnam, and in the Senate - is equally clear: Calumnies against both his fellow soldiers in Vietnam and America's current allies in the war on terror that are never repudiated, or apologized for. A long history of votes against defense & intelligence appropriations, and of opposing U.S. military action abroad, even in the face of clear threats. Declarations that that we are engaged in global police work in the wake of 9/11, and not a war. The endless preoccupation with Vietnam.
The only explanation I can find for people who believe a Kerry Presidency would not be Carterite to its core (and worse) is sheer wishful projection. It is a measure of Bush's lack of competence as a campaigner and persuader that these illusions have not been utterly shattered, and that Kerry is still in the race.
:: Mark 8:12 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...The New York Post Online Edition claims that "the 'insurgency' in Iraq is going nowhere fast. "It will be as roundly defeated as were its predecessors in so many other countries. The danger for Iraq's future lies elsewhere.
It comes, in part, from Americans who want Iraq to fail because they want President Bush to fail. Some 81 books paint the president as the devil incarnate; Bush-bashing is also the theme of three "documentaries" plus half a dozen Hollywood feature films. Never before in any mature democracy has a political leader aroused so much hatred from his domestic opponents.
Others want Iraq to fail because they want America to fail, with or without Bush. The bitter tone of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he declared the liberation of Iraq "illegal" shows that it is not the future of Iraq but the vilification of the United States that interests him.
Add to this the recent bizarre phrase from French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The head of the Figaro press group went to see him about the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq; Raffarin assured him they would soon be freed, reportedly saying, "The Iraqi insurgents are our best allies."
In plain language, this means that, in the struggle in Iraq, Raffarin does not see France on the side of its NATO allies — the U.S., Britain, Italy and Denmark among others — but on the side of the "insurgents."
Ooooh. Nice qoute there Prime Minister Jean-Pier. And these are the old alliances that John Kerry yearns to strengthen. Right.
:: Mark 11:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Why are we still not getting the truth about Iraq from our own media outlets? Consider:: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 ::
this.Consider this story Rose saw reported: ''I was going through the battle damage assessment at my desk with NBC's Today on the TV. The attack occurred in the middle of the night. I had the footage of the attack on my computer, and here's Katie Couric (or whoever hosts it) showing the same bomb location.
''I had pictures of the bombed vehicles, which is how I knew she was talking about the same location. The next shot is kids being carried into a hospital. We had eyes on this for a long time. If there were kids in there, they were toting weapons or the terrorists used them as human shields. …
''I went to our Combat Operations Center and walked into them watching the same thing. I verified what I thought and spoke with our intelligence guys. They said the whole thing was staged and probably old footage. They track the footage and have seen repeat footage shown in the past. They also said to look at the footage and see if it makes sense. More often than not, it doesn't … pulling a child from rubble with relatively clean clothes. ''
Is NBC wrong and the Marines right? Americans deserve both sides to make up their minds.
''The Najaf shrine — HUNDREDS of dead women and children were brought out after Sadr left,'' Rose wrote. ''They (Sadr's supporters) rounded them up during the battle and brought them in to be executed. Why? Because they anticipated the Americans would eventually enter the shrine and walk into a media ambush. We never went in. The people of Najaf love us right now because of that. They hate Sadr and want him dead.
''Have you heard that one yet (in the media)?''
You can easily find reports such as these on the Internet and in a few papers, but rarley in national or international outlets. Why aren't these stories prominently covered by the MSM? Why should all of the negative coverage be of US efforts rather than the likes of Sadr and his ilk? What a warped and nauseating view of those who would claim to inform, instruct, and enlighten us on world affairs. Our news organizations are reduced to propagandists and 3rd rate political hacks.
Fine. Report the bad. Accurately report our mistakes. And just as accurately and vociferously report our success and the depravity of the enemy when it is evident.
Am I asking too much?
:: Mark 10:59 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...More from 55KRC - THE Talk Station:: Monday, September 20, 2004 ::HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? THE NATION'S LARGEST POLICE UNION, THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, HAS ENDORSED PRESIDENT BUSH? DID IT MAKE THE NEWS? WAS THEIR A HEADLINE? WERE ANY OF THE "TALKING HEADS" GUSHING? THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN THE F.O.P.'S HISTORY THAT IT MADE A UNANIMOUS ENDORSEMENT! THEIR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JIM PASCO SAID, "NOT ONLY ARE WE STRONGLY SUPPORTING BUSH, WE'RE MAD AT KERRY. OUR MEMBERS FEEL HE TREATED THEM WITHOUT RESPECT....318,000 COPS." WHY ARE THEY MAD? WHY ARE THEY ENDORSING BUSH OVER KERRY? THE F.O.P. SENT EACH CANDIDATE A QUESTIONAIRE TO FIND OUT HOW THEY FELT ON KEY ISSUES. I MEAN, IT WOULD BE A GOOD THING TO FIND OUT HOW THE PERSON YOU WOULD VOTE FOR, STANDS, WOULDN'T IT? WELL, THE OLD "FLIP-FLOPPER" JOHN KERRY WOULDN'T BE CAUGHT FLIPPING AND FLOPPING THIS TIME....HE TOTALLY IGNORED THE QUESTIONAIRE FROM THE F.O.P. BUSH DID NOT. THEREFORE THE INTERNATIONAL F.O.P. ENDORSED PRESIDENT BUSH. MR. PASCO SAID "KERRY HAS GALVANIZED OUR BASE AGAINST HIM....IT'S JUST STUPID!" THE REASON I OPENED THIS EDITORIAL WITH THE QUESTION..(HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?)..IS THAT THE NEWS MEDIA INTENTIONALLY OR UNINTENTIONALLY IGNORED THIS IMPORTANT ENDORSEMENT BY OUR NATION'S LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMUNITY. WHEN THE INTERNATIONAL FIREFIGHTERS UNION ENDORSED KERRY THE NEWS MEDIA COULD HARDLY HOLD BACK THEIR EXCITEMENT IN MAKING THE ANNOUNCEMENT. BUT, REMEMBER, THERE IS NO BIAS IN THE NEWS REPORTING IN THE U.S.A. IS THERE?
JERRY THOMAS
:: Mark 2:10 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...I just got home from work - and would have been home sooner -, but I had to stop on the side of the road at 5:00 P.M. until I could stop laughing.
Our local CBS radio afilliate announced at the top of the hour that "Due to the recent controversy involving CBS news, we will not be airing the CBS News with Dan Rather."
In it's place, they ran a musical montage featuring Three Dog Night's "Liar" and similarly themed songs.
The Dan is soooooo toast on this.
:: Mark 5:47 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Washington, DC—RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke made the
following statement today:"Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses "valuable" information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to "senior" Kerry campaign officials; an apparently unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview. The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear."
Just what is it that you are trying to say, Director Dyke? Hmmmm?
:: Mark 2:22 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...The Richmond TimesDispatch reports on what it call's The Grand Deception::: Friday, September 17, 2004 ::Kerry arrived in Vietnam on November 17, 1968, with a strong anti-war bias and a self-serving determination to build a foundation for a future political career. Even a most casual review of his biography, Tour of Duty by Douglas Brinkley, will reveal that Kerry entered the Naval Reserve as a "vain intellectual" with contempt for military authority.
In hindsight, his obvious objective was to emulate his idol, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, serve as short a time as possible, and escape Vietnam unscathed but with sufficient credentials and decorations to portray himself in heroic terms. To achieve his goal, Kerry stooped to scamming an after-combat reporting system that was based on trust, promoting himself for a handful of medals regardless of their dubious merits, so he could "bug out" of the war zone early.
His propensity for gross exaggeration and lying was legend to those who knew him, even early on at Cam Rahn Bay, his first duty station in Vietnam. In Tour of Duty, Kerry recounts the story of the seas being so rough during the monsoon season that sailors came in "pissing red and that several people have broken bones" - a ridiculous story that was totally unsubstantiated.
Ouch.
:: Mark 8:28 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...One more remarkable can-DUH-date for public office.A City Council candidate who once brought a hatchet to a Planning Commission meeting got the attention of Secret Service agents because he distributed fliers advocating the assassination of President Bush.
:: Mark 2:33 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...For shame! There is no valid excuse for this.:: Thursday, September 16, 2004 ::
More here.
:: Mark 8:24 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...This one speaks for itself.:: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 ::
Rather: "Prove I'm Not Queen of the Space Unicorns"NEW YORK -- For the fourth time in as many days, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather interrupted his telecast tonight to reiterate his claim that he has been crowned Queen of the Space Unicorns.
:: Mark 8:21 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...I guess that this candidate is no more or less nuts than many others.:: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 ::Bilyeu claims the federal government implanted a device in her head in the 1970s during an operation at a military base in Arizona. She claims the government has sent her messages -- mostly "put downs'' -- through the alleged device for years to annoy her.
:: Mark 12:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...You go read this and decide for yourself on the issue of John F. Kerry's silver star.:: Friday, September 10, 2004 ::
:: Mark 1:33 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...This one is a "must read" for all of us.OpinionJournal - Written on Water:: Thursday, September 09, 2004 ::Neither the commission, the president, nor the Democratic nominee has a clear vision of how to fight and defend in this war. Partly this is because so many Americans do not yet feel, as some day they may, the gravity of what we are facing.
:: Mark 11:24 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...I am an 'Idiot':: Friday, September 03, 2004 ::
:: Mark 5:30 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...This is what we are fighting against.:: Thursday, September 02, 2004 ::"Those children who remained in the school, in general, did not suffer. The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire," the official was quoted as saying.
Fearless, brave, heroic, "freedom fighters" shooting school kids in the back as they run.
When will the world in general - and the press specifically - end the pitiful charade and call these "militants" and "insurgents" what they are - terrorists.
:: Mark 12:49 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Dick Cheney gets into the act.People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them how do you think I got the job?
....................................................................
On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow Democrats. But Senator Kerry's liveliest disagreement is with himself. His back-and-forth reflects a habit of indecision, and sends a message of confusion. And it is all part of a pattern. He has, in the last several years, been for the No Child Left Behind Act and against it. He has spoken in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement and against it. He is for the Patriot Act and against it. Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual, America sees two John Kerrys.
:: Mark 8:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Zell Miller has it right.:: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 ::Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Fainthearted, self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world.
:: Mark 8:37 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!Welcome to the capital of the World.:: Sunday, August 29, 2004 ::
:: Mark 3:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Bush fails to get deserved credit for tax cut benefits - 08/27/04:: Friday, August 27, 2004 :::
A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry claiming it proves that "Over the last four years, the burden of taxes has shifted from the wealthy to the middle class."
Those are politically motivated lies that distort the findings of the report. Here's the truth.
The report proves that what President Bush said about his tax cuts is true: "Tax relief is for everyone who pays income taxes."
:: Mark 12:18 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...The New York Post calls it Hypocrisy:: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 ::Under the law, there can be no coordination between presidential campaigns and 527 groups — though attorneys are specifically permitted to provide legal services to both entities.
In fact, all parties concede that what Ginsberg did for the Swift boat vets was entirely legal and above board. (He said he resigned so as not to distract attention from the president's campaign.)
Indeed, half a dozen Democratic lawyers and officials are doing pretty much the same thing for both the Kerry campaign and pro-Kerry 527 groups. Only no one in the national media is shining the spotlight on their activities — or calling for their resignations.
Hypocrisy, anyone?
:: Mark 12:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...An interesting point of view on the twin downings of Russian aircraft and the official response to the same.Responding to a terrorist attack::I'm struck by the Russian government's reluctance to admit what everyone is thinking - that terrorists are probably behind yesterday's airliner crashes.
Nearly a day after the crashes, however, their response is leading to headlines like Officials: No Sign of Terror in Russian Crashes.
Most news stories have noted that the timing of these crashes, just days before an election in Chechnya resembles the timing of the 3/11 terrorist attacks in Spain. You would think that the Russian government would have learned a lesson from the response of Spanish voters. As many observers noted, the Aznar government was hurt as much by its disingenuous reaction (steadfastly insisting that Basque separatists were responsible) as by the bombings themselves.
:: Mark 2:52 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Interesting data .Slant-o-meter:: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 ::
via Instapundit
:: Mark 2:45 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Wow. Amazing stuff from Captains Quarters: "Kerry received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered on December 2nd,1968. But an entry in Kerry's own journal written nine days later, he writes that, "he and his crew hadn't been shot at yet". Kerry's campaign has said it is possible his first Purple Heart was awarded for an unintentionally self-inflicted wound.":: Thursday, July 29, 2004 ::
:: Mark 8:31 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Bob Just says,"pick your party, pick your man, and pick your country. It's your future."
Here are your choices:They believe there is truth, and that truth is expressed in fixed principles. They guide their thinking by these principles. This allows a person to know what's essential and what is non-essential in achieving goals. It allows a person to choose those goals wisely in the first place and then pursue them wisely and aggressively.or the contrasting point of view as stated by one Ronald Wilson Reagan,...a prevailing attitude of many who have turned to a modern-day secularism, discarding the tried and time-tested values upon which our very civilization is based. No matter how well intentioned, their value system is radically different from that of most Americans. And while they proclaim that they're freeing us from superstitions of the past, they've taken upon themselves the job of superintending us by government rule and regulation. Sometimes their voices are louder than ours, but they are not yet a majority.
:: Mark 1:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Fearsome truth from the pen of Osama Bin Laden's former sister-in-law: "Osama bin Laden and those like him didn't spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. They were made. They were fashioned by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society that is closed to the outside world. It is a society where half the population have had their basic rights as people amputated, and obedience to the strictest rules of Islam must be absolute. Despite all the power of their oil-revenue, the Saudis are structured by a hateful, backward-looking view of religion and an education that is a school for intolerance . . . .When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place."
:: Mark 12:52 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...A little more from Mr. Multilateral: "For all the abuse that the Bush administration receives for its conduct of the war on terrorism, the Proliferation Security Initiative and Caspian Guard stand as examples of the other side of the war as conducted by a serious administration that knows we are all in for a long twilight struggle. ":: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 ::
:: Mark 12:24 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...You MUST look at this picture of Mimas from the Cassini probe.:: Monday, July 26, 2004 ::
:: Mark 4:32 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...A great story about a good man in a tough job.
Pentagon memo reveals bugging - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - July 26, 2004: "On June 19, 2002, during a routine meeting with the director of security for the Department of Defense, it was reported to my staff and me that a potential 'listening device' was previously discovered in the infrastructure of DoDIG."
:: Mark 2:32 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...:: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 :::
:: Mark 9:48 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Say WHAT? Nuclear arms reportedly found in Iraq - (United Press International): "Baghdad, Iraq, Jul. 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday."
:: Mark 12:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...:: Monday, July 12, 2004 ::
No comment needed.
:: Mark 8:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Orson Scott Card sees High Bias in the media.:: Friday, June 04, 2004 ::What makes the liberal bias in the mainstream media so pernicious is that they deny that they're biased and insist that their twisted version of events is "reality," and anyone who disagrees with them is either mentally or morally suspect. In other words, they're fanatics. And, like all good fanatics, they're utterly convinced that they're in sole possession of virtue and truth.
:: Mark 8:04 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...LADIES FIRST: And with that, the nationscultural and civil death spiral continues.
:: Mark 9:01 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Maj. H. Timothy Vakoc is a Catholic priest who was serving in Iraq when his Humvee was hit Sunday by a roadside bomb.:: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 ::
It's a great attention getting line, but no one seems to be paying much attention. Please, go read the whole thing.
:: Mark 8:59 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Oh, now this is disgusting, but hardly shocking.:: Thursday, May 13, 2004 ::Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced today (Sunday) that UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) ambulances were used to steal and transport body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in last Wednesday’s bomb attack on the Philadelphi route in southern Gaza. The senior minister called upon UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan to address the disturbing phenomenon.
At today’s cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that the UN ambulance, which had also been used to transport terrorists, had been captured by security forces near the Philadelphi area. He said that only after intense diplomatic pressure did UNRWA announce that it would conduct an internal investigation into the matter. He issued a call to UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan as well, urging him to conduct an external audit examining the extent of the involvement of the UN aid program with terrorism.
:: Mark 8:42 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...You can view the video over HERE.
Nick Berg Video, Nick Berg's decapitation, beheading
:: Mark 10:33 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Boston.com / News / World / Spanish troops find return bittersweet: "Last week, Spanish soldiers hastily withdrawn from service in Iraq by the newly elected government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero returned to the sprawling military base here and a welcome-home ceremony. A sign at the base entrance read, 'Todo por la patria,' or 'All for the Country.'
But many of the soldiers said they were having a hard time mustering much pride about their homecoming, and they were anything but triumphant in their return to a country where the vast majority opposed the Iraq war. They certainly don't see themselves as conquerors, and they aren't returning with riches.
'It didn't really feel like that much of a homecoming for us. It felt more like a political celebration for Zapatero and those who never wanted us there in the first place,' said Manuel Garcia, 31, a sergeant in a brigade that was among the entire Spanish contingent of 1,300 troops ordered home.
'We felt like a used car being passed from one owner to the next,' said Felipe Collado, 30, also a sergeant in the Plus Ultra II brigade, which arrived home Wednesday to a ceremony attended by Zapatero, his defense minister, and top brass."
:: Mark 9:05 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...You need to read this pot from Belmont Club entitled "The Search For Greenmantle.""There are Americans in Washington, but praise be to God, there are some nearer to the ground than that."
:: Mark 9:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...:: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 ::
Oh, yeah.
:: Mark 8:54 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Barbara Stock issues An Apology to the Pigs of the World.
Man, is she ever pissed. I find nothing in her column with which I would disagree. If the moderate muslims of the world (WHERE ARE THEY? Are they simply a construct of politicians and media conglomerates, or do they, in fact, exist?) do not make their voices heard in opposition to the policies and actions of Al Qaeda and its allies, we will be left to assume that they wish to be counted among them. We will fight for our survival and our liberty. We will fight for yours as well, if need be, but let us make this point perfectly clear: There is NO neutral ground in this conflict. With us, or with them. Make your choice and accept the consequences together with the responsibilities that this requires.
What much of the civilized world cannot understand, nor accept, is that we are in a war for our very survival. What this recent video clearly shows is not just an attack on an american, but an attack on the Unites States of America and all that we hold dear. For those outside the U.S., you are not exempt. The Spanish have learned this, and others will follow. If we are not successful in the current conflict, the world will pay a heavy price. The faction represented by those responsible for this act have been at war with the western world for decades. We are just now waking up to that reality and entering that conflict in our own defense. We may not like the whole idea of war. We may pray for peace and hope that all of this will just blow over if we close our eyes real tight and wish really hard, but it will not. I know that this sound harsh (and I have 6 sons and a daughter, so I know what is at stake), but we have to admit that there is a war going on here and that neutrality will not assure safety. This is a day that demands action. To become free requires effort and sacrifice...often at the cost of lives and loves. To maintain what has been won by such supernal sacrifice will require that we be willing to defend it again and again...as often as needed... or it will be lost. And the cost of regaining liberty, once lost, is beyond imagination.
We have lost the connection that we once had with the true price of freedom. We have, in great measure, become complacent and self-absorbed. We must all take stock of ourselves in light of what is happening in the world today and decide what - if anything - we should do. Decide whether what you hold dear is worth defending and how far you are willing to go to do so.
:: Mark 2:36 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...More accurate anlysis of our situation.As Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong put it eloquently in his speech last week to the Council on Foreign Relations, "The key issue is no longer WMD or even the role of the U.N. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail." This was much the same point, made more brutally, by the tape put up on an al Qaeda-linked Web site yesterday showing the beheading of Nick Berg, an American from Philadelphia recently captured in Iraq.
In the face of these challenges and atrocities, Americans don't want to hear about "staying the course." They want to hear our commander-in-chief tell us how we are going to win.
:: Mark 2:09 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...More important stuff to read.Reductio ad Absurdum
:: Mark 2:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...A letter from the front, "I Ask That the American People Be Brave":: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 ::
Just go read it.
:: Mark 2:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...From the BLACKFIVE: Someone You Should Know ArchivesSubject: A Real Hero SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS
You should read this and share it with your friends.
:: Mark 2:18 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Another point of view on the Abu Gharib prison. Very interesting.:: Monday, May 10, 2004 ::
:: Mark 2:09 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Victor Davis Hanson gives a well thought out analysis:: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 ::of fads and fallacies that brought us to our present state.But if we know how we failed to respond in the last three decades, do we yet grasp why we were so afraid to act decisively at these earlier junctures, which might have stopped the chain of events that would lead to the al Qaeda terrorist acts of Sept/ 11? Our failure was never due to a lack of the necessary wealth or military resources, but rather to a deeply ingrained assumption that we should not retaliate--a hesitancy al Qaeda perceives and plays upon.
I hope that enough of us are listening that have the will to change.
:: Mark 4:05 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...I went to see POTUS at the Cincinnati Gardens last night with my son and some 10,000+ of our closest friends. Pretty good perfromance and a very supportive crowd.:: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 ::
The Moonbats had about 50 representative across the street and most of the expected varieties were present. One particularly animated young woman was yelling "Morons for Bush!" at the crowd leaving the stadium, but she took pause when I agreed with her and added that, as long as all the morons vote for Bush, he will be re-elected in a landslide.
Gotta love it.
:: Mark 7:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief,' Ouch! This bit has got to sting.:: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 ::Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is "unfit to be commander-in-chief." They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.
"What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension," John O'Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com. The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief," O'Neill said.
:: Mark 7:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...You have to read this. It will be hard, but you should read it...and then share it with your family.BLACKFIVE: Taking Chance Home
:: Mark 5:13 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Investigative Report:: Friday, April 23, 2004 ::
Saddam's WMD Have Been Found!
Why has no one been notified?In virtually every case - chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles - the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.
:: Mark 9:15 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Add this voice to the national marriage debate.The Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness--defined as "the philosophy and practice of loving or relating intimately to more than one other person at a time with honesty and integrity"--says that polyamory is a good solution for those who can't abide monogamy but don't want to cheat.
Just keep moving. There is no slippery slope to look at here folks. C'mon. Move along now.
More here.
:: Mark 9:46 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Great coverage of the petition against the FCC's Golden Globe ruling. But what is truly inspiring is this little piece at the end of the column::: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 ::
Last week's column gave readers a chance to contribute money to help restore seven small TV stations in Iraq. The project is the joint idea of the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad, and Spirit of America, a philanthropy begun by Los Angeles businessman Jim Hake to assist American GIs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Hake's goal is to raise $100,000 to buy equipment to upgrade the stations. Here are the results:
As of yesterday afternoon, some 4,965 readers of The Wall Street Journal (and their friends) had contributed $880,321. The individual contributions ranged from $3.50 to $50,000.
:: Mark 9:42 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...:: Monday, April 19, 2004 ::
So true.
:: Mark 11:12 AM [+] ::
...No one is safe until the sponsors and perpetrators of evil have been disarmed or destroyed.:: Friday, April 16, 2004 ::Jordanian authorities have seized cars filled with explosives and weapons, and arrested several suspected terrorists in recent days.
:: Mark 4:39 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...MWUAHHHHAHAHAHAH!:: Thursday, April 15, 2004 ::The CIA says the voice on that audio tape probably is Osama. Here's an idea. Say it isn't Osama. Challenge him. Say that Osama is suffering from a special strain of syphilis usually found only in camels and now Osama can only spit, grunt and bray. Maybe it will flush him out.
:: Mark 4:08 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Even more anti-PCfallout from the 9/11 commission hearings."We had testimony a couple of months ago from the past president of United, and current president of American Airlines that kind of shocked us all," Lehman told me. "They said under oath that indeed the Department of Transportation continued to fine any airline that was caught having more than two people of the same ethnic persuasion in a secondary line for line for questioning, including and especially, two Arabs."
Wait a minute. So if airline security had three suspicious Arab guys they had had to let one go because they'd reached a quota?
Excuse me!? ...but in my world, the most politically correct move one could make is to ensure the survival of the nation that you claim to work for. The pain and confusion that erupts in my brain when I try to make sense of the absurdity displayed in this brief comment is more than I can bear.
We are in serious trouble here.
:: Mark 3:48 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Mansoor Ijazhas even more analysis on 9/11 Commission and pre-9/11 priorities regarding the handling of one Osama bin Laden.
:: Mark 3:40 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...More on the melt-down of the 9/11 commission from Andrew C. McCarthy over at N.R.O.
He seems appropriatly miffed and outraged at Chairman Tom Kean's claim that "people ought to stay out of our business[,]" in regard to questions surrounding Jaime Gorelick's place on the panel.Let's start with the most obvious: The work of the 9/11 Commission is America's business; it is not the private aerie of its ten plugged-in appointees. America expects its tribunals to exude integrity, to be above crass suspicions that the fix is in or that decisions are being made based on something other than a dispassionate review of the relevant circumstances. A tribunal, like the 9/11 Commission, cannot achieve that standard of probity if it has, sitting as a judge, a person whose conduct is at the core of what must be judged.
This ain't quantum physics. It's elementary. Consequently, Kean's obtuseness — like that of his fellow commissioner Slade Gorton, who so thoughtfully pronounced that criticisms of Gorelick's status were "garbage" — makes the commission's entire body of work suspect. Even Kean's defense of Gorelick bespeaks a thorough-going ignorance about what is at issue. He says that she is among the hardest working and most bipartisan of all the commissioners; the first assertion is no doubt true, the second is dubious, but more importantly both are wholly beside the point.
You really should read the whole thing and then keep a very watchfull eye on the whole process.
:: Mark 3:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...You must read this from Iraq.
Instapundit had this to say about it,
To me, the most interesting quote was this one: "It showed not only the intensity of the resistance but an acute willingness among insurgents to die." You can always find something to agree on, if you look hard enough.
Heh.
:: Mark 3:23 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...An interesting observation on the 9/11 commission and the particular role of Richard ben Veniste in this soap-opera.Fifty years from now, the conspiracy theorists will be wondering what ben Veniste set out to hide and whether he accomplished his mission. Too late to change that now, but speculation about ben Veniste's cover-ups will come to rival the cottage industry surrounding Dallas. A great fate for one of prosecutors of Watergate.
:: Mark 3:03 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...The 9/11 comission has a serious credibility problem.OpinionJournal - Featured Articlethe White House could hardly be blamed if it decided to cease cooperation with the 9/11 Commission pending Ms. Gorelick's resignation and her testimony under oath as a witness into the mind of the Reno Justice Department. What exactly was the purpose of the wall?
:: Mark 2:42 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...More bad news for the Kerry campaign.
Trade Gap Shrinks as Imports, Exports Hit RecordThe U.S. trade deficit narrowed in February as a combination of the weak U.S. dollar and stronger economic growth propelled both exports and imports to record levels, a government report showed on Wednesday.
The February trade gap totaled $42.1 billion, down more than 3 percent from January and slightly below analysts' pre-report expectations of $42.5 billion.
U.S. exports leapt four percent -- the highest monthly increase since October 1996 -- to a record $92.4 billion, while imports rose 1.6 percent to a record $134.5 billion.
The politically sensitive trade gap with China fell nearly 28 percent in February as imports from that country slipped to $11.3 billion, the lowest level in nearly a year, and exports to China rose 17 percent to $3.0 billion.
The lower dollar appeared to help all categories of exports, as shipments of industrial supplies and materials and autos and auto parts both set records. Exports of consumer goods were only slightly below the record set in November and exports of capital goods, such as aircraft and industrial machines, were the highest since May 2001.
Exports of services, which include travel, also set a record.
:: Mark 9:28 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...It is hard for me to believe that Oliver Stone is really this stupid.:: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 ::ALB: Now, when you were talking to the prisoners who tried to hijack a plane, one told you he was a fisherman, and you said, "Why then didn't you take a boat?" Why did you ask that?
OS: Well, it seemed to me that if they were familiar with boats, it seemed to be the best way.
ALB: Did you know that in Cuba there are virtually no boats? The boats that are used for fishermen are tightly controlled. One of the more surreal aspects of Cuba, being the largest island in the Caribbean, is that there are no visible boats.
OS: I see.
:: Mark 9:26 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Hmmmmm? Maybe you should read what this man has to say.my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler:
It won't work. It won't make us more secure.
In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure.
:: Mark 4:16 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...This guy isn't any better.WorldNetDaily: Prof says 'no proof' Muslims behind 9-11There is "no conclusive proof" Arabs and Muslims were behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the U.S. itself may be responsible, asserts an Egyptian professor at American University of Cairo.
:: Mark 11:18 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Read this and watch the movies.They're gonna say some Palestinian being too radical -- well, you haven't seen radicalism yet!"
We are WAYYYY to soft on the more strident and radical members of the anti-war groups.
:: Mark 11:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Andy Rooney has outlived his mind.Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it. But you can be sure our soldiers in Iraq are not all brave heroes. …
:: Mark 11:11 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...There are many reasons to read James Taranto's Best of the Web Today. Any one of them would be worth a visit, but today I can count at least 6.:: Monday, April 12, 2004 ::
:: Mark 11:09 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Another option for dealing with hostage situations from James S. Robbinson on National Review Online
:: Mark 1:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...The winds of change are blowing again...and not always in a favorable direction.First Amendment arguments are losing ground to antidiscrimination laws in many areas, and once stalwart free-speech groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have mostly gone over to the other side. An unlikely split has occurred. In the interest of fighting bias, liberal groups reliably promote laws that limit First Amendment principles. The best defenders of free speech and freedom of religion are no longer on the left. They are found on the right.
:: Mark 1:05 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...There is a lot of powerful stuff up at Winds of Change.NET: Dan's Winds of War: 2004-12-04:: Thursday, April 08, 2004 ::
:: Mark 1:00 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Condi rocks!FOXNews.com - Politics - Raw Data: Full Hearing Transcript:: Friday, April 02, 2004 ::After the September 11th attacks, our nation faced hard choices: We could fight a narrow war against Al Qaida and the Taliban, or we could fight a broad war against a global menace. We could seek a narrow victory, or we could work for a lasting peace and a better world.
President Bush has chosen the bolder course.
:: Mark 1:14 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...news like this will drive John Kerry and his pals NUTS!:: Friday, March 26, 2004 ::"Any way you slice it, the world is creating or transferring more jobs to the U.S. than we are doing to the rest of the world," said Daniel T. Griswold, a trade specialist at the Cato Institute, a research organization in Washington.
:: Mark 2:40 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Things that make you go hmmmmmm."It's official," Norquist exclaimed in a press release. "Europe is actively participating in the U.S. election and is collaborating with the Kerry campaign."
:: Mark 2:52 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...An interesting set of statistics.Less than 20 percent of the top 10 movies at the domestic box office in 2001, 2002 and 2003 had excessive or very graphic sex in them, according to Movieguide, the monthly publication of the Christian Film & Television Commission.
Movieguide's ratings, however, showed 63 percent of the top films had either a moral worldview or a Christian worldview.
:: Mark 8:43 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Lileks nails another one.So if Al Qaeda had failed on 9/11, do you think OBL and the rest of the merry band would be sitting around a table in Kabul holding hearings about who was to blame? I tend to think they would have moved on.
:: Mark 8:32 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Ah ha! So that is what they mean.:: Thursday, March 25, 2004 ::There are risks in any decision. But when Presidents fail to act at all, or act with too little conviction, we get a September 11.
This is the real lesson emerging from the 9/11 Commission hearings if you listen above the partisan din. In their eagerness to insist that Mr. Bush should have acted more pre-emptively before 9/11, the critics are rebutting their own case against the President's aggressive antiterror policy ever since. The implication of their critique is that Mr. Bush didn't repudiate the failed strategy of the Clinton years fast enough.
:: Mark 7:56 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A true hero without the recognition so rightly earned.
Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity - 97.01Borlaug's mission -- to cause the environment to produce significantly more food -- has come to be seen, at least by some securely affluent commentators, as perhaps better left undone. More food sustains human population growth, which they see as antithetical to the natural world.
Thanks to Instapundit for the link.
:: Mark 8:51 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Absolutely appalling! From the "Why Doesn't This Surprise Me?" Department:: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 ::Only 21 percent of administrators and 30 percent of students knew that the First Amendment guarantees religious freedom.
:: Mark 8:46 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...No commentary required here::: Monday, March 22, 2004 ::
A Vietnam veteran who said he remembers John Kerry participating in a 1971 Kansas City meeting at which an assassination plot was discussed says an official with the Kerry presidential campaign called him this month and pressured him to change his story.
:: Mark 5:22 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...As I noted before, I think that Kerry's VVAW past and faulty recollection of the same should be cause for concern."I still have no memory of a Kansas City meeting.
"I have this stark memory of the humidity that day [I resigned from VVAW]…. I just remember forever a dark storm brewing, with these huge thunderhead clouds."
But his recollection was that he resigned at the St. Louis meeting. "And every reminder we have since then has put it there, including Nicosia's book," he said.
But the files include a "priority" memorandum dated Nov. 16, 1971 — the day after the VVAW's Kansas City meeting ended — from Hoover to Nixon and other high-ranking administration officials. Quoting a "confidential source," the report said Kerry was there and had resigned from the VVAW for personal reasons.
"It's just weird," Kerry said, when asked about the discrepancy. He attributed his previous assertions to a faulty memory.
:: Mark 4:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Keep your eye on the Supreme Court today. If police ask who you are, do you have to say?Under Nevada law, a citizen must reveal his or her name to a police officer who has reasonable suspicion that the person might be involved in a crime. Even if the suspect is innocent, the mere act of refusing to identify oneself is - itself - a crime.
Analysts say the law creates a legal irony. If the police officer possessed enough evidence to place the suspect under arrest, the suspect would be given a Miranda warning that he or she had the right to remain silent. But if the police officer possessed only reasonable suspicion - not the higher standard of probable cause needed to justify an arrest - a suspect could be arrested and convicted merely for refusing to identify himself.
"Why should a criminal have more rights than an innocent person?" asks Harriet Cummings, a Nevada public defender who is part of the team challenging the law.
:: Mark 10:50 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...So, you say the French are duplicitous cheese eating surrender monkeys?
:: Mark 10:26 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...John Kerry's record on defense apropriations:Among the systems John Kerry said he wanted to cancel were the B-1 bomber, the Apache helicopter, the Patriot anti-missile system, the Aegis cruiser, the AV-8B Harrier jump jet, the F-15, the F-14 A and D models, the Phoenix air-to-air missile, and the Sparrow air-to-air missile. And those Tomahawk cruise missiles that have become the standoff weapon of choice? Kerry wanted to cut the program in half.
That's what makes the recent charge by John Kerry that troops have had to buy their own body armor so hypocritical. Because if John Kerry had had his way, our troops would have had to buy their own tanks, their own fighter jets, their own missiles, their own helicopters, their own warships, their own...you get the idea. (For the record, according to the Pentagon, all troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have body armor.)
His attack also ignores the fact that funding for additional body armor was contained in the $87 billion bill funding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that John Kerry voted against (after he voted for it, of course).
:: Mark 10:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Susan Lindauer enters the history books along side E. Stanley Jones, Harry hopkins and other well-intentioned idiots.In assessing the damage Lindauer might have done it is worth considering another prewar incident from Roosevelt's administration. Roosevelt's friend, E. Stanley Jones, a well-known Methodist preacher, offered to carry messages back and forth between Roosevelt and a Japanese diplomat, Hidenari Terasaki. Terasaki implored Roosevelt to appeal for peace directly to the emperor. He also begged Roosevelt not to mention his name owing to the risks Terasaki ran by his secret peacemaking correspondence.
Roosevelt assured Jones that Terasaki's secret was safe, and the next day he discussed with his Cabinet the idea of an appeal to the emperor. The telegram was never sent, but Roosevelt took the message to mean the Japanese were disorganized and "running around like wet hens." That was on December 2, 1941.
:: Mark 10:17 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Heh, as Instapudit is wont to say...:: Friday, March 19, 2004 ::
:: Mark 10:10 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Does this report of John F. Kerry's relationship with the infamous 'Gainesville 8' bother you?:: Thursday, March 18, 2004 ::Scott Camil, a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, presented to the group, including Kerry, a plot to assassinate conservative congressmen at a November 1971 meeting.
The Kerry campaign denies the senator and presidential candidate was present at the meeting, saying he quit the organization prior to the heated session in Kansas City, Nov. 12-15, 1971.
However, Randy Barnes of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, disputes that account. Barnes participated in the meeting and he says Kerry, then 27, was at the meeting, voted against the plot and then resigned from the organization. According to a New York Sun report, another Vietnam vet who attended the meeting, Terry Du-Bose, agreed that Kerry was there.
:: Mark 9:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...More insanity on our nation's university campuses as two student senators at Western Oregon University try to ban student-sponsored blood drives on the school’s campus because they say questions associated with the donor screening process are discriminatory against gays.“By continuing to allow the Red Cross on our campus, the university is telling all the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students that we don’t care about you,” said Bates.
:: Mark 1:15 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Dick Cheney said it.:: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 ::We must support those around the world who are taking risks to advance freedom, justice, and democracy, just as President Reagan did. American policy must be clear and consistent in its purposes. And American leaders--above all, the commander in chief--must be confident in our nation's cause, and unwavering until the danger to our people is fully and finally removed.
And I agree.
:: Mark 9:01 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...The outcome of the recent Spanish elections is somewhat of a disapointment to me. Many of my spanish friends disagree, but only time will tell if they have made a wise decision. I side with many, including the editors of the Wall Street Journal, who believe that Al Qaeda and other groups with similar aims and tactics will interpret the results as a victory of sorts. This is likely to enbolden them; make recruiting easier, and bring sorrow and death to many more innocents. I pray that I am wrong.:: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 ::So, in their wisdom, Spanish voters ousted the ruling Popular Party on Sunday and elected the Socialists. Only three days after 10 bombs killed 200 in Madrid, this exercise in free choice shows the difference between terror and democracy.
But there's also no denying that the world's terrorists will take away a different, and more dangerous, lesson from the Spanish vote: That by murdering innocents they were able to topple one of the pillars of the Western anti-terror alliance. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party, which brought prosperity in eight years of rule and forged a strong bond with the U.S., had seemed headed for victory before Thursday's attacks.
We aren't among those who think the Spanish have repudiated everything Mr. Aznar stood for. A switch of only a few percentage points determined the outcome, and in the wake of Thursday's violence a public outpouring in favor of saying "enough!" is perhaps understandable. A similar wave of fear swept the U.S. after September 11--until it could be tempered by leadership and shaped into a new national resolve.
The Socialists were thus able to exploit the bombings by arguing that somehow they were caused by Mr. Aznar's alliance with America. "Thank You Aznar for al Qaeda Terror," read a banner at a rally in Barcelona. The Socialists were helped by the tactical mistake of the Aznar government in insisting that the bombers had been from the Basque ETA, even as evidence built that Islamists linked to al Qaeda may have been responsible. The Socialists cynically cried "coverup" without any evidence, but the charge played amid Spanish grief.
:: Mark 10:11 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...John Kerry on John Kerry.:: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 ::
...I refuse ever to accept the notion that anything I've suggested with respect to Iraq was nuanced. It was clear. It was precise. . . ."The vote is the vote. I voted to authorize. It was the right vote, and the reason I mentioned the threat is that we gave the--we had to give life to the threat. If there wasn't a legitimate threat, Saddam Hussein was not going to allow inspectors in. Now, let me make two points if I may. Ed [Gordon] questioned my answer. The reason I can't tell you to a certainty whether the president misled us is because I don't have any clue what he really knew about it, or whether he was just reading what was put in front of him. And I have no knowledge whether or not this president was in depth--I just don't know that. And that's an honest answer, and there are serious suspicions about the level to which this president really was involved in asking the questions that he should've.
With respect to the question of, you know, the vote--let's remember where we were. If there hadn't been a vote, we would never have had inspectors. And if we hadn't voted the way we voted, we would not have been able to have a chance of going to the United Nations and stopping the president, in effect, who already had the votes, and who was obviously asking serious questions about whether or not the Congress was going to be there to enforce the effort to create a threat. So I think we did the right thing. I'm convinced we did.
:: Mark 8:33 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...The Marmot's (Final) Hole: Defectors tell of cannibalism, lost families, misused ash trees
:: Mark 9:59 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...It's your call. Decide by November.WorldNetDaily: Kerry would abandon terror war:: Sunday, February 29, 2004 ::The Democratic Party's presidential front-runner, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has pledged that if elected he will abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for three-and-one-half years of mistakes by the Bush administration.
:: Mark 4:55 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...This report is disturbing...and everyone who cares about the future of the nation should read it.This man is living in a time warp. No wonder Kerry sees any conflict — Gulf War I, Afghanistan, Gulf War II — as a potential Vietnam. In Kerry's world, Vietnam is running on a continuous loop on that big screen TV — with Jimi, Kris, and Peter, Paul, and Mary singing in the background.
Some people become stuck in the time period in which they had their most intense experiences. Others, perhaps with more mental or emotional flexibility, move on. Kerry seems to be one of the former.
:: Mark 10:30 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...A short refresher course in economics.:: Thursday, February 26, 2004 ::Those who complain loudly about how many jobs have been "exported" to other countries because of international free trade totally ignore the jobs that have been imported to the American economy because of that same free trade.
please go read it all and then explain it to your friends and children.
:: Mark 10:25 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...And what of this?"I am thoroughly convinced that there was a dead-bang Middle Eastern connection in the Oklahoma City bombing," he said.
:: Mark 12:16 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...WorldNetDaily: Mexican troops cross U.S. borderMexican military forces make so many regular incursions into U.S. territory, Border Patrol officers hand out printed instructions to agents on how to handle the situations...
Maybe this is related to this.
:: Mark 12:08 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...More on Kerry from The Village Voice....he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.
The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs.
:: Mark 11:59 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A green beret's response to John KerryMedals do not make a man. Morals do.
You should read the whole thing, sign the Guest Book...VOTE.
:: Mark 11:56 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Let's follow this one very closely. Herald.com: Miami & Ft. Lauderdale News, Weather, Dolphins & MoreMIAMI - U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown verbally attacked a top Bush administration official during a briefing on the Haiti crisis Wednesday, calling the President's policy on the beleaguered nation "racist" and his representatives "a bunch of white men."
Her outburst was directed at Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Noriega, a Mexican-American, is the State Department's top official for Latin America.
The participants in the discussion were shocked and Roger Noriega responded in fine style"As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man," according to three participants.
Brown then told him "you all look alike to me," the participants said.
Not much from the mainstream outlets yet, but the blogosphere is running hard with it here, here, and elswhere.
:: Mark 11:34 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Via InstapunditALBRIGHT LIED -- PEOPLE DIED:: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 ::
:: Mark 11:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A cool suggestion for reforming the Electoral College from the The National Barking Spider Resurgence Party candidate for POTUS.:: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 ::The idea: each state will continue to select their electors, based on the same criteria as heretofore. The difference will come during the general election: as each congressional district within a state votes in the popular vote, that is how the elector for that district will be required to vote in the electoral balloting on the Monday following the second Wednesday of December. US Senatorial electors will vote based on the state-wide popular vote.
Go read the whole thing.
:: Mark 9:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A Public Shakedown that has been going on for twenty-five years on many of our nations universities...courtesy of one Ralph Nader.Each time your kid registers for classes, the local PIRG chapter has arranged with the school to tack a fee on to his/her tuition. On most every campus, the PIRG chapter has made attempts to make this "contribution" as secretive and misleading as possible. Just how secretive and manipulative the method depends on how much resistance each chapter has met in trying to get the scheme implemented. At most schools, they first attempt to make the fee both mandatory and nonrefundable. If that doesn't work, they lobby for as underhanded and sneaky a scheme as the school will allow.
:: Mark 10:08 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...One more chillng reminder that this world has seen great evil that we must never forget, lest it be allowed to return.NORILSK, Russia — The bones appear each June, when the hard Arctic winter breaks at last and the melting snows wash them from the site of what some people here — but certainly not many — call this city's Golgotha.
The bones are the remains of thousands of prisoners sent to the camps in this frozen island of the Gulag Archipelago. To this day, no one knows exactly how many labored here in penal servitude. To this day, no one knows exactly how many died.
The bones are an uncomfortable reminder of a dark past that most would rather forget.
Evil did not die with Adolf and Eva in a German bunker. It just moved on. It is not dead yet.
:: Mark 9:45 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Chester E. Finn Jr. wants you to decide whether or not Alan Greenspan is the smartest man in America.I'm not as smart as Greenspan but I had spotted this oddity before he spoke: Many of the people and groups that are shrillest in protesting the loss of American jobs are also the most vocal in resisting the education changes called for by NCLB. Labor unions. Senator John Edwards. And more than a few state legislators.
Maybe they just don't get it: When they balk at fixing their schools and raising education standards, they are saying to employers, "Keep sending your jobs overseas, because we have no intention of supplying you with a competent domestic workforce."
:: Mark 9:39 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Read this:SAF: The Academic Bill of Rights
Lend your support here.
:: Mark 9:28 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Just one gem among many in the Best of the Web Today"The top bomb-maker for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Fallujah," Fox News reports. "The bomb-making lieutenant, whose name wasn't released, died in a gun battle at a terrorist safe house late last week, military sources told Fox." Zarqawi, of course, is the al Qaeda man Colin Powell last year said had been operating inside Saddam's Iraq--but the "antiwar" crowd will still insist there's no connection between Saddam and al Qaeda.
If you don't got read it all, you will be doing yourself a great disservice.
:: Mark 9:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...On Ralph and the 2004 presidential elections, the OpinionJournal - Featured ArticleIt isn't clear that Mr. Nader will hurt the Democratic nominee this year either. By holding down the left flank of the national debate on any subject, Mr. Nader could make Senators Kerry or Edwards look more centrist than they are. In any event, we don't recall this level of media angst about "spoilers" when Ross Perot was damaging GOP candidates in 1992 and 1996.
:: Mark 9:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Bush says that there is a new Waffle in town.:: Monday, February 23, 2004 ::"The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions," Bush said. "They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts."
More here.
:: Mark 5:39 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...The International Press Corps should be brought up on charges of Dereliction of Duty.Keep in mind that the reporters knew full well that all but a handful of polling sites in Tehran — the only place they were able to observe, thanks to the usual clampdown on information — were virtually dead. They knew, or should have known, that the regime had trotted out more than 10,000 "mobile voting booths," that is to say, trucks driving around inviting people to vote. They surely heard the stories — widely repeated on Iranian web sites — of thousands of phony ballots, and of citizens being forced to turn over their identity cards, thus making it possible for others to pose as legitimate voters. They must also have heard that high-school students were warned that if they did not vote they would never get into the universities.
But they did not report any of this.
:: Mark 4:20 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Why is Mary Frances Berry so upset?An interesting dust-up at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was reported earlier this month on the Chronicle of Higher Education's website. A special assistant to frequent NRO contributor Peter Kirsanow, one of the sane commissioners, sent out a voluntary survey to various universities, asking them whether and how they used racial and ethnic preferences in admissions (a.k.a. affirmative action). As the Chronicle reports, this has infuriated ultraliberal commission chairman Mary Frances Berry.
:: Mark 4:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Timely analysis from "The Great One", Mark R. Levin on Election 2004.Call it preemption. Call it self-defense. Call it liberation. In truth, President Bush is advancing the Reagan Doctrine, or what should now be called the Reagan-Bush Doctrine. Ronald Reagan rejected the Iron Curtain, he rejected Communism, and he rejected the status quo. He came to office when the Soviet Union was extending its tentacles over several continents, including South America. He believed that, for humanitarian and national-security reasons, the Soviets had to be defeated, not tolerated. And against all conventional wisdom, and severe criticism from many of the same Democrats who now disparage George Bush, Reagan did just that. Hundreds of millions were freed, and the Russians are no longer the threat they once were. Who would have thought it? Certainly not the Democrats.
:: Mark 4:03 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Mark Steyn on Canada on National Review OnlineWhen one reads, in a discussion of traffic-booth design, that the United States is descending into fascism and Canada is North America's only civil society, one's heart is naturally inclined to rise above, to regard this as one of the many insignificant tears that fall in the enduring game between two longstanding friends. But, when such teardrops fall every single day, you start to wonder whether it's not something toxic in the air.
:: Mark 4:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Some people just can't be helped.An Islamic state in Nigeria that is at the heart of a spreading Africa polio outbreak declared Sunday it would not relent on its boycott of a mass vaccination program which it called a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility among Muslims.
:: Mark 11:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Jimmy Carter's view of his countrymen is not very flattering, still.'Americans oblivious to suffering'"The problem lies among the people of the U.S.," he said. "It's a different world from ours. And we don't really care about what happens to them."
:: Mark 10:47 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Just how closely associated were John F. Kerry and Jane Fonda in the anti-war movement?
A lot closer than J.F***.K. would like you to think."A 34-year-old flier lists speakers for an anti-Vietnam War rally at Valley Forge State Park, Pa., Sept. 7, 1970. Included were two of that era's most notorious leftist agitators, the Rev. James Bevel and Mark Lane, plus actress Jane Fonda, a symbol of extreme opposition to the war. Leading off the list was a less familiar name: John Kerry."
After Valley Forge, Fonda adopted Kerry's group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, as her "leading cause," according to Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley.
Minutes for a Sept. 11, 1970, meeting of the VVAW reveal a plan to "coordinate with Jane Fonda's speaking tour," says Novak. She and actor Donald Sutherland, who was also on hand for Valley Forge, had dubbed their road show the "F*** the Army" tour, according to several books chronicling the anti-war movement.
:: Mark 9:38 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Cassandra has a few friends chime in on John F*** Kerry.
Some Veterans' Views on KerryHere we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running across the bow of a Japanese destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early and requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress. In that election, he finds out war heroes don't sell well in Massachusetts in 1970, so he reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets Stillborn Pell to invite him to address Congress and has Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter to do the heavy lifting. A few years later he winds up in the Senate himself, where he votes against every major defense bill and says the CIA is irrelevant after the Berlin Wall came down. He votes against the Gulf War (a big political mistake since that turned out well), then decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq -- but that didn't fare as well with the Democrats, so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war.
I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in Vietnam. I sure don't want him as Commander-in-Chief. I hope that somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record. I know in my gut it's wildly inflated.
:: Mark 9:28 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Run, Ralphie! Run!:: Friday, February 20, 2004 ::"I'd go after Bush even more vigorously as we are in the next few months in ways that the Democrats can't possibly do because they're too cautious and too unimaginative, but they can pick up the vulnerabilities and the failures of the Bush administration that we point out," Nader said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Nader rejects the spoiler label as a "contemptuous" term used by those who want to deny voters a choice. Declaring Washington a "corporate-occupied territory," he accuses both Democrats and Republicans of being dominated by corporate lobbyists who care little about the needs of ordinary Americans.
:: Mark 8:57 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...2 excellent slide shows that highlight the questions surrounding NASA's plan to abandon the Hubble.
The glory of dying stars
Top 10 space images of 2003
Watch and wonder at the beauty of the Universe.
:: Mark 11:27 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Yup. I agree with Victor Davis Hanson on this issue. I, for one, am tired already.:: Thursday, February 19, 2004 ::Thus it was prudent to let all this alone, and not take the bait of thinking a decorated veteran who opposed the war could score points against a supporter of it who did not serve. But the Democrats were not content.
Instead, they floated old accusations that a twenty-something George Bush, who strapped himself into something as dangerous as an obsolete, fire-belching, and occasionally explosive F-102, was somehow near treasonous. Young Bush may have been impetuous and he apparently missed some roll calls, but anyone who rides the stratosphere a few inches above a jet engine is neither a coward nor a man who shirks either danger or responsibility.
Now the Democrats who thought up this low hit on the president will reap what they have sown — as Kerry's entire (and ever-expanding) record of ancient slips and slurs will unnecessarily go under full scrutiny, the sometimes shameful words of a rash and mixed-up youth unfairly gaining as much attention as once brave deeds. By August the American people will be sick to death of Kerry's pandering to veterans — or perhaps as indifferent to his medals as they were to the equally stellar record of sometimes-failed candidates like Bob Dole, Bob Kerry, John McCain, or Gray Davis.
...
Since the Democrats viciously and clumsily have attacked one of the most courageous (and humane) policies of any administration in the last 30 years, the American people will soon come to ask what they in fact will propose instead ("put up or shut up"). Most of us are cognizant that bombing from 40,000 feet gives an "exit strategy," but, without soldiers on the ground, postpones the problem of tyrannical resurgence — and thus will inevitably leave either another war for another generation or something far worse still on the horizon like September 11.
There were a number of legitimate areas of debate for the fall campaign — deficits, unfunded security measures at home, moral scrutiny over postwar contracts, more help for Afghanistan, greater control of domestic entitlements, unworkable immigration proposals, and the like. But instead of statesmanship from the opposition, we got slander about Mr. Bush's National Guard service, misrepresentations about intelligence failures that had hampered both previous administrations and the present congress, preference for an unsupportable European position over our own, and stupidity about what to do in Iraq.
Ooooh. He is good. And he's right.
:: Mark 9:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...On marriage and the currentsocial debatesocietal crisisMichelangelo Signorile, homosexual activist and writer, says the goal of homosexuals is to “fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely, to demand the right to marry not as a way of adhering to society’s moral codes but rather to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution…. The most subversive action lesbians and gay men can undertake…is to transform the notion of ‘family’ entirely.”
:: Mark 4:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
..."Thanks to Dave Barry for pointing out this unfortunate "headline".
:: Mark 1:35 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Ah, yes..."chemistry."
:: Mark 1:26 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Here we go again.FOXNews.com - Top Stories - High-Tech Nuke Equipment Found in IranVIENNA, Austria — U.N. inspectors have discovered high-tech enrichment equipment on an Iranian (search) air force base, diplomats said Thursday. The find appeared to be the first known link of Tehran's (search) suspect nuclear program to its military.
The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gas centrifuge system was found at an air base outside of the capital. Such equipment is used to process uranium which can then be used for nuclear fuel or warheads, depending on the level of enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (search), whose inspectors are examining Iran's nuclear activities for signs it was trying to create weapons, declined comment.
I think that we had better follow this one closely.
:: Mark 11:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...An excellent reminder from a not so distant past that sometimes you have to act alone in your own defense.
:: Mark 10:29 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...What will be George W. Bush's greatest personal asset in the upcoming election? Peggy Noonan thinks she knows.What may turn out to be the Republicans' secret weapon, or the secret ingredient of their success? I think that, as always, it comes down to issues. People want higher taxes or lower, seek more personal authority over their social security accounts or not, support the effort in Iraq or do not. But there will also be their sense of who the candidates are as men, in terms of character, personality, gifts and predilections. And that will factor in too. I was asked this week why the president seems so attractive to the heartland, to what used to be called Middle America. A big question. I found my mind going to this word: normal.
:: Mark 9:28 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...This may come as a surprise to some, but in an article titled "I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook" in The Atlantic, Dear Leader comes off sounding a bit eccentric.:: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 ::
(via Instapundit)
:: Mark 9:18 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Some essential differences that need to be considered when evaluating the situation in Iraq.While the situation has changed in recent years, in many Muslim settings there has been, in theory, no legislative body. The state does not create law: Law creates the state. It would have been almost unimaginable that a group of people, even representative ones, could, by a mere vote, think that they had created some new rule that should govern Muslims' lives and established some new punishment for its infraction. Only God, not men, could make laws and set punishments, and God has already laid down such laws in the sharia.
:: Mark 9:00 PM [+] :: (0) comments
..."Faster, please. "
Michael Ledeen asks of the CIA.Oddly, just as the foreign minister was announcing Iran's intention to sell enriched uranium to interested parties — thereby spitting in the eye of the French, German, and English diplomats who sang love songs to themselves just a few short months ago, proclaiming they had negotiated an end to the Iranian nuclear program — two smugglers were arrested in Iraq, near Mosul, with what an Iraqi general described as a barrel of uranium. Here is what General Hikmat Mahmoud Mohammed had to say about the event: "This material is in the category of weapons of mass destruction, which is why the investigation is secret. The two suspects were transferred to American forces, who are in charge of the inquiry."
Compulsive readers of these little essays may remember that, late last summer, I told CIA that I had been informed of a supply of enriched uranium in Iraq, some of which had been carried to Iran a few years ago. I had offered to put CIA in touch with the original couriers, who said they would take American inspectors to the site, but CIA could not be bothered to go look.
I am told that the uranium in the barrel near Mosul came from the same secret laboratory. Perhaps now the CIA will think better of my sources, and work harder to find these materials.
Faster, please.
Please read it all.
:: Mark 8:51 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...VodkaPundit asks, "What's wrong with this picture?"
:: Mark 3:43 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...Howard Fineman as heard on 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Feb. 18FINEMAN: I don‘t belong to an organized party; I‘m a Democrat.
Now THAT is funny.
:: Mark 3:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...The moral case for capitalism is a must read.The first liberty is liberty from tyranny and torture, provided by a democratic republic. The second is liberty of economic initiative, invention, and enterprise, provided by a free and dynamic economy. The third is liberty of conscience and information and ideas, provided by an open and free civic society. These are the three great liberties — political, economic, and moral. Correspondingly, three steps are required to move from the third world into the first world. A nation must create these three systems one by one. Each nation may do this in its own particular way. No two free nations are exactly alike.
:: Mark 2:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...On John Kerry and outsourcingThus, to date, the John Kerry presidential candidacy to keep jobs in America has exported its campaign calls to Ontario, its sex scandal to Kenya, and the spousal ketchup to Middlesex. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing. Except Kerry's hostility to the global economy. Part of this is just the necessary image re-positioning of a politician who suffers from the disadvantage that hardly anything about him appears to be American-made. His education, for example, was outsourced to a Swiss finishing school. But the rest of it betrays an ignorance about how the world works.
Instaquote: "Heh"
:: Mark 12:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
...It is not about the cash...Rosanne Cash says she and her siblings were livid when she heard her father's hit Ring of Fire might be used for a Preparation H commercial.
''There is no way we will ever let that happen,'' Rosanne said during a phone call Friday. ''We would never allow the song to be demeaned like that.''
:: Mark 11:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...This should help negotiations for Palestinian autonomy.In an interview broadcast on Palestinian Authority television, Ahmad Nasser, secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the Jewish state has no right to exist because it is "Satan's offspring."
:: Mark 11:50 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A different perspective on Bush's Guard service."He was one of my favorite people to ride formation with, because he was smooth. He was a very competent pilot," Roome said. "You sort of bet your life on each other in some of those formation missions, and to me it was always a pleasure to fly with George. He was good."
More of the same.[M]ost reporters haven't been interested in Turnipseed's best recollection. "They don't understand the Guard, they don't want to understand the Guard, and they hate Bush," he says. "So when I say, ‘There's a good possibility that Bush showed up,' why would they put that in their articles?"
:: Mark 11:46 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...In response to a discussion that has been going on here and here. I offer the following:
There is an argument that seems to be common in the motivation of those opposed to "nation building"; that being that our failure to act appropriately at some point in the past precludes the option of doing so now. I find this to be absurd in the extreme. While it true that our record of involvement in Central and South American affairs is less than stellar. This stems as much from our dismissal of the importance of many of these nations as it does from a natural reticence at getting too overly involved in the internal affairs of nations with little to no impact on our domestic well-being. The same can be said for Rwanda and many other African, Asian, and European nations and their difficulties that we stayed out of. Could there be a moral case made for intervening in some internecine conflict in some corner of the world on any given day? Sure. Does that mean that we should do so? Not always. However, if a case can be made that the affairs of a nation openly hostile to our own national interests has the potential to cause us harm, then it is our right, and the government’s constitutional duty to address that situation.
As for the subjugation and cultural discrimination aspect, America has only imposed culture where it felt the need to do so as a means of accomplishing the goals stated previously. If a nation or people have their own form of governance, society, and morality, clearly distinct from our own, yet pose no threat to our survival or access to goods and services, we ignore them. It is only when the differences infringe on our interests that we begin to care. Are we always on the “right” side of these disputes when they do arise? No. Does our fallibility rise to the level of justification for inaction in all such circumstances? No again.
Americans, in general, have a bit of the evangelist in our character. We see our own success as a pattern for the success of others. When one system seems to be failing, we have a tendency to encourage the adoption of the system under which we have experienced success. And so we try to attract converts to the American Way; not always successfully. We are saddened by these failures, but accept them if our own lives are not too harshly affected by them. But when the failure of another threatens our own stability, we step in again, and more forcefully.
There are times when we have, as a nation, decided that waiting for the failure is not a prudent course of action. In those cases we stepped in before the fact to prevent the erosion or loss of our liberties, security, allies, or markets; sometimes all of the above. We were never attacked before our entry into WW I, but we saw the events unfolding in Europe as a potential threat to our security. France did not attack us from Mexico following the Civil war, but we sure took an active role in encouraging their expulsion from that nation. The latest events in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan, follow that same model. Had Saddam directly attacked the United States of America? I don’t recall such and event. Was he actively working to undermine our influence in a region deemed vital to our stability and directly supporting attacks on one or more of our allies in that region? Clearly, yes. So we took the actions that were necessary to remove his ability to cause us and our friends harm. Were the Taliban a direct threat to US interests? No, but they were lending support and protection to someone that was, and so they were removed.
Someone once posted a clear picture of the American psyche in the international scene. The US motivation can be reduced to 3 simple questions: We have some cool stuff; would you like to buy it? I see that you have some cool stuff; can we buy it? HEY! Did you just mess with us or those with whom we trade cool stuff? Answer those three questions correctly and you can do pretty much anything else you want and we will leave you alone.
:: Mark 11:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Cool stuff. POE News: Rumsfield Fighting Technique
:: Mark 11:22 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...A brilliant observation from The Protocols of the Yuppies of ZionIf telling other people in other cultures that they should have the right to pick their own government, should have the right to free speech and a free press, and should have the right to sexual/racial/religious equality is "subjugation" thinly masked as altruism, then I think we need more of it, by whatever name you want to assign to it.
:: Mark 10:30 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...On the AP and the whole W in the 'Guard story
:: Mark 10:17 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Some sage advice on controling the expansion of government.[B]eing slightly less reckless with the taxpayer's money isn't a responsible strategy for the GOP. The president must resolve the Bush Paradox by beginning the fight against growing government and making a passionate case for an ownership society.
You should read it all, and then call your congressmen.
:: Mark 9:10 AM [+] :: (0) comments
...Campaign Finance Follies...some amusing, and embarrassing, reversals of principle. Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi, who for years have denounced the "corruption" of large political contributions, have suddenly discovered an intimate connection between financial donations and free speech. Liberal pundits who have devoted careers to taking dictation from Common Cause by denouncing fat cat donors are suddenly mum about 527s.
:: Mark 9:06 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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