Senate Approves War Spending, After All

WASHINGTON -AP- The Democratic-controlled House is expected to give President Bush an end-of-session victory in his yearlong battle with anti-war lawmakers over Iraq by approving $70 billion for U.S. military operations there and in Afghanistan.The vote Wednesday also would represent the final step in sealing a deal between Democrats and Bush over how much money to provide domestic agencies whose budgets are set each year by Congress. The Iraq funds have been bundled with an omnibus appropriations measure to create a massive $555 billion package that Bush has signaled he will sign.
…
Providing the war funds was a bitter pill for most Democrats, who on Monday sent the Senate a bill limited to $31 billion for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, which have much broader support than the unpopular mission in Iraq.That effort was doomed in the face of a Bush veto promise and a filibuster by Senate Republicans. The Senate rewrote the measure Tuesday night by a bipartisan tally and dropped the combined Iraq and Afghanistan funding in the House’s lap as one of the last votes before most senators left Washington for the year.

“Even those of us who have disagreed on this war have always agreed on one thing: Troops in the field will not be left without the resources they need,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.

Twenty-one Democrats and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman, who stood with Republicans at a post-vote news conference, voted with every Republican present except Gordon Smith of Oregon to approve the Iraq funding.
…
In rapid succession, the Senate cast two votes to approve the hybrid spending bill. By a 70-25 vote, the Senate approved the Iraq and Afghanistan war funds — without restrictions that Democrats had insisted on for weeks. Senators followed with a 76-17 vote to agree to a bundle of 11 annual appropriations bills funding domestic agencies and the foreign aid budget for the 2008 budget year that began Oct. 1.

I would urge you to go and read the AP feed. One thing you’ll note is how far down into the story, the last para I quoted here, is.  And even there, the press just had to pick that up against something that they could save liberal face over:

War spending aside, Bush’s GOP allies were divided over whether the omnibus appropriations bill represented a win for the party in a monthslong battle with Democrats over domestic agency budgets.

(Chuckle) This is what passes for ‘balanced’ reporting. At the bottom line, once again, however, is the idea that Senator Harry Reid has discovered that our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are more popular than he is, and certainly more popular than the stated positions of MoveOn. The only people not to have discovered this vital clue, are Moveon, and the mainstream Media. But, I repeat myself.

I see Drudge teasing a National Enquirer headline about a supposed lovechild scandal involving “John Edward’s Love child”.

Ummm guys? Let’s remember, first of all, that the National Enquirer is to honest news reporting what the New York Times is to honest news reporting. And no, that’s not a compliment.

And while Kaus is running defense….

There’s no reason to conclude this story was planted by one campaign or another

…should I really have to point out to you who owns the National Enquirer? (Sigh) OK, the place is owned by Clinton supporter Roger Altman.  Altman served as Deputy Treasury Sec’ty under Bill Clinton, and was a close adviser and heavy supporter in John Kerry’s campaign.

Comon’, kids, this ain’t rocket science.

Doug Ross has a great collection of points, here.

Addendum:  (David L)

Gotta wonder if there is a connection between John Edwards rise in some polls and the hit piece.   Tom Baxter, Southern Political Report:

John Edwards has leapfrogged over his rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and leads the Democratic field in Iowa, according to the latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll. In the Republican caucus race, Mike Huckabee continues to hold a narrow lead over Mitt Romney.

When politics get personal, look for the Clinton brand.

Hat Tip:  Memeorandum.

It’s really sad when you have to devote an entire campaign to convincing people that you are likable.  Forget the issues.  Issues aren’t important.  Whether or not people like you … now THAT’S important.  Well Hillary’s campaign is trying to make her appear to be warm and fuzzy, rather than the cold person whom we all “perceive.”

That’s Boortz, yesterday morning.

Limbaugh, this afternoon:

Now, no issues, not ideas, not the greatness of America, not freedoms, not the future of the country.  No, the Clinton campaign is totally oriented to getting people to think that Hillary is not the cold stone person that we all know she is.

But as Limbaugh points out,

That is the mode of operandi that the campaign is in today, and it will change tomorrow if this is deemed not to be working.  Now, the Washington Times has a report today of a Rasmussen poll. “Forty percent of Americans say they would vote to keep Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from winning the presidency, more than twice the total for their No. 2 ‘anti-‘ pick,” which happens to be Rudy. “In a new Fox 5-The Washington Times-Rasmussen Reports survey, 64 percent of Republicans, 42 percent of third-party or independent voters, and 17 percent of Democrats said the candidate they most want to keep from the White House is Mrs. Clinton.” Seventeen percent of Democrats! “‘Hillary Clinton is better known than any [other] presidential candidate on either side. She has a lot of people who love her and a lot of people who hate her,’ said Scott Rasmussen, who conducted the poll. … Mr. Rasmussen said the rest of the field is steadily catching up to Mrs. Clinton when voters are asked in other polls whether they support or oppose a particular candidate, rather than asked whom they most oppose among all the candidates. By that measure, each of the candidates is now opposed by at least 30 percent and most now draw more than 40 percent opposition, he said.”

But when you ask it by name, Hillary runs away with it.  She leads in the anti-vote.  Her negatives are pretty high.  It’s going to be interesting to see.  That’s polarization.  We in talk radio like that kind of number, but presidential candidates do not get elected with numbers like that.

Boortz pretty much in the same vein with a different poll:

While her campaign is trying to just get people to like her (not to mention her left-wing policies) 50 percent of America says that it will absolutely not vote for her.  This figure is large compared to Obama and Edwards with numbers in the 30s.  She has also been voted “least friendly” in a recent Pew Research poll.

…
A top Hillary strategist says, “It’s important for people to understand the depth of Hillary, the way she has helped people.”

Based on the polling data, I’m inclined to believe that the American people already know her depth… or more correctly, her total lack of it.

James Joyner:

Robert Byrd has been in the United States Senate since 1959, well before I was born, and has paved over the state of West Virginia with federal highways and monuments to himself. Now, though, his colleagues are trying to push him aside.

Democrats May Push Byrd From Chairmanship Senate Dems are quietly exploring ways to replace venerable Robert Byrd as chairman of Appropriations Committee. Photo: AP A group of Senate Democrats has begun quietly exploring ways to replace the venerable Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, believing he’s no longer physically up to the job, according to Democratic senators and leadership aides familiar with the discussions.

Under one scenario being circulated in Democratic circles, the 90-year-old Byrd would be named “chairman emeritus,” and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would become “acting chairwoman” for the remainder of the 110th Congress.

Democratic insiders caution, though, that no decision has been made. But there is broad discontent among committee members over the way Byrd has run the panel this year and the resulting problems in completing work on the fiscal 2008 spending bills, leading some members to privately push for Byrd’s replacement as chairman.

His physical condition has been slowly deteriorating for years, and he cannot walk now without the assistance of aides. Byrd has difficultly running committee hearings, and he relies heavily on staffers for guidance. Still, he can deliver one of his legendary floor speeches on the sanctity of the Constitution and the importance of Congress in the operation of the U.S. government, even if he often repeats himself over and again.

No Democratic senators or leadership aides would speak publicly about the situation, preferring to comment only anonymously. A senior Democratic aide said replacing Byrd “has been discussed for the last couple of weeks,” although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is not in favor of such a move.

[…]

But while the respect for Byrd may be genuine and widely held, there are clearly Democrats who want him out. A Senate Democrat who serves on the Appropriations Committee complained that the panel “has had no chairman this year.” And another Democrat on the panel said Byrd “is no longer up to the job. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

We endured the same thing in Strom Thurmond’s waning years. While it’s not as true as it once was, seniority means power in the Senate and the body has become a geritocracy, with six members over eighty and twenty-six over seventy. Another sixteen are over 65, putting 42 percent of the body past the standard retirement age. The key leadership positions and chairmanships are overwhelming from that group.

Look, let’s call this what it is. The push to remove Byrd from his powerful seats is MoveOn orchestrated.
Byrd is a man whose party wants to move even farther left than he’s been infamous for doing, and they’ll find it hard indeed to do with him still in place,particularly after they’ve spent the last 20 years lionizing him.

Addendum:  (David )

Wide range of emotions, Michelle  sheds no tears for Senator Sheets:

Is it finally time for Sheets to go? John Bresnahan reports that some Dems are furtively looking for ways to send ol’ Bobby Byrd out to pasture with an “emeritus” title?

Then West Virginia’s own Don Surber does:

As the only newspaper columnist in the state willing to criticize him, I am still saddened by his deterioration. At the editorial board meeting last fall, his hands shook like the wings of a bird desperate to escape.

 I say,  I don’t expect it.   Removing Bobby Byrd would require strong deft leadership..  Of which, Dirty Harry Reid is simply not capable.

Dirty Harry will put the esteemed traditions and comity of the Senate ahead of getting the Peoples’ business done.

A couple of good videos about Fred came out today, here and here.  However nobody does Fred better than Fred himself.  From National Review,  on Hannity & Colmes, Fred says Huckabee “is not a conservative.”   Fred minces few words.

Nobody, in either party, sounds more presidential than Fred.

Bill Clinton is lying for proposing a goodwill trip and having the idea nixed the later the same day by the Bush camp?

No, moron. Bill Clinton got exposed as a liar in this case, because he tried to leave the impression that it was already a done deal, reading, apparently, is not your strong suit Centerface.

What Clinton said was that the first thing Hillary Clinton would do would be to dispatch him and 41 around the world, to clean up the supposed messs left by 43… like 41’s gonna be up for saying his kid’s a failure at all, much less when he’s NOT a failure.

Reach for that familiar narrative a bit much?

It’s called the truth.  You may want to look into it, though I can understand your unfamiliarity with the term.

Fox news is running what I’ll call the outrage of the week:

School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and a four and a half inch steak knife with which to cut it. According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county’s juvenile assessment center.

…

The girl’s uncle, Kenneth Thomas, told MyFOXOrlando that his niece had to ride in the back of a patrol car.

Captain Jimmy Pogue of the Marion County Sheriff’s office said the 10-year-old was not treated like a criminal.

“I don’t want people to feel like we’re arresting 10-year-olds, handcuffing them, and hauling them off in a back of a patrol car and taking them to jail,” Pogue told MyFOXOrlando. “That’s not the circumstance.”

Really? So why was she in the back of the patrol car, Jimmy?

McQ over at Q&O asks:

Where are the adults in this country and what has happened to common sense?

The answer to both questions is that they’ve been deleted by “good government”.

Good news and good news from the TV Food Network, more Rachel Ray and less Emeril Lagasse:

NEW YORK (AP) – The Food Network has ordered extra helpings of Rachael Ray. A new prime-time series, “Rachael’s Vacation,” will premiere Jan. 12, the network announced Monday. Viewers will follow Ray as she discovers cities, countries, foods and lifestyles around the world.

And who knew there were Italians in upstate New York State?   But can Rachel make a garbage plate?

B.J. and Mrs. Clinton have long been liars.   They used to be considered adept liars.  Now they are just chronic liars.   The Clintons’ latest lie has been destroyed by none other than their very own Clinton News Network.

By Peter Hamby, via :  Drudge Report.:

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America’s reputation by the current president — Bush’s son, George W. Bush.

By Rebecca Sinderbrand, CNN, via: Lucianne.

In a statement sent to CNN Tuesday afternoon, former President Bush’s chief of staff Jean Becker said that he “wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy. He has never discussed an ‘around-the-world-mission’ with either former President Bill Clinton or Sen. Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy

Eight years of the Clinton administration was eight years too many.    Time to send the Clinton’s back home, where ever that may be.

Noted over at LGF:

Here’s one of those emails that’s so insane I suspected it was a hoax; but the IP address traces to the Arabian peninsula state of Oman, so it’s probably the real deal. Our admirer found us by searching Google for “lgf,” then used our contact form with a Yahoo return address and the subject line, “How dare you inflame the Al-Muslimoon”…

Allah Willing, thetime will come when flashes of fire will burn your belly to ash, your wife(your yahoodi whore) shall be a slave for the pleasure of the Al-Muslimoon. Inshallah, I will find yuo and killed you SOMEDAY YOU KUFFAR PIG, YOU SON OF THE APES AND THE SWINE ALLAH TA’ALLA SHALL ROAST YOUR ORGANS FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE MUSLIMS YOU SCUM FILTHEIR THNA THE COCKROACH, YOU K A F I R

Religion of peace and tolerance!

So, essentially, “Die, you gravy sucking pigs.” on steriods.

Yes, it does seem to lack a certain level of reconciliation. Anyone care to step up to the plate and tell us how to negotiate with such an inDUHvidual?

Philly.com:

With a hidden FBI camera rolling inside a New York hotel suite in 2003, an unsuspecting Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic candidate for president, spoke candidly.

Sharpton offered to help Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White win a multimillion-dollar business deal, if White helped him raise $50,000 for politics.

White offered $25,000. “If you bring my guys up on this hedge fund, and I have the right conversation,” White said, “I’ll give you what you need.”

“Cool,” Sharpton said.

The Inquirer obtained an account of the May 9, 2003, conversation, which was recorded as part of the Philadelphia City Hall corruption case. The tape helped spark a separate inquiry into Sharpton’s 2004 campaign and his civil-rights organization, the National Action Network. The FBI-IRS probe resurfaced publicly Wednesday, when Sharpton aides received subpoenas.

In an interview yesterday, Sharpton said there is “absolutely nothing illegal” about tying business deals to fund-raising because he is not a public official.

I did manage to hear Laura Ingram talking about this yesterday. I wonder what kind of legs it will have, however. After all, that Al Sharpton is dirty as the day is long isn’t exactly news. this stuff has been going on for a couple of decades now, and the guy is still out walking around creating hate and discontent in personal wealth. What he really ought to be creating is a smell in a jail cell.

I suspect that we should probably be spending more time on Mr. Sharpton around here, he is a very worthy target of our scorn.

Appendum:  (David L)

I gotta disagree. just a wee bit.  The Reverend Al Sharpton is indeed a worthy target of scorn but he has recieved plenty of it from this blog.   Here is a snippet from  August 20:

The Reverend Sharpton has clearly put the cart before the horse   Before Sharpton has the right to issue any demand of Don Imus, there is the matter of the sixty-five thousand dollars whch Al owes Pagones for defamatory false accusations of rape.

An unrepentent defamer ihas no business demanding anybody apologize for anything.  All the more so that Imus has never been found libel for defamation in court.  Sharpton has.

The Reverend Al is a low life reprobate and has been treated as such by us.   The question isn’t so much Sharpton’s character, or lack thereof same, but why the media treats him as if he were some kind of role model.

Word from Scott Fybush that the weather system that brought us all the snow David spoke of yesterday, brought down a bunch of TV and radio stations in the Scranton area.

Just before 7:00 Sunday morning, the 823-foot tower of ABC affiliate WNEP-TV (Channel 16) atop Penobscot Mountain, east of Wilkes-Barre, collapsed under the weight of ice that had formed there overnight.

As it fell, the tower’s guy wires apparently hit the next tower over on the mountain, belonging to public broadcasters WVIA-TV (Channel 44), WVIA-DT (Channel 41) and WVIA-FM (89.9), toppling the upper portion of that tower and taking those TV/DT signals off the air.

The WNEP tower fell on the station’s transmitter building, damaging most of the equipment inside, including the station’s two analog transmitters. (WNEP-DT is at a different tower location on Penobscot, and it was on the air through much of the storm, albeit at reduced power.)

Scott has pictures of the mess that’s inside those transmitter buildings, and believe me.  It is going to take a short period of time to overcome.  To make matters even worse for the station, their analog transmitter is going to be retired in 2009 in any event, so I’m not quite sure whether or not WNEP  is even going to bother restoring an analog signal to the Valley.  certainly, it’s not going to be a full power signal in any event.

Scott has more in the way of reports from down that way, and is as good as anybody in the business for keeping on top of such things.

Hume, last night:

Conservative students and faculty at Princeton University are questioning the absence of campus and community outrage — following the beating of a student leading a morality movement at the school. The New York Sun reports Francisco Nava was attacked by two men last week and told to shut up. The beating came two days after Nava received death threats by e-mail.

Nava — who is a Mormon — wrote in the student newspaper that a school campaign to distribute free condoms on campus was a — “tacit sponsorship of hookup sex.” Three other members of the morally conservative Anscombe Society also received the threats, along with a conservative professor.

Princeton graduate Michael Fragoso tells the Sun — “There would rightly be outrage had the student been part of some other minority on campus. I have yet to see that right now, and that’s rather disappointing.”

No suspects have been identified and Princeton Township Police say they will not comment on the pending investigation.

Note the last two words; pending investigation. In other words, this thing has even gotten off the ground yet.

Look, I have problems with a lot of what Nava is saying, too. But he’s also got it right when he says that if it’d been anybody else but a conservative, there would be outrage. In :fact, there would be so large an investigation that the news media would be investigating it as well.  CNN would be going into its wall-to-wall mode.  We’d be getting quarter hour updates from all of the various websites.Drudge would be getting hits by the barrel from people looking for some back-angle on the story.

But, this is a conservative we’re talking about here.  Move along citizens, nothing to see here.

Update:(Bit)

I’m starting to see claims this was faked.
I’m at work right now, and my net access is limited. I’ll have more to say tonight.

Update II: (Bit)  Fox is now running an update at the above link:

Here’s a quick update on our Grapevine about The New York Sun story concerning the Princeton student who alleged he had been beaten — after coming out against the school distribution of condoms. The Daily Princetonian says Francisco Nava has admitted he made up the story and fabricated e-mails threatening his life and those of other students and one professors.

Nava reportedly confessed to police on Monday. He has been released with no charges so far. The school says its investigation is ongoing.

I’ll be interested in seeing what they come up with.

As Canada wages war against the pundit Mark Steyn,  Melanie Phillips, Spectator(UK), poses question does Canada still exist as a free and democratic nation: 

The irony, of course, is that by this action Canada is thus demonstrating that if any culture is incompatible with liberalised western civilisation, it is clearly Canada‘s. The idea that certain arguments must not be made, and that to do so is to find oneself arraigned before a judicial tribunal, is the very antithesis of a liberal society. It is a symptom of totalitarianism. It is also doubly ironic that it is the Islamic world, through the Canadian Islamic Congress, that is bringing this action — since in seeking to suppress the view that the Islamic world is incompatible with liberalism, it is demonstrating with the starkest possible clarity the truth of that proposition.

Background, Sister Toldjah.

Alas, poor Canada.  We knew her well.

(AP)- Ailing leader Fidel Castro said in a letter read on state television Monday that he does not intend to cling to power forever or stand in the way of a younger generation, but invoked the example of a renowned Brazilian architect who is still working at 100.”My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences and ideas whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I lived,” Castro wrote in the final paragraph of a lengthy letter discussing the Bali summit on global warming.

As our own experience with the Democrat party has shown repeatedly, the only time when a leftist contemplates not being in complete control of the situation, is when he’s already not in control, and/or has no prospects for gaining said control.  At that point, the trick is to label the lynch mob chasing you, as a parade that you are leading. We saw this trick often enough with Bill Clinton, for example.

My take continues to be that Castro is facing larger health issues than he is letting on, and he realizes in the face of those health issues, that he’s not going to be able to maintain/regain his power. The question becomes whether or not, this is the end of communism in Cuba.  One can always hope, but I have my doubts.