Snark of the Day: David Freddoso

David Freddoso’s, National Review – Online, response to the DSCC request for a bumper sticker.

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Dunlap suggested that some white folks care more about dogs than they do people.

Well Dunlap’s shoe does seem to fit Susan Estrich

Five members of the Supreme Court have decided that Congress knows more about obstetrics and gynecology than the doctors in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology do. If Congress doesn’t think a procedure is ever medically necessary, and doctors do, isn’t it obvious that Congress must be right?

While Susan could care less about human beings, she does seem to care about dogs:

The NFL says it will continue to investigate Vick’s conduct in relation to its own code of conduct. The Atlanta Falcons, the team paying him all that money, is withholding judgment, waiting to see if the plea, in the words of Falcons owner Arthur Blank, will allow Vick “to get this behind him as quickly as he can.”

As far as many of us who are pet owners and animal lovers are concerned, he will never get this behind him. Nor should he.

Maybe we should bring back chattel slavery?  Estrich only seems to care about what she can own.

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When bill Clinton got trapped into his own words while under oath some time ago, he tried redefining the word “is”.
Ken Blackwell over at Townhall, this morning, Suggests that the democrats may be forced into redefining words again.

The Iraq War may have helped the Democrats win Congress in 2006, but now developments both in Iraq and here at home are putting the Democrats — and especially Hillary Clinton — in a position where they might try to redefine “victory” and “defeat” to help their political fortunes at the expense of our national interest, to our nation’s shame.

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The Democrats realize the problem they face with Iraq is the fact that it is improving. The House Majority Whip, James Clyburn, said that if General Petraeus brings positive news from Iraq it would, “be a real big problem for us.” That’s just awful for a politician to say that military victory is bad news.

This is especially dangerous for Senator Clinton. The far Left of her party is now ferociously anti-war. If middle America is again willing to see this through, she runs the risk of either pandering to her base and losing swing voters, or supporting the troops and alienating her base. Neither is good.

Look for Democratic leaders — maybe including Mrs. Clinton herself — to start to redefine victory. They will cease to measure military progress and start demanding Iraqi political unity.

Our troops will win while their politicians bicker. This would enable Democrats and their presidential candidate to continue ranting that we’re losing the war, beating Republicans over the head with it, even if it’s not true.

But again, as we did in the previous post, we come to the question of what happens when that political victory seems at hand?   Forgive me, but it seems to me that at that point the Democrats are in a trap even bill Clinton wouldn’t be able to talk his way out of.  Or, is if Hillary?  I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Interesting… VDH, last night, on The Corner:

The last time I had a run-in with the frenetic Andrew Sullivan was in front of an audience at Columbia University. There while loudly renouncing his former support for invading Iraq, he accused me of supporting government-sponsored torture — only later to concede that in fact, as I told him at the time, I had written a column specifically objecting to its use as others acknowledged. But that apparently has become Sullivan’s modus operandi — in frenzied fashion to toss out slurs and then to grow silent when they are refuted.

Hanson goes on to express other points as regards Sullivan.  But it was this first paragraph which caught my attention.

First, I should and fairness point out, that I have made the point in the past and continue to make it now, the torture is not always wrong.  That having been said, the reaction of Sullivan, to having his arguments dismembered was the thrust of the paragraph for me. I have become convinced that there is a pattern here which needs not be ignored.
I made a similar comment as regards Scott Erb, another somewhat mentally disconnected Liberal, here at the beginning of this month…

It’s a typical ploy of Erb and his ilk, once cornered on a factual point to claim “it doesn’t matter. ” Aesop and his fable of the sour grapes seems to roar to mind here.

The similarity of response is striking, to say the very least.  Sullivan, usually very vocal indeed, suddenly becomes impassive when presented with factual points defeating his argument.  So too, Scott Erb. Two people reacting in this fashion I’ve given you fair enough odds against.  But more than that?
Well, we see the situation developing in Iraq, that would to anyone with an open mind on the matter be considered a massive victory for these United States and the world.  Of course, the left has been telling us about how the whole thing is a massive defeat.  When faced with unquestionable evidence that militarily we were not in defeat, the democrats spent a good deal of their time creating talking points to meet with this new reality.  Their consensus; military victory doesn’t matter.

A more cynical individual would perhaps have noticed a trend developing.

Think; We were told less than a week ago that what really mattered was a political solution.  Of course, the people making that statement ignored the idea that a political solution was only possible once the military victory been achieved .  As I remarked last evening, that military victory having been achieved, (and that being acknowledged by the Democrats, by saying it doesn’t matter) …it now appears that a political solution is in the offing.

Their response to this, as before, will doubtless be that this new victory doesn’t matter, either.  Of course, they’ll have to put together a conference call to figure out how not to say “we were wrong” and instead say “it doesn’t matter”.

You know, eventually, with enough exposure to this kind of attitude, and being forced to actually think about what the left has been doing to us for years, now, the American people… at least, those capable of actual thought, are going to conclude that the left itself really doesn’t matter. 

As an example, have a look at what Hanson wrote:

“At the same time, the Arab world is beginning to see elections take hold in the Islamic world—in Afghanistan, the West Bank, and now Iraq. And that fact will eventually be fatal for Al Qaeda and Baathists alike. We cannot appreciate these positive symptoms in our despair over the post-invasion period.”

I think the general decline in support for bin Laden and suicide bombing in the Middle East, and changes from Lebanon to Libya support that evolution, and yes, that we can’t appreciate that in our present despair.

… the despair, of course, from the “it doesn’t matter” crowd… but the news from last evening, puts a wrench into all of that. Hanson, obviously wrote this prior to the news last night.

If I read the signs aright, and I think I do, it would appear that what Hanson predicted some time ago , (and the president some time before that) has come to pass.  If that is indeed the case, and the naysayers inhabiting the democratic party were in fact as wrong as I have always said they were, attitudes in the American electorate (and in the world as a whole) are about to change rather dramatically.
Personally, I’m looking forward to a landslide of Reaganesque proportions.

Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters, has been a great writer.  Sadly his site was horrid.   Now Captain Ed has had his quarters redesigned and the site now looks as great as Ed writes.

While Ed is fixed his problem, Clinton has not fixed his.   The Captain details yet another Clinton lie.

It appears that Bill Clinton may have exaggerated his record when it came to strategizing against Osama bin Laden. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball take a look at the Inspector General’s report of the pre-9/11 intelligence failures at the CIA and find an interesting nugget. Despite Clinton’s angry assertion to Chris Wallace in last year’s controversial Fox interview, he never gave the CIA an assassination order regarding bin Laden (h/t: CQ reader Mark):

Here is the interview, where B.J. Clinton claimed that he attempted to get Usama bin Laden.   Clintons lie.

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Captain Ed notes:

Earlier today, the Italian news service AKI reported that the presumed leader of the largest insurgency in Iraq will start cooperating with the Iraqi government. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of the highest-ranking members of Saddam Hussein’s government, reportedly pledged to work with Iraqi and American forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq:

The leader of Iraq’s banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party’s former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.”AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces,” al-Jashaami said.

Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of “most wanted” officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government.

In return, for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda, al-Douri has asked for guarantees over his men’s safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.

Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghadad.

This could be game, set, and match for the Iraq War.

No joke, for that.  One wonders if it’s possible that all these calls from the usual suspects for the head of Maliki weren’t just something more that they were proven dead wrong about.  If so, perhaps they would be better off just being a fairly quiet about Iraq altogether.  I find Ed’s read of the matters leading up to this business revealing:

Putting all of this together, it looks like Maliki decided to dump Sadr at the beginning of the surge. Sadr fled to Iran for a while, returned to see whether he could weasel his way back into power, and then pulled his deputies from Maliki’s government. When it didn’t fall, Maliki went to the SIIC to cut a deal with them instead. Once he did that, he brought the Kurds into it and looked for an opening with the Sunnis of Tikrit.

The turning of al-Douri, if true, would indicate that Maliki may have succeeded in marginalizing Sadr and bringing together the rest of the disparate elements of Iraq at least into a relationship where unity could occur

So much for the argument about Maliki and his effectiveness.  So much, as well, for the clients that no progress was being made for political settlement .  And with it (chuckle) so much for the Democrats. They just got through spending the last month trying to get their talking points fine tuned.  My guess is we’re going to hear about another conference call happening, within the next 24 hours.  They’re going to have to start all over again.

The Democrats end up being a casualty of the early election season.  They opened their mouths too loud and too long to survive events as they developed. And every one of them developed against them, and their claims.

Full text below…

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• What can be said about a group of politicians who are more concerned about being outmaneuvered politically, then they are about our troops in the field actually winning the war we sent them to?  Don’t worry much about it. The payday for that is coming, says Captain Ed.
• Iran getting nuclear weapons, by itself is bad enough.  That is, of course, contrary to what you’re going to hear from Iranian apologists.  But now we see where Tehran is making noises about sharing its nuclear technology with such countries as Syria and Venezuela. Do you suppose this will have any negative effect on the security of the entire world? I do.  Indeed, I think it is to the point where we need to react.  It is time, I think, to start talking about regime change in Iran.
• I commented last night about having problems getting into Outside The Beltway. Turns out, it wasn’t just me.  Server problems, of some sort. On a related note, I noticed a number of Blogspot Blogs missing from action, today. No clue on why.
• OK, I didn’t comment on this one, before, though I should have… but this one beats anything I could have done, anyway.. Seems “Getting Naked for global warming” was a ruse. Who’da thought?
• 50MPG and 170 MPH, intial clost $70k…. and it’s a PLANE? Yep. Now, of course there’s a weight problem… or more correctly, a lack of it. You remember John Denver, right?

[O]ur friends on the left side of the aisle loudly lament that America is seen as arrogant, a bully, an imperialist power meddling in the affairs of other countries… and then they turn around and tell the Iraqis who their leader ought to be. Uh, guys, ya ever think comments like this might be part of the problem?

Jim Geraghty, National Review – Online.

I had a chance, last evening, to sit down with the CIA’s Office of Inspector General post 9/11 report, here… (PDF)

The Democrats in Congress, forced its release in the intelligence budget for fiscal year 2008.

After reading the report, (Actually, the de-classified executive summary) I begin to suspect that they’re going to regret that decision, as they have regretted all their choices involving The polarization of the war on terrorism.

The report places the blame firmly on the CIA during the Clinton years.  It says for one thing, the counterterrorism funds and personnel were actually expended on other agency priorities , as a comparative between fiscal year 1997, and fiscal year 2001.

Of course the question becomes were these funds and resources re-purposed at the direction of the Clinton White House?  It seems clear to me, based on my reading, that they were. It also seems clear to me,in my reading, but Mr. Clinton and Madeleine Albright, are exposed as liars by this report.  They lied to the American people when they said that they had handed over a detailed plan on al-Qaida to President Bush.  The fact of the matter is, there was no such plan.  There was no substantial analysis, there was no intention of dealing with BinLaden at all, through the whole of the Clinton administration. 

As to the left, and their claims that we should be engaging in more diplomacy to solve the problem of the Islamo fascists, the report speaks directly to this, saying that the late 1990’s… the second Clinton term…

…may have been the high-water mark for diplomatic pressure on the Taliban. The outside pressure continued. But the Taliban appeared to adjust and learn to live with it,”

engaging such people and diplomacy, I said at the time, and continue to say now, will prove to be fruitless.  Indeed but worse than fruitless, it will be counterproductive…. as the flurry of diplomacy, capped by the attacks of 9/11 will show to any sane individual. The military option was the only option to pursue.  It should have been pursued in the late nineteen nineties, which would have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Clinton failed to do that.
I think, therefore, rather than being a political boon that the Democrats were obviously seeking, it ends up being a political boom… as in, it blew up in their faces.  The explosion will be particularly devastating to the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton… Who, by her own words, was half the presidency, back then.  (“We are the president”)

Spiegel, having seen the light recently, has become a fountain of good information.

Another example, this morning:

The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year — equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey.

Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.

Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway’s technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.

While I don’t question the numbers presented from this research, I can’t help but wonder what the Norwegian action plan is going to be.  I mean, if we’re to take global warming seriously, shouldn’t we be charging the moose by the pound for CO2 emissions?

Well, I guess that depends on how much we figure CO2 is an issue. Apparently, Despite the claims of global warming being a done deal, there is still some back and forth as to just how overblown (no pun intended) this stuff is. Hume, last night:

Many media outlets — such as the recent Newsweek magazine cover story — portray man-made global warming as fact and those who deny it as conspirators. But skeptics are increasingly certain that the scare is vastly overblown.

A new study by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz contends that the Earth’s climate is only about one-third as sensitive to carbon dioxide as the United Nations’ recent climate study claims. Schwarz’s work will be published in The Journal of Geophysical Research.

The study is just one of several peer-reviewed scientific studies challenging global warming alarmism:

The Belgian Weather Institute concludes that carbon dioxide does not have a decisive role in global warming.

A study by two Chinese scientists says CO2’s role in warming is “vastly exaggerated.”

Really? Now they tell us, after we spent all this money trying to limit CO2 emissions, and we’ve fretted about moose and cow farts…. now… (Sigh).

OK, if it isn’t CO2, what IS the problem?

And new research by University of Washington mathematicians shows a correlation between high solar activity and periods of warming.

Nah… a huge radioactive fireball which has been lighting and heating our entire solar system for billions of years… installed in the middle of the solar system… is responsible for the less than one degree of increased warmth here on earth?  (Ignore the data coming in from other worlds which suggests they’re getting warmer too… after all, there no SUV there to blame… except Mars… there’s TWO of the things there. We can blame THEM, can’t we? )

Meanwhile, we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and keep burning corn oil and such, right?

Meanwhile, what is billed as the first comprehensive analysis of global biofuel impact has concluded that their use may release between two and nine times more carbon gases than fossil fuels.

The study published in the journal Science says the clearing of forest land to grow biofuel crops will produce immediate carbon gas releases and also destroy habitats, wildlife and jobs. It says that while biofuels look good from a Western perspective, they will be harmful on a global scale. The study contends it will take about 40 percent of American and European agricultural land to grow enough biofuel crops to replace only 10 percent of fossil fuel use.

You know , maybe the best policy here is to get the “global warming” fanatics to shut up long enough to let the truth of the matter filter through.  Of course, if they did that, they wouldn’t have the leverage with which to be able to dictate our lifestyle…

Hmmm.

Update: (Bit)

Glenn notes, in the Monty Python vein….  MOOSE FARTS CAN BE PRETTY NASTY, YOU KNOW

He links Bob Krumm,  who in his turn notes that

A car is no more destructive to the environment than a couple of farting moose.

Well… OK…

• John Venlet notes Ted Nugent is considering a run for Governor of Michigan. Interesting. He’s bound to do a better job than a long line of idiots we’ve had over there.
• Bruce McQuain notes Putin is trying to re-write history. Well, gee… seems to me the Democrats here at home have taught him a thing or two about that one.
• I’ve not done a nightly in a week or so, so I’ve not had the venue to say I’d won mentions here, here, and a second place here  and a First place finish AND a mention here, over at OTB’s Caption Contest.
• I’ve been watching this Loose Change business for several days, now.  And, frankly, I have been casting a wary eye in the direction of Alex Jones for a couple of years. The History Channel has done a fairly decent job of destroying their nonsensical arguments… not that I think facts are going to have any effect on such as Jones, who wasn’t dealing in facts in the first place.  in Jones is the type who makes his living off of touting such people as Howard Phillips and Jerome Corsi.  Let’s be clear on this one: People like Alex Jones give the fairness doctrine validity by virtue of the sewage that comes out of their mouths.  They are, therefore, the biggest danger to responsible talk show hosts. Nut cases.  Rubber room residents.  Every damned one of them.
• I see Megan McArdle has moved to the Atlantic. I suppose that she could serve as someone to provide a little balance against Sullivan, but if that’s the purpose in bringing her there, it furthers my point that Sullivan never was a conservative.
• By way of Boortz, I note the protests against NAFTA in Canada this last week. Look closely, and you may notice a trend; the vast majority of the people protesting this thing, are wildly unemployable.  Then, too, perhaps that’s why they have time for protesting.  There also seems to be a certain level of perception of entitlement, going on here.  These people seem to think they’re entitled to something because they’re wasting air.
• I see where the Democrat run Congress is considering laying charges against the White House of contempt of Congress.  Apparently they haven’t seen their own approval ratings lately.  I’d say offhand that the vast majority of the American people could be charged with that just as easily.  That’s it, guys… keep digging.
• Speaking of Congress and their lack of approval ratings, I see John Gibson yesterday saying that the reason the Democrats did so well on the most recent election was not objection to the Iraq war, as much as it was a voter reaction to the sense of entitlement exhibited by Duke Cunningham, Mark Foley and Bob Ney. that reading would certainly seem to explain the low approval ratings that Congress is currently getting. If John’s right, and I think there is a certain argument there, that does not bode well for the Democrats on the next cycle.
• Speaking of a sense of entitlement, it occurs to me that that is precisely what’s going on in the Michael Vick affair.  With all the people surrounding him, enabling him, heaping praises on him, heaping money on him, it’s not hard to imagine that he would be immune to prosecution for his deeds.  Interestingly, Michael Vick is polling better than the Democrats in Congress.
• Yes, the New York State Fair is just down the road, over in Syracuse.  Perhaps it’s just me, but having been to this one a few times, I’m less than interested in re-repeating that experience.  In the three or four times I’ve been there, over the years, I’ve noticed that not much changes, year over year.  The animal displays are mildly interesting, of course, but beyond that all the technology displays are the same as they’ve been since I started going a decade ago.  I don’t have a great deal of interest in carnival rides, any more, so aside from food, (Most of which is served up on a stick of some sort…) of food which my measurements tell me I decidedly don’t need, what else is there?  Nothing.  I’ll get far more out of bringing camper to one of a local state Parks.  At least there, I don’t have the crowds to deal with. If you’ve not gone before, go. It’s fun, and a little overwhelming for the newbie. But for me…. nah. Not this year.

Dalrymple calls it:

In an effort to ensure that no Muslim doctors ever again try to bomb Glasgow Airport, bureaucrats at Glasgow’s public hospitals have decreed that henceforth no staff may eat lunch at their desks or in their offices during the holy month of Ramadan, so that fasting Muslims shall not be offended by the sight or smell of their food. Vending machines will also disappear from the premises during that period.

Apparently the bureaucrats believe that the would-be bombers were demanding sandwich-free offices in Glasgow hospitals during Ramadan. This kind of absurdity is what happens when the highly contestable doctrine of multiculturalism becomes a career opportunity for the semi-educated and otherwise unemployable products of a grossly and unnecessarily swollen university system.

(Scott Erb, call your office.)

For years, I have supposed such statements to be an exercise in the obvious.  But given the number of people that are willing to bend over for word for our Islamic overseers, perhaps it’s not so obvious to some.  Give Dalrymple credit for speaking the unvarnished truth.

John Fund, this morning:

Tonight, PBS will air “Gold Futures,” a film by Hungary’s Tibor Kocsis. The film focuses on residents in Romania’s Rosia Montana, a rural Transylvanian town, who are divided over the benefits of a proposed gold mine. It also features Gabriel Resources, the Canadian mining company trying to convince them to relocate so it can dig for a huge gold deposit estimated at 14.6 million ounces, worth almost $10 billion. PBS describes the film as a “David-and-Goliath story.”

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The other side to the controversy is told in a new film that will never be shown on PBS, but is nonetheless rattling the environmental community. “Mine Your Own Business” is a documentary by Irish filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. They conclude that the biggest threat to the people of Rosia Montana “comes from upper-class Western environmentalism that seeks to keep them poor and unable to clean up the horrific pollution caused by Ceausescu’s mining.” Mr. McAleer, a former Financial Times journalist who has followed the mine battle for seven years, says he “found that everything the environmentalists were saying about the project was misleading, exaggerated or quite simply false.”

Gee… the Environmental cases would LIE to us? Who’d have figured on that?

Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters, examines Congress’ approval rating, or lack thereof:

Democrats have created a monster for themselves, and they seem unable to free themselves from their rut. They have accomplished almost nothing of their agenda, save a minimum-wage hike. They have punted on Iraq, surrendered on FISA and the TSP, and have allowed themselves to get outmanuevered on immigration. They have spent hundreds of hours on investigations to no real benefit while legislation languishes. Their so-called ethics reforms have done nothing but allow lobbyists even more ways to influence Congress, and earmarks are murkier than ever.

Just think, when ever soeebody say things can’t get worse, they usually do get worse.