A Band of Bozos

Nelson Mandela is proposing a gathering of senile old morons, such as Jimmy Carter and Koffi Anan, to solve all the World’s problems.  Allah Pundit, Hot Air, the story.

Sure guys.

Courtesy of Rusty, here’s a list of the Democrats who want us sued for reporting terrorism activities:

Akaka (D-HI)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

As Rusty says:

These morons voted against lawsuit protection from Islamic grievance rackets like CAIR for reporting such things as noticing jihad videos being developed by jihadis at Circuit City.

They’re strong on national security – just not on letting the average person tip them off to suspicious behavior. They’ll handle it, thank you. They can’t even seem to pinpoint where 7 billion of their pathetic pork projects is going, but they have a lock on knowing what Johnny Jihad is up to at any one moment.

Then again, what can you expect from a bunch of people who figure that government is the answer to everything? They should be catching some serious hell over this.

We’re not the only ones with Catch and release programs, it appears.

RAMALLAH, West Bank —-AP- Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners Friday in a gesture to embattled President Mahmoud Abbas, who pledged not to rest until Israel’s jails were emptied of its thousands of Palestinians.

The release was meant to bolster Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic militant Hamas, which took control of Gaza by force last month.

This “gesture” seems ill advised at the very least.  Granted, that Hamas is a problem.  But the best I can tell you is that the only difference between Hamas and Fatah, is the speed with which they will kill off Israelis, individually, and Israel as a country.

Or has that situation changed?  Has Fatah sworn off it’s desire to push Israel off the face of the map?

Personally speaking, I figure it’s about time somebody told the Democrats off in Iraq. May as well start with this one…

WASHINGTON -AFP- The Pentagon has rebuked Democratic 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton, warning her questions about how it would mount a withdrawal from Iraq re-inforce “enemy propaganda” and unnerve Iraqis.

Under Secretary of defense Eric Edelman dressed down the New York Senator in a reply to a letter she sent to Secretary of defence Robert Gates in May.”Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq re-inforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Edelman wrote.

“Such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous risks to achieve compromises on national reconciliation, amending the constitution and other contentious issues.”

Edelman added in the letter that fears of a “precipitate withdrawal” exacerbated sectarian trends in Iraqi politics.

What he’s is saying here, is strictly common sense.  He’s saying that all the chatter on the Democrat side about withdrawal, is making the situation worse instead of better.  Of course, given the polling data that we’re seeing right now, this is something the American people a party figured out.  Unfortunately the democrats themselves have not.  One need look no farther than the response by Clinton’s people to figure that one out :

“Re-deploying out of Iraq with the same combination of arrogance and incompetence with which the Bush administration deployed our young men and women into Iraq is completely unacceptable,” Reines said.

“The administration must immediately provide a re-deployment plan that keeps our brave men and women safe as they leave Iraq – not a political plan to attack those who question them after years of miscalculations and misjudgments.”

The democrats can’t see anything but the immediate objective of bringing them out of Iraq, thus winning the war with the White House. That they lose the war in Iraq matters not to them, indeed, they think it preferable. I posted links up the other day, to a story about how even they admit they don’t have any post withdrawal plans.  They are wrong on this.  Dead wrong.  Thing is, their political pride won’t let them admit it.

So the question becomes, do we let such people remain in power, at the risk of our country?

Now can we question their patriotism?   The Democrats have killed the John Doe provision in the Home Land Security bill.  Representative Peter King:

“This is a slap in the face of good citizens who do their patriotic duty and come forward, and it caves in to radical Islamists,”

More, Michelle Malkin.

Surber:

Breitbart TV has video of Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts telling a whopper on C-Span.

Sen. John Kerry said during a C-Span appearance that fears of a bloodbath after the US withdrawal from Vietnam never materialized. He says he’s met survivors of the “reeducation camps” who are thriving in modern Vietnam. An award-winning investigation by the Orange County Register concludes that at least 165,000 people perished in the camps.

And 2 million in Cambodia.

Agreed. Don seems to feel that Kerry is simply being stupid. That’s possible, but increasingly I’m considering that this is simply another Kerry lie. As a Vietnam veteran, which Mr.Kerry is constantly reminding us that he is…. (By the way did you know he served in Vietnam? ) …he would know that Vietnam is the best possible example of why we should not be withdrawing from Iraq before the job’s done.

Kerry has always been a person willing to lie for political gain. This is something that his campaigns for president have proven. I believe we have another example of this in front of us.

Addendum: (David L)

John McCain(USN) nails Kerry:

We said, if we left Cambodia, everything would be fine. Stop the bombing in Cambodia. I can find you the quotes in the Congressional Record. Stop the bombing in Cambodia, they’ll sort these things out. And they’ll have a nation that’s free from interference and killing by the Americans. Well, yeah, they got it. Three million people slaughtered in genocide. Three million. And everything was going to be fine in Vietnam if you might recall. It was going to be workers paradise. Thousands executed. Millions – hundreds of thousands put in re-education camps. Millions of people risking their lives to get in boats to get the hell out of there. Because of the incredible oppression that existed. And I don’t mean to keep revisiting another war, but if we ignore the lessons of history, the consequences are obvious.

Bravo Zulu, John.

Via, Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters.

Oh, please.

Waxman’s at it again.

At 10:00 a.m. the Oversight Committee will hold a hearing, “FEMA’s Response to Reports of Toxic Trailers.” The Committee will hold a hearing investigating formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers provided for victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes and FEMA’s response to these reports. The Committee will hear from current residents occupying FEMA trailers, experts who are familiar with the health impact of formaldehyde, and from FEMA Administrator Paulison. Formaldehyde is a chemical used in paint and adhesives, and is classified as a “known carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Reports of high formaldehyde levels found in FEMA issued trailers and FEMA’s response raise serious public health concerns.

So, what are we suggesting here?  Are we to believe that these supposedly higher than normal formaldehyde levels are due to trailers being manufactured specifically to respond to the needs of Katrina victims so as to poison them? This is ridiculous. I think the good senator overestimates the speed with which such trailers can be built.

The fact of the matter is, that the trailers that went to respond to the aftermath of Katrina, were pulled off of existing stocks , from all over the country.  These are the same stocks that Joe and Jane Everyman have been buying to take their vacations in.  Buying them by the thousands.  If the problems were nearly as large as Waxman’s show trial would suggest, we most certainly would have been hearing about it from R. V. users and a buyers from all over the country for years and years.

Of course, that didn’t happen.
The Oh… Should I mention, then I own such a trailer?  That it’s sitting in my driveway, right now?  Here I am, in front of it, last fall.

Notice that far from being overcome with formaldehyde , I’m quite vertical.

I’m beginning to suspect that the democratic party leadership has been sucking on some noxious substances of their own.

The other possibility, of course, is that Waxmantrying a political stunt so as to be able to attack the White House again.  Waxman has found over the years,  that his stupendous claims don’t have to be factual, to gain traction amongst his followers.  They don’t even have to be plausible.  They just have to be attacks on George W Bush.

• Yes, Billy… That’s the feeling of gotten from Giuliani for a long time.  He gives me a level of discomfort that is extraordinarily similar to that which I get off John McCain. For many of the same reasons.
• Speaking of John McCain, he  says he’s not quitting.  He appeared on CQ radio, today, saying basically that he’s hoping for a couple of surprise wins before the first super Tuesday.  Yeah.  Sure.  Like that’s really going to happen.  Pulling out those surprise wins he’s dreaming about requires cash.  He’s raised plenty of it, something on the order of $24 million, to my memory.  Trouble is, he had to spend $22 million to do it.  How he plans on doing any fund raising in all, given what he’s got to spend, I cannot forsee.  The bottom line, however that may be, as that John McCain has slipped to irrelevancy.  A well deserved irrelevancy.
• I gather from Michelle Malkin’s website that Jet Blue has finally decided to back away from Kos and his wandering band of drooling idiots. Jet Blue and their leadership, apparently have yet to realize that where they spend their money on promotion, speaks as loudly as anything else does as regards their stand on politics.  Certainly, Kos thought so when he originally started trumpeting the event with Jet Blue’s name attached. My guess is the stockholders are not pleased .
• We’re currently dealing with thunderstorms, here. I actually wish that some of these thunderstorms would come through a night, so I’d have a chance of catching some lightning on the new camera.  As it is, all the founders times we’ve had so far this season, were during the day.
• So we have captured the top al-Qaida leader in Iraq. Have you noticed how little the presses been making of it? Perhaps word of his capture, and the importance thereof, doesn’t mesh with the narrative that the liberals are trying to project on the whole Iraq /al-Qaida /military thing.
• Speaking of that, I see where the wife of Daniel Pearl is suing Al Quieda. I don’t give a snowball’s chance in Baghram of actually collecting dime one, but I’m not going to argue with her motives.
• I see where some teenager in Norfolk, in the UK found around $90 dollars worth of cash in a Playstation II he got on Ebay. Something really stinks here.  That kind of Gedes is NOT the kind of thing you misplace. going to the police seems the prudent thing to do, because the owner, legit or not, is going to eventually show up looking for it.
• I’ve been watching a story for the last couple of days that involves Democrat Henry Waxman, facilitating funding to be sent to those telling our troops in Iraq. It’s been slow in building, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be blowing up within the next couple of weeks.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against members of the Bush administration Thursday, eliminating one of the last courtroom remnants of the leak scandal.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband’s criticism of the administration.

Let’s face it; The reason this suit was brought in the first place, was specifically to give the Democrats a bully pulpit from which to preach.  Past that, it had no validity of all. The DU’ers trying at all costs to keep the slander going, proves the point.
Others Blogging: Michelle Malkin and OTB and Iowa Voice

I’ll come right out and say this; I’ve never been a fan of Michael Vick. Certainly, he is talented in terms of football, however, I’ve always considered his style of play to be problematic in that he plays as an individual, not as a part of the team.  That said, I can’t say it any better than does John Venlet:

Individuals who raise and train dogs to fight and kill each other are scum.

I will add my voice to the pig pile:

Have a look at some of the damage done.

A long jail term is fully justified.

Further; a total loss of endorsement income is in order.

Any company not removing Vick has an endorser of their product, should pay the price of that connection.

That, by the way includes the NFL, and the Atlanta Falcons. Useless Toady is telling us that The Falcons face an “incredibly difficult decision’ with Vick.

“It’s an incredibly difficult decision for the team,” said NYU professor Robert Boland, who teaches sports law. Boland is an active sports agent and also has worked in the past on an animal crimes task force in New York.

“The broader issue in sports is the bad behavior of players and its impact on fans and sponsors,” Boland said. “Teams just don’t know what to do with it.

If they really think it’s that difficult, it’s probably because the NFL and the ownership aren’t tremendously principled people.  To such an individual, the choice here would be a no brainer.  s it is, and as the article points out, Vick sells merchandise, Vick sells tickets.  Or, at least, he did until this news came out.

If we were dealing with principled people, Vick would be removed from the team before the echo dies.  If that means that the Falcons are out of playoff contention before the season even starts, so much the better.  That’s part of the price you pay when you take on such people.  of course if you were principled, you wouldn’t be taking on such people.that his removal from the team hasn’t happened yet, suggests to me that principle, and the owners acting on same, isn’t in the cards.

I will guarantee you, that Vick won’t be selling as much merchandise, he will decidedly NOT be selling as many tickets, if he is still with the team.  It’s my judgment at that the fans are more principled than the owners, in this case. And they certainly will not, and should not, be happy with the Falcons franchise if they decide to hang on to this Mongrel mutt. I hope I’m wrong, I hope they’re letting him go, but the bottom line is I don’t think they will.

For too many years, we have seen too many NFL players getting away with antisocial, and downright criminal behavior.  It’s about time we started reversing that trend, and I can’t think of a better place to start them with Michael Vick.

It needs be said, that this is quite probably the outcome of someone with two much money and too little brains.  I personally consider that the NFL should be looking seriously at whether not the exorbitant pay schedules for its players isn’t at least indirectly responsible for some of the behavior we see by those players. The NBA, and MLB should also look to their houses.

Personally, I doubt that it’ll happen, but I think sticking Vick into a ring with a couple of his dogs and letting them take a bite of a crime, would not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, within the context of the crime… but that’s just me. Or, maybe not by some of the screaming I’m hearing this morning.

That said, it’s not all bad; The state prison football team is going to have a hell of a quarterback this year.

By the way, see Verdon’s comments at OTB.

George Will, whom I have not agreed with much on lately, advises in today’s column that John McCain’s biggest problem is John McCain himself. That much I agree with, but not in precisely the form on which Will places the blame:

In 2004, Wisconsin Right to Life, a small citizens group that posed no conceivable threat of “corruption” to anyone or anything, wanted to run an ad urging Wisconsin‘s senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, not to participate in Senate filibusters against the president’s judicial nominations. But Feingold was running for reelection, and WRTL’s proposed ad was declared an “electioneering communication” (any radio or TV ad that “refers to” a candidate for federal office). And the McCain-Feingold blackout period banned such ads 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election — when ads matter most because people are paying attention to politics.

The WRTL case could have been an occasion for McCain to say: This is not what McCain-Feingold was designed to do — it was intended to stop the (as he sees it) “corruption” of elected officials soliciting large “soft money” contributions (not for particular candidates, but for party-building and other activities). Or he could at least have kept quiet. Instead, he went out of his way to stick his thumb in the eye of critics: With his brief to the Supreme Court, he underscored the fact that suppressing inconvenient (to politicians) speech is exactly what he and his McCain-Feingold allies — Fred Thompson was an important one — had in mind.

Here’s the thing George, that you have yet to reckon with.  This is not a case of McCain mis handling the situation, nor is it a case of him being taken out of context.  That was precisely the effort of McCain Feingold, as he states.  Give McCain credit at least for telling the truth, if a little belatedly. Many of us outside the beltway when McCain Feingold was originally being contemplated stated that that was exactly what the intent was.  McCain was nice enough to come along and confirm those suspicions for us. It was a point of compromise with the far leftist, Feingold. He’s just recently started to figure out just how much e managed to give away… even though w had it figured out long ago.
As the effects of McCain Feingold become more and more pronounced, the American people, particularly center to right, are starting to understand the damage that John McCain has done. Particularly, McCain himself… no small irony.  In McCain Feingold, what we have, is John McCain becoming a willing tool for the left, if an unwitting one.  I am forced to remember Mona Charen and her description of such people as “useful idiots”. Thus, his support is even lower in 2008, than it was in 2004.

And give Will credit as well, when he points out the ‘fitting irony” that McCain’s campaign suffers from the candidate’s own fundamental stupidity… of which McCain Feingold is a merely an indicator.

Also Blogging: Outside the Beltway ,The Politico

Some twit, Froma Harrop, thinks a smart energy policy is to pay yet higer taxes

The way to get OPEC out of our lives is to stop buying so much oil, and the way to do that is to force its price up, up, up. At a certain pain point, Americans will choose fuel-efficient cars, houses and appliances — and they will turn to wind, solar and other clean-energy sources. High oil prices make these alternatives more competitive.

Two dollar a gallon gasoline did not get OPEC out of our lives.  Neither did three dollars a gallon.   How much pain is Harrop willing to inflict on the Ameriocan family to support her aversion to domestic energy production.

The way make the Amercan motorist’s life more bearable is not to send more dollars to either OPEC or Washington.   The solution is to send our dollsrs to our friends is places like Alaska, Colorado, Lousiana and Florida who want to pruduce domestic energy.

As foir Harrop, she can do her part by commuting to work on her bicycle.

McQ, this morning, at Q&O links a story from CNN…

U.S. forces should go into Pakistan to rout al Qaeda from the safe haven it has found in the mountains on the border with Afghanistan, a co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group said.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who also served as the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says the Iraq war distracted the United States when it had al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on the run in the tribal region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He says it’s now time to finish the job.

“This has to be carefully calibrated, worked out with the Pakistanis, but I am very concerned that you have a safe haven in Pakistan today where they (al Qaeda) can regroup, rethink, and get ready for more attacks,” Hamilton said on CNN’s “Newsroom” on Wednesday.

[…]

“I think we have to find ways and means, perhaps it’s use of covert actions, perhaps it’s use of special operations, perhaps it’s the pursuit of the Taliban when they’re in Afghanistan, to let us go after them as they move back into Pakistan.

“Whatever it is, I do not find acceptable a sanctuary for al Qaeda in Pakistan. We have to be able to go after them.”

McQ is thoughtful, in response:

Well yeah, that would be nice, except we’re talking about invading the territory of an ally. And if you think Iraq is a mess, just follow Hamilton’s advice and push into Pakistan. Introducing US forces into Pakistan is not the way to solve this problem, nor has it ever been. In fact, for Pakistan’s shaky government, it might be all she wrote. And the possibility then, of a nuclear armed Islamic state (and possibly a radical one) might become reality.

He dives into this more deeply than my edits would seem to suggest.  And I would advise you to go read the whole thing.  But the thrust of his comments seems to me all wariness born of this whole situation involving so many unanswered questions. I tell him in the responses:

But, I wonder if, in this case, considering all the ramifications, isn’t an impossibility. There is so obviously a great deal going on here that we don’t know about.

Even whether not our not knowing is by design of our supposedly Allies is an outstanding question. (Put another way, I don’t entirely trust Musharraf.)

As for Pakistan being able to mount operations to take care of things on their own side of the border because it’s their job, agreed, so far as your logic takes this.

However; one of the outstanding questions is the loyalties of Pakistani troops. Certainly, at least a few of them are going to find their loyalties divided between the semi-popular and shaky government, and their religion.

And in any event…that those bases for al-Qaida exist in the region, suggests an inability on Musharraf’s part to deal with the issue. It would be a difficult task for our military, even when we find ourselves so much better equipped than the Pakistani army to deal with it.

On the other hand ….assuming we stay out of Pakistan… if the government of Pakistan is that shaky… what is the ability of al-Qaida to attack and defeat that government from those bases in Warzirastan, thereby obtaining nukes for their own purposes? Certainly, the worst of all possible outcomes.

And for the record, McQ has my complete agreement when he says:

…this “Iraq was a distraction” argument doesn’t work either. Pakistan has always been a haven for the Taliban and even if we had the entire force in Afghanistan that we have in Iraq, that wouldn’t change.

Quite correct.  Indeed, my take on that point has always been that Iraq has always been a prelude and a precondition for the rest of it… whatever “the rest if it” entailed.  Eliminating al-Qaida from the region, which, after all, is the ultimate goal, would have been an impossibility, without Iraq having been quelled first.

The Sister is reporting that Lori Byrd , and others, has created both a new web site, Media Myth Busters, and Wikipedia page.

I have updated my bookmarks.  Have you?

Go team!

Addendum:(Bit) Blogrolled

You have to wonder about a canidate’s qualifications when he is compared to Eric Cartman and Cartman wins.   Barack Obama has come out for sex-ed for kindergardeners.  Rusty Shackleford  responds.