THIS is “Cut And Run”

Hume, last night:

News reports have repeatedly characterized the Reed-Levin amendment, which brought the Senate to a halt, as requiring U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by the end of next April. But the actual language of the measure does no such thing.

The amendment — which Republicans prevented from coming up for a vote — called for a “reduction in the number of United States forces in Iraq”. It also provided for a “limited presence” and limited missions including training Iraqi forces and counterterrorism. It provided no numbers or any specifics on how much of a reduction in forces, or how big the limited presence would be.

But assuming the Democrats did manage to get U.S. forces out of Iraq, they admit they have no plan in the event of a sectarian bloodbath many acknowledge is likely.

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey tells the Los Angeles Times — “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s horrendous. The only hope for the Iraqis is their own damned government, and there’s slim hope for that.”

And Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky of the “Out of Iraq” Caucus acknowledges the 70 member group has not looked beyond the end of U.S. military involvement.

The Iraq Study Group cautioned that a premature withdrawal would lead to what it called “greater human suffering, regional destabilization and a threat to the global economy.”

So,support of this is what the Democrats were fighting for?
And they don’t understand why their support is in the tank.

The breathless headline:

Ex-Cheney aide gets 10 years in prison in spy case

The third paragraph of the article:

Aragoncillo worked on the security detail assigned to the vice president from 1999 to 2002, where he held a top security clearance. He later took a job as an intelligence analyst with the FBI in New Jersey.

In other words, Leandro Aragoncillo was not a political appointee and was brought in by, and served during, the Clinton administration.  So in what sense, if any, was Aragoncillo a Cheney aid?  None!.  Aragoncillo merely worked in the Office of the Vice President while Dick Cheney was Veep.

• Yeah, it was my birthday, yesterday. My 50th, God help me.  In the whole, it was a good day. But the little things that have been sneaking up on me for some time, now, are starting to break out a bit. I suppose that for most of us it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to imagine the scope of thought of someone waking up, stumbling into the bathroom, and realizing that the grey- bearded gink in the mirror really IS me. Like the unwatched pot that boils faster, seemingly, thereby, I haven’t been paying very much attention to my age, for the last decade or so. It snuck up on me. On a shelf, high above my desk here in my office, is a black candle, in the shape of an old fashioned fuse type bomb… black, of course. It says ” Happy Birthday, you old fart!” It was given me on my 40th birthday, by my co-workers. As I sit here, doing my rounds, sipping my coffee, wheeling and dealing on the telephone, and working through the aches and pains that developed since that candle was new, I find myself intensely aware of how much time is passed between then and now, and wondering how many more of these things I’ll be getting. It’s actually a rather slow news week, this one, so unfortunately I don’t have a great deal to distract me from these darker thoughts.  But let’s see what we can find.
• In my travels, today, I note that there’s a new Rasmussen poll out (Isn’t there one every day?) reporting that Americans think New York Times and the Washington Post ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, to be biased in their reporting… to the left… by around 2 to 1.  The New York Times is by far thought to be the most liberal, according to the poll. Sounds to me, in this at least, that the American people have a pretty firm handle on the situation.  But let’s examine these numbers a little more closely.  Since the last few all actions have been pretty close on 50/50 in terms of leftovers is right, in rough terms it can be said that half of the people who make the judgment that the news is biased to the left, are themselves liberals.  Or at least, that they vote that way.  And I wonder, what does that tell us about the firmness of the Democratic party base in 08?
• Speaking of the press, and its leading left, I predicted to you, yesterday, there would be very little press reaction this morning to the rally set up by “Vets for Freedom”. as usual, my predictions were quite accurate.  The reason of course is obvious, it doesn’t fall in with the leftist “peace at any cost” mantra.  Here’s the model: If it makes liberals look bad, it won’t make the paper, and it will be in the news media that’s online, and it’s damn sure isn’t going to be on television.  You’ll never go wrong, predicting non- coverage of things that make liberals look like the fools they are.
• Look, Billy, I get your point, but I’m telling you right now… when I see comments from Ezra like “we simply don’t think profit should confuse how we ration it.”  I know that the real core issue for Ezra and his type is not health care, at all, but rather who is in control. This is not a case of Klein not knowing what rationing is, it’s a case of Klein not CARING what it is. Their biggest bitch is, someone’s making a buck. (Gasp!) In other words, it’s not socialistic enough.  Forget that the ability to make a profit, has produced most of the world’s advances in medicine over the years. Dale, seemingly somewhat annoyed with the process, (And who can blame him?) asks why a food production isn’t earned over to the government… Apparently not realizing that’s next on the agenda .  The first clue to all of this, is that it’s Klein taking up the argument. The second is when you see Erb falling into line with it. When you see that parade forming, you can forget about mere facts having any effect on the argument.
• I notice that somebody’s already posted Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — the entire book… online. Before the darn thing was even released It’s on Bittorrent, of course. A series of photographs, not the text, though I doubt that’ll be long in coming, given the quality of the shots. Xerox, as I recall makes a pretty fair thing called TEXTBRIDGE…
• I am reminded by Rusty that it was 28 years ago today Ted Kennedy murdered Mary Jo Kopechne. I’d take as an indication of the dedication to women’s rights, on law and order, on the value of life, and just plain decency, on the part of the Democrats, that Kennedy is still held in high regard by them.
  

Laurie Kellerman at the AP:

 So much for forcing Republicans to filibuster all night.

Like anyone actually expected Harry Reid to keep his word?

Surber, this morning… and I’ll quote it at length because it’s that good…

Our American troops are risking their lives in a war to fight al-Qaeda — a war they are winning — a war that Harry Reid voted to authorize and a war that Reid wants to give up on. For 2 years he has been crying “change the course.” Here’s the proof.

When will he change his course? When will this senator from Nevada open his mind, review the facts and change his course from the cut-and-run whining he has made for 2 years now?

So the Senate stayed up last night? Thousands of troops stay up every night. They put in 12-hour days. They are beating an enemy that wants to kill us.

Reid’s stunt — his word — showed the American people what pampered babies senators are — and how incompetent the Democratic Party’s leaders are.

Bush’s approval is 29%? So what? That is still double the 14% confidence rate of the Democratic-controlled Congress. Bush may be nearing Carter levels on job approval, but Congressional Democrats have already bested the 19% record low they set a 14 years ago.

How dare Reid complain about the Iraqi government? He cannot even pass a budget. The immigration bill went poof on him. The sole bill that he’s passed was a minimum-wage amendment tacked onto an Iraqi funding bill.

In fact, without objection from DavidL, I’ll award Don the Snark of the Day.

From the Daily Telegraph(UK):

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore’s green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter’s wedding in Beverly Hills.

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass – arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.

Saving the Planet is for the little guy.

A follow-on to my Greenwald post of yesterday… read James Joyner’s updated comments which he placed in a new thread, over at OTB… and then read the comments section… and pay particular attention to my references to the double standards which Greenwald and his ilk seemingly apply by party affiliation.

• When I saw a headline like:The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped, in the New York Times, I must admit that my immediate thought was that Gang Greenwald was finally going to get his comeuppance.  Then I remembered I was talking about the New York Times, and looked again.  Turns out, and they’re talking about John McKey of Whole Foods. Oh, well. One step at a time, I suppose. It interests me, though, that their morality in reporting is so selective; Why MacKey, (A capitalist) and not Greenwald?
• And when they said that authorities had rescued a 500-lb man from a Wisconsin river, I figured we were talking about Micheal Moore. You know… the one who’s trying to get us to pay for his healthcare. No such luck.
• So, where does the un-American left get the idea that the Bush administration knew about the middle of an attack before they happened, and let them happened so that we could get involved in a war?  Why, from their hero, of course. These connections, had been there for decades, folks.
• Chuck Simmins reminds me of someone I saw on the local cable news channel yesterday, and forgot to write about. We have heroes among us.
• The DJIA went over the 14,000 mark today. remember a couple of years ago when the Dow was stalling it somewhere around 10,000, and people were quick to blame the president’s economic policies for a supposedly ‘failing economy’?  Well, here it is… by any objective measure, we have what is amounting to the best economy in this nation’s history.  So, where are the press and others who are so critical of the President, today?

Lying Lizzy, a.k.a. Mrs John Edwards, whines about Ann Coulter, but get a load of this broadside, from Salon:

No, I don’t. I wind up talking about this a lot. My job as the mother of daughters is to make sure my children see that every opportunity is available to them. What we hope to achieve is a society that doesn’t value a white man because he’s a white man, but also doesn’t value a woman because she’s a woman, or a black because he’s a black. So it bothers me that the pitch is made, as it is, that there’s an obligation of people to give support. When I was a lawyer, I was the first female lawyer many people had ever seen. I had an obligation to my client to do the work right, but I thought constantly about my obligation to the women who came after me. If I didn’t do a good job, they wouldn’t get a chance to sit where I’m sitting. I think one of the things that make me so completely comfortable with this is that keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John’s than Hillary’s.

If Lying Lizzy is saying her husband’s isn’t as much of man as Mrs. Clinton, we at Bitsblog would tend to agree.

Hat Tip:  James Taranto, Best of the Web.

Increasingly, I find myself wondering why anyone takes Glenn Greenwald seriously anymore. The complaints we see from Greenwald when he starts in about embarrassing stories take on an attitude of surrealism. Example:

…our broken, petty media’s “coverage” of this “story” was so intense and endless that far more Americans were aware of it than they are of some of the most politically important facts:

Buried in the new Fox News poll is a startling number that doesn’t reflect terribly well on the priorities of our political media:From the new Fox poll of registered voters:

32. Do you happen to know which presidential candidate has been in the news recently for paying four hundred dollars for a haircut?

Edwards 44% Hillary 2% Obama 1% Other 1% Don’t know 53%

Ayaan Hirsi Ali goes On the Map with Avi Lewis, and serves Lewis’s head on platter to him on his own show.  Lewis was born into freedom, and does not appreciate it   Hirsi Ali was not born into freedom and does appreaciate freedom.  

Hat tip:  Allah Pundit  Hot Air.

Keith Ellison has given a new dimension to moonbattiness.  Ellison proves you don’t have to a either a white male, Ron Paul, or Dennis Kuchinich, or a black female, Cynthia McKinney to be a full raving moonbat.

Commentary from, Pat Sanity:

How on earth do these people get elected? Today’s case in point is the nutcase from Minnesota. Clearly since Cynthia McKinney was swept from office by her disgruntled constituency, tired of her histrionics and pervasive paranoia; there has been a ‘paranoia deficit’ in Democratic ranks Arguably, the deficit is not much of one, but McKinney’s departure from Congress definitely left a tastelessness and crudity gap that Ellison fills very well. See video here.

And Scott, Powerline:

Mark Levin kindly invited me on his radio program this evening for a segment to talk about Keith Ellison and his “Bushitler” remarks. The segment is accessible here. Hot Air has posted video of Ellison’s remarks here.)

Listeners visiting for the first time may want to check out my Standard article “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman” and the companion post “Keith Ellison for dummies.” Most recently I wrote about Ellison’s “Bushitler” remarks in “The truth about Keith Ellison” and “The Elllison hustle.”

JOHN adds: To listen to Scott’s excellent appearance on Mark Levin’s show, courtesy of Mark Levin Fan, click the “play” button below:

Ellson is from a highly democrat district, but as McKinney proved, even democrats have lmited tolerance for moonbats.

Washington, D.C. (July 16)-Veterans of the Iraq War from across the United States will be on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, July 17, to urge Senators to support the mission in Iraq and to wait until General Petraeus reports to Congress in September on the progress of the “surge” before taking a defeatist position.

“I know senators on Capitol Hill are feeling the heat to retreat from Iraq,” says Pete Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran and Executive Director of Vets for Freedom. “But if they think it’s hot in Washington, DC, try fighting Al Qaeda and company in Iraq. Our soldiers-and their new strategy-need support from Congress, not political pandering. The fact is the surge is showing early signs of success and our troops in the field need the support of our nation’s lawmakers as they fight our nations enemies in Iraq.”

Vets for Freedom is a nonpartisan organization established by combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its mission is to educate the American public about the importance of achieving success in these conflicts by applying our first-hand knowledge to issues of American strategy and tactics-namely “the surge” in Iraq. Vets for Freedom is the leading voice representing troops and veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. For more information, please visit www.vetsforfreedom.org.

OK , let’s do a little experiment.  By all the accounts I’ve seen, (Many of them back channel stuff) …this is a major event, moving large number of people through the monument area, showing their support for our mission in Iraq.

Let’s check back late this evening, and see what kind of press the event receives, if any at all.

It turns out that the only problem with my earlier comments about North Korea … either yesterday or the day before, in the Ramble was that I wasn’t being cynical enough.

WASHINGTON —AP- The State Department said Monday that what North Korea has shut down under a six-party deal cut in February is a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, one of the five facilities that Pyongyang agreed to close with a U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Do you understand what’s happening here?  North Korea has gone ahead and made a big show of shutting down the nuclear reactor, and the United Nations and the press, regard this as a major accomplishment.  However, it would appear that somebody has noticed that there someone standing behind the curtain, throwing lovers and buttons.  Someone we apparently were not supposed to pay any attention to.

North Korea gets its fuel oil, gets its stolen and counterfeited money freed up, it is basically off the hook and both matters.  Not a bad deal, for having only  followed through on 1/5 of the original agreement. This is what constitutes a major accomplishment in the United Nations, today.

Ask me again why I consider the United Nations worse than useless.

So what am I confronted with this morning, as frontpage news?  The idea that Joe Wilson, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Well, forgive the hell out of me, but really now, is anybody surprised by this?  Here is somebody who has been carrying the Clintons’ water from the word go, And I would suggest to you that all practicality, it’s likely that both Wilson and his wife were operatives in in the Clinton camp, long before Iraq was on the table.

So you will forgive me, if I am singularly unimpressed by these events.

Addendum: (David L) Pardon the intrasite squabble.  If Mr. Joseph Wilson is endorsing Mrs. Clinton, it is a big deal.  I want to know how much Mrs. Clinton paid Mr. Wilson for his endorsement.  Mrs. Clinton buys her endorssements.  What is the going rate for retired fourth rate diplomats?

More, Allah Pundit, Hot Air.

?

Reply:(Bit) Well, I guess I can’t argue with that.  My reaction was aimed at the idea that such an event was at all unusual, or unexpected.  In the end, criminality is a part of the makeup of the Clintons.