It's Official

Well, it's official now. I've finally made the move to my new site. Many thanks to Mike Jones for his designing it. Thanks to all the people who've faithfully stopped past Let Freedom Ring. Now it's time for you to follow this link to the new site.

Technorati Tags: Let Freedom Ring blog, Author: Gary Gross

Schieffer: Don't Blame Media for Iraq Failures

That's a deal, Bob. We'll just blame the media for not getting the stories out accurately. Here's how Schieffer closed his 'Face The Nation' program:

CBS "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer lashed out at the U.S. military on Sunday, saying top generals need to "stop blaming the media" for negative coverage of the Iraq war. Closing his broadcast Sunday with a commentary on reports that Iraq has descended into civil war, Schieffer urged: "What must stop is the ongoing government effort to sugar coat [the lack of progress in Iraq], trying to blame it on the media or saying it's all going very, very well, as our top general Peter Pace did last week."

The reality is Mr. Schieffer's colleagues in the Agenda Media haven't gotten much right about the supposed Iraqi civil war. The truth is that Ralph Peters exposed their failings for all the world to see. The truth is that Jack Kelly exposes them in his Sunday column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, aptly titled "All Bad News, All the Time". For Schieffer to accuse Pete Pace of sugarcoating what's going on in Iraq is shameful.

If he wants to accuse Gen. Pace of sugarcoating what's happening in Iraq, it might serve him well to also attack the media's willing accomplices who misrepresent what's actually happening in Iraq.

Here's another example of the media's not telling us the truth about the military:

"Much of the reporting has exaggerated the situation," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday. "The number of attacks on mosques had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized." For instance, The Washington Post reported on Feb. 25 that 120 Sunni mosques had been attacked in retaliation for the destruction of the Golden Mosque, holy to the Shiites. In a March 3 news conference, Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said:
"We can confirm attacks on about 30 mosques around the country, with less than 10 of those mosques moderately damaged, and only two or three severely damaged. We visited eight mosques (in Baghdad) that were reportedly damaged. We found one broken window in those eight mosques."

This is breathtakingly awful reporting. In fact, it's a stretch to call it reporting. It's more like fiction because it's got nothing to do with factual things. And this is just one thing that I can cite. Earlier I mentioned Ralph Peters' reporting. There's no better example of the media getting things wrong than Col. Peters' reporting. His mocking them saying:

"I’m trying. I've been trying all week. The other day, I drove another 30 miles or so on the streets and alleys of Baghdad. I'm looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can't find it. Maybe actually being on the ground in Iraq prevents me from seeing it. Perhaps the view's clearer from Manhattan. It could be that my background as an intelligence officer didn't give me the right skills. And riding around with the U.S. Army, looking at things first-hand, is certainly a technique to which The New York Times wouldn't stoop in such an hour of crisis."

That's called sticking the knife in deep, then twisting it ever so slowly as you extract it. That type of report lays open the Agenda Media's willful disregard for the truth. There couldn't have been any fact-checking back at the office. There couldn't have been any true investigating on the reporter's behalf that led the NY Times to conclude that Iraq had descended into civil war.

Mr. Schieffer would do well to not push this issue too far, lest the Right Blogosphere call him on the awful reporting that the Agenda Media have done.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Jack Kelly, Bob Schieffer, Face the Nation, Ralph Peters

A Fitting Tribute To Kirby

I hope that my writing this week has shown me to be an unabashed Kirby Puckett fan. As I watched tonight's tribute to Kirby, I often felt a lump in my throat, usually because former Twins players like Dan Gladden, Al Newman and Kent Hrbek reminded us of what it was like to be a Minnesota Twin in those glory years of this proud franchise.

As a Minnesotan, it'd be easy to think of Kirby as our own native son. That, of course, is us just kidding ourselves. Kirby was closest to us, we all wanted to believe, because he wasn't just a great ballplayer. Clearly, Kirby is the best player to ever don a Twins uniform. Still, Kent Hrbek, the man who hit cleanup while Kirby just in front of him, was right in saying that tonight that it wouldn't be the homeruns he stole from others or the homers that he hit. Herbie said that people were still robbing people of homeruns, a veiled reference to Torii Hunter. Herbie said that people were still hitting homeruns around here, though not at the pace that the Herbie and Kirby teams did.

The thing that Kent Hrbek said that he'd remember most about Kirby was his laugh, his smile and his friendship. I thought he might've thrown in Kirby's mischief-making but I guess that was Cal Ripken's job tonight.

Ripken said that he first remembered meeting Kirby right after he first came to the majors in 1984. He said that the Twins were just finishing up taking batting practice and Kirby approached Ripken and Eddie Murray, who were then the Orioles' stars. Kirby, he remembered, walked up and introduced himself, calling Ripken and Murray Sir and saying that he had looked up to Ripken for years. Ripken asked how old Kirby was and found out that the 'Puck' and Ripken were the same age. Finally, Ripken recalled that the conversation took 15 minutes and deprived them of taking batting practice that night.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the night came when for Twins' GM Andy MacPhail told about the great legace that Kirby had left for Twins players for generations. Mr. MacPhail said that everyone in baseball knows that, to be a Twin is to mean that they "play the game right and that you respect the game", which is a fact. He remembered how Kirby took a young outfielder named Shane Mack, who "was a former first round draft pick of the San Diego Padres" who was struggling in the minor leagues and helped Mack become an integral part of the 1991 World Series championship team.

MacPhail mentioned, too, that it was obvious what respect Kirby had for the game, telling of a spring training game in Florida. It was the third inning and Kirby was hitting. MacPhail said you could look down the right field foul line and see this massive wall of water of a Florida rain storm fast approaching. "You didn't need to be a meteorologist to see that this game was about to be over." Kirby hit a "three hopper to short", the ball was fielded cleanly, yet Kirby beat the throw to first. The stopwatch read that Kirby made it down the line in 4.2 seconds. No one would've been upset if Kirby had coasted down there and gotten thrown out because, after all, this was just spring training and a game that was about to be rained out.

That, MacPhail inferred, wasn't Kirby and that wasn't how he played the game. He's right, of course. To this day, Kirby's example set all those years ago, is still how the Twins play the game. Today, the man who finally took over in center field, Torii Hunter, is teaching Denard Span, the Twins' first round pick two years ago, about how to play the outfield right. That's because of the 'fraternity' that Kirby started by taking Torii under his wing.

To this day, if I were starting a team with the goal of winning as many world championships as I could in a ten or fifteen year span, I'd start with Kirby without blinking an eyelash. It isn't that Kirby's the best player I've ever seen. It's that Kirby's the best player I'd ever want as a team leader and a manager's best friend.

Finally, TK, still the best manager I've ever seen, called together the teammates from the championship teams of 87 and 91, along with Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, the Twins' TV color analyst in 1987, Cal Ripken, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and current Twins Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter and said "Folks, get this picture now because this is the best picture you'll ever see." He's right. What a picture for the ages!!!

As a baseball fan first and foremost, it was a sight to behold. Imagine an outfield of Kirby in right, Torii in center and Dave Winfield in left and an infield of Rod Carew at first, Paul Molitor at second, Cal Ripken at short and Harmon at third, with Frank Viola, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris and Kevin Tapani pitching to Joe Mauer, with Kent Hrbek DH'ing, Randy Bush pinch hitting and TK managing. Give me that team anytime and I'll take my chances. Against anyone, anytime, anywhere.

That's Kirby's legacy. We're still one big family after all these years. Because Kirby and Herbie and Bert and Sweet Music Frankie Viola made the Twins 'Club Fun' when they were together. Today, that torch has passed to Torii and Joe Mauer. How lucky are we?

UPDATE: I just watched a special "Remembering Kirby' show and they had the best line, though I don't know who said it. The line was "Only Kirby could bring Cooperstown to Minnesota." So true. So true.

Clashing Cultures; Priorities Diverging

That's what the homeschooling vs. public school debate boils down to. Nowhere is that divergence made more clear than in Nathanael Blake's latest column for Townhall.com.

When I tell people about my plans for my (hypothetical) children, I invariably hear the same infratentorial objection, which is that they won't "socialize" properly. No one ever tells me that home schooling will stifle my children's academic ability. The stereotype is quite the opposite: home schoolers are smart but socially inept.

Thus we see why more people homeschool now than ever before. Now we see why most conservatives throw their hands up in disgust over exhorbitant funding with precious few results. It's simply a matter of priorities. It seems to me that teaching kids things that are important in building a base of knowledge is far more important than teaching them social skills. With knowledge comes power is a cliche that most people my age understand and accept.

Unfortunately, too few in school administration positions make this a priority. The proof that they don't is shown in the lowering of test scores vs. the rest of the industrialized world. Liberals talk all the time about lowering class sizes as the key to improving eductation. Until President Bush pushed the NCLB legislation, though, no one thought about making schools accountable for measurable improvements.

By contrast, homeschooling is all about making the students accountable. Homeschooling is about learning excellence. It's also about extricating the children from awful school conditions. And I'm not just talking about inferior buildings, either.

The standard (though rarely articulated) definition of successful socialization is to "fit in" with a lot of immature little savages raised by television, video games, and the internet. Spending at least 35 hours a week, nine months of the year, with 20-30 kids of one's own age (with a harried adult supervising) is the antithesis of what is needed in order to learn how to function in society. Give me the shut-in homeschoolers any day; from their family and their books, they will at least have some notion of life beyond their cohort and how to interact with it.

Don't read this as an unqualified endorsement of the homeschooling system. Insetad, see it for what it is: a disparaging indictment against the teacher union regressive system that children are currently trapped in. As for social skills, the truth is that the culture in schools is alarming.

Do you think that a majority of parents were repulsed by Mr. Bennish's anti-Bush diatribe?

It's hard to imagine a high priority item that everyone's involved in to some extent or another where the contrast is defined in starker terms. Sadly, the ones who lose out are the children.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Education, Home School, Parenting

U.N.: Milosevic's Death 'Pity for Justice'

This is what the U.N. really boils down to. They express their "pity" about Milosevic dying without being convicted but they're the same idiots that put process before results. They're the ones that rail about having a dignified process with little regard for the victims.

Fairness isn't bending over backwards for a evil person. Fairness is making certaint that the defendant is able to view the evidence, mount a defense, then dispensing justice. In this instance, dispensing justice means death by execution. The truth is that the whole world saw what Milosevic wrought. The ethnic cleansing happened because he touched off the powderkeg. The lives that were lost were lost because he commanded armies to kill anyone who opposed him.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims get cheated. But does the U.N. care? Probably. It's just that they don't care more for delivering justice to the victims' families than they care about process. This is what caused the world to run away from League of Nations.

The U.N., like the League of Nations is all about process, nothing about seeing that real justice happens.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Slobodan Milosevic, United Nations, International Law

Giving McCarthyism A Bad Name

That's Chuck Colson's first impression of Defcon's attack ad against Ralph Reed, Jim Dobson and Lou Sheldon. I couldn't agree with Mr. Colson more. DefCon is the George Soros-funded hate group that bought the ad in the NY Times. Here's the most objectionable line in the ad (titled "The Religious Right Has a Gambling Problem"):

"all the time they must have been betting that they would not get caught taking their thirty pieces of silver and selling out the millions who believed them. [But] they were wrong."

This isn't just another looney left hate website. They're looney alright but they're far from ordinary. Here's the link to Defcon's Advisory Board staff.

The attack on these Christians is sponsored by a group called Defcon. Its website lists the people, a Who’s Who of the extreme left, including same-sex "marriage" and pro-abortion activists, liberal professors, and ACLU luminaries. And they have the nerve to say that Dobson, Reed, and Sheldon have "waged war against our Constitution."

Suffice it to say that these people aren't part of the mainstream of American politics. Anything that's a Tides Center project is anything but conservative, or even centrist, in nature. To say that they're part of the most extreme wing of the Democratic Party isn't a bit out of line. The truth is that these people will say anything to villainize Christian conservatives.

The ad that ran last week was on TV and in all the major metropolitan newspapers. The ad was a mixture of truth, wild-eyed guesses and lies. Ralph Reed did accept money from Abramoff or an Abramoff-related group. That's the truthful part of the ad. The makers of the ad can't know if Mr. Sheldon accepted money from Abramoff, though it's doubtful that he did. As for them saying that Dr. Dobson accepted money from Abramoff, why would he? AFter all, Dobson's been railing for years against gambling of any sort. The implication, of course, is to portray Dr. Dobson as a religious hypocrite.

The best way to beat these charges is to live in such a way as to make the charges seem totally absurd or to make the people who launched the attack look absurd for even thinking it. Actions speak much louder than words in instances like this. Thus far, the known actions of the three gentlemen are quite above board.

Perhaps that's why Mr. Colson said "I was called the Nixon "hatchet man," so I ought to know a "hatchet job" when I see one, though I am not sure that I have ever seen anything quite this vicious since the McCarthy era."

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Reed, Jack Abramoff, Focus on the family, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, McCarthyism

Chicago Tribune Series

The Chicago Tribune's John Crewdson has written a devastating indictment of the CIA's ability to keep their operatives secret. He also ridicules the CIA in the Valerie Plame fiasco with an article titled "Plame's identity, if truly a secret, was thinly veiled".

Here's a glimpse of his Plame article:

When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."
A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as "pleasant, very well-read, bright," said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA. According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under "diplomatic cover" are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike. "If you were in an embassy," said a former CIA officer who posed as a U.S. diplomat in several countries, "you could count 100 percent on the Soviets knowing."

This article begs the questions: When Andrea Mitchell said that Plame's identity was "common knowledge", was she lying? Or is she lying when she changed her tune after the Libby indictment that it wasn't "common knowledge"? Why should we think that Plame's identity was secret to most of official Washington?

After this series, it's pretty difficult to believe that Mitchell didn't know Plame. It's even more absurd to think that Patrick Fitzgerald didn't know that she wasn't a covert operative.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Plame, Fitzgerald, Data Mining, Chicago Tribune

Phoney Polling

The AP's Will Lester is reporting that an AP/Ipsos poll shows that "70 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats" think that "it's likely that a civil war will break out."

Unfortunately, he's right but only because the media's coverage has been awful. If the American people were told the truth, they wouldn't hold these opinions. Earlier this week, I wrote daily about Col. Peters contrarian reports from Baghdad (found here, here, here, here, here and here), which offered, to say the least, an unflattering appraisal of the media's coverage. I suspect that people wouldn't hold those opinions if they knew that 379 people were killed following the mosque bombing, not 1,300. I suspect their opinion would be different if they'd read about the infrastructure improvements that are happening, too.

Considering all the untruthful reporting that the AP's done prior to this, it's amazing that 10 percent of Democrats think that we aren't on the verge of civil war.

Technorati Tags: AP/Ipsos, Will Lester, Iraqi Civil War, Ralph Peters

Milosevic Found Dead in Jail Cell

The AP is reporting that

"Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, the U.N. tribunal said Saturday. Milosevic, 64, apparently died of natural causes, a tribunal press officer said. He was found dead in his bed at the U.N. detention center."

Yet another instance in which Kofi Annan's 'cooler heads must prevail' approach yields miserable results.

A figure of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, Milosevic was a master tactician who turned his country's defeats into personal victories and held onto power for 13 years despite losing four wars that shattered his nation and impoverished his people.

Most sociopaths and mass murderers share those traits. He chose to combine the two, making him one of the most evil men in the 20th century.

Technorati Tags: Slobodan Milosevic, Human Rights, International Law

Political Cowardice Vs. Substance

That's what the House Appropriations Committee's 62-2 vote amounts to. Gone is the attitude of weighing the facts of the matter, coming up with a logical plan and setting a sensible policy. It's all about political panic and cowardice. If a genie granted me three wishes, I'd (a) wish that all 62 politicians that voted for the appropriations bill would be fired by the voters, (b) strand Peter King, Chuck Schumer, the Clintons and newly appointed New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez on Antarctica and (c) replace all these idiots with real leaders.

To make matters worse, the UAE is threatening to cancel a couple of multi-billion dollar deals, especially one with Boeing. They're also threatening to not let U.S. Navy ships dock in Dubai's ports and stop helping us in the GWOT. Who can blame them? They've changed their ways, they've helped capture AQ terrorists, they've provided safety for our Navy ships and this is the thanks they get?

UPDATE: DP World has just announced that they're cancelling the deal and divesting itself of all its American investments. This is a tribute to the demagogues who didn't care a bit about substance but caved into the worst type of bigotry.

This is what happens when politicians react to phoney baloney polls. Yes, I believe that 80 percent of Americans think this port deal is wrong. But I also think that that poll isn't based on substance but on Democratic demagoguery.

Rush is on fire on this, too. He started his second hour monologue by saying that Democrats don't care about national security. His suggestion is that House Republicans attach the appropriations bill to a bill that authorizes the NSA warrantless intercept program forever. I couldn't agree more, Rush.

Time For a Pep Talk

Tuesday night, I went to the GOP precinct caucuses. I'm glad I did. One of the resolutions we passed in our precinct was to support President Bush for his proactive policy in the GWOT. It passed unanimously, if I recall correctly.

Another benefit of attending was meeting people who shared my enthusiasm for the conservative agenda. It's the first time in weeks that I felt like I wasn't subject to the avalanche of negativism that we're fed by the Agenda Media.

Earlier today, I read George Will's column about Chief Justice Roberts' majority opinion in the Rumsfeld v. FAIR case. I was reminded that President Bush deserves alot of praise for picking John Roberts to succeed Chief Justice Rehnquist when he passed away.

I also had the privilege of reading Katherine Kersten's column on Minnesota's educational system. I realized that the liberal legacy on education isn't a pretty picture. On the other hand, it's obvious that the "pillars" of No Child Left Behind, namely "accountability for results; an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research; expanded parental options; and expanded local control and flexibility."

As I said earlier, it seems to me that this is an issue we should rally around. Why shouldn't we put Democrats on the defensive on this issue? It isn't like their 'throw-more-money-at-the-problem' approach is defensible. It isn't like we can't make a strong, common sense case for NCLB's "pillars". It isn't like school vouchers for inner city children wouldn't be a winner with those children's parents.

It's also time for conservatives everywhere, in every state, to jump on board with Mike Pence's "Republican Study Committee’s budget: "Contract With America: Renewed." It's time we started caring about fiscal sanity. That's how we rode to power in 1994. That's the road we need to take to appeal to blue collar workers and executives alike. Only incumbents like it when money is needlessly spent. Don't forget, too, that proposing a balanced budget plan would attract alot of voters to the GOP.

In the end, conservatives of all stripes need to remember that this is another pivotal election. Staying home is like voting for Democrat. The votes not cast might make all the difference between a House Judicial Committee Chairman John Conyers convening impeachment hearings as opposed to Chairman Sensenbrenner holding immigration hearings. Which do you prefer?

The votes not cast in Senate races might mean the difference between a Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and a Chairman Specter is the difference between getting a J. Michael Luttig confirmed to John Paul Stevens seat or settling for someone who's wishy-washy and who doesn't have a judicial philosophy.

The votes not cast might mean the difference between hearings based on the criminalization of policy disputes or hearings that actually accomplish solid legislation.

In the end, conservatives have alot to vote for and alot to vote against. What isn't an option is staying home. Sending a 'message vote' by staying home in a midterm election that promises to turn on turnout is the equivalent to letting Democrats pursue their agenda of obstruction and hyperbole.

We must not forget to do the mundane but important things that made a difference in 2004. The hours of doorknocking, manning the phone banks, winning neighbors over to our side and many other things are vital in winning races and building on our current majorities.

We've worked far too hard and far too long to let this majority slip away.

When Ignorance Hurts

When was the last weekday that you didn't hear a poll claiming some alarming message? It seems likea ages to me. Most of the time, I read them, fisking them in my mind just to stay sharp, then discarding them as having been manufactured for political purposes.

Monday night, I read Katherine Kersten's column on how ignorant people are of the Constitution, complete with poll results that should legitimately scare us. Here's some of the statistics that Ms. Kersten quoted:

A new survey reveals that only about one in four Americans can name at least two of the First Amendment's five freedoms: freedom of the press, religion, speech and assembly, as well as the right to petition government for redress of grievances. But 52 percent can name two or more members of TV's "Simpsons." More than 20 percent of Americans actually think the First Amendment gives us the right to own and raise pets! We shouldn't be shocked. Americans', especially young Americans', woeful ignorance of history and civics has been documented repeatedly.

It's stunning to me that people could be that ignorant of the basic foundations that this nation was built on. It's one thing to hear that people know chapter and verse about the Simpsons or other popular TV shows. It's quite another to hear them being this ignorant about things that I learned about as a high school freshman.

What this should tell conservatives is that it's worth fighting against the school system that liberals crafted, not against education. This is an election year and I'd make education reform a center of the GOP agenda. Abolishing the Department of Education isn't the solution, either, because abolishing it just means the bureaucracy changes names. It's changing the policies that matters.

The good news is that Minnesota has made progress on this front. Today, our state has decent K-12 standards in American history and government. That's thanks to a successful battle to dump the Profile of Learning, a costly over 10-year experiment in "hands-on" learning. The Profile aimed to create "critical thinkers," not knowledgeable citizens. As a result, it was notoriously short on facts and long on "process." During the Profile's tenure, students at some schools could satisfy history requirements by completing "performance packages" on subjects such as non-conformity in the 1960s, instead of writing papers about major figures and events in American history.

Forgive me for asking this naive question but how can you have people who are talented critical thinkers but who don't have the basic information about the subjects that prepares them for a career? It seems to me that logic can't exist apart from a detailed understanding of the topic being debated.

Also, isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that process alone will yield higher learning? It seems to me that real learning involves process but it's far more comprehensive than just that. Another key component is accountability, which is a key component of the No Child Left Behind Act.

In the end, education should be a winning issue for conservatives because we can point to recent successes while Democrats have to defend their failed legacy on that subject.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Education, No Child Left Behind, First Amendment

Sipping Roberts' Vinegar

This week, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in the "Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights" case. In his opinion, he gave FAIR a dose of some bitter vinegar, though it starts out relatively 'vinegar-free':

“Accommodating the military's message," Roberts wrote, "does not affect the law schools' speech, because the schools are not speaking when they host interviews and recruiting receptions. Unlike a parade organizer's choice of parade contingents, a law school's decision to allow recruiters on campus is not inherently expressive."

It isn't until the closing that he gives them a healthy dose of his vinegar:

"Nothing about recruiting," Roberts wrote, "suggests that law schools agree with any speech by recruiters. We have held that high school students can appreciate the difference between speech a school sponsors and speech the school permits because legally required to do so, pursuant to an equal access policy. Surely students have not lost that ability by the time they get to law school."

Ouch. It should be noted that not only did the Supremes strike this argument down hard, they slapped it down unanimously. I'm guessing that this case will have a chilling effect on alot of the silly court cases that are filed annually. I can't imagine that this is the type of verdict that these law professors want to be associated with.

On another note, people have noticed that there's alot more unanimity with the Roberts Court than with the Rehnquist Court. That isn't a shot at Chief Justice Rehnquist. It's high praise for Chief Justice Roberts. Here's what the LA Times had to say about that this morning:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in less than six months as leader of the Supreme Court, has turned the famously quarrelsome justices, at least for now, into a surprisingly agreeable group that is becoming known for unanimous rulings.
Monday's decision rejecting a free-speech challenge to having military recruiters on college campuses marked the ninth consecutive ruling in which all of the justices agreed.
----------
The outbreak of harmony has lawyers and law professors wondering whether they are seeing a court transformed or a honeymoon for the chief justice. "I think it is a real phenomenon, and it's because of the new chief," said Georgetown University law professor Richard J. Lazarus. "As the court begins to define itself anew, there is a real effort by all of them to build a new court. And it has brought them together."

It's too early to reach any long-lasting conclusions about the Roberts Court but I do think that the qualities we saw in his confirmation hearings are winning people over to his line of thinking. His intellect, charisma and logic make him a persuasive force on the court.

It was easy to see that he'd have this effect on the Supreme Court by how he manhandled liberal lion Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold. They looked positively impotent in their questioning of him. Who can forget Roberts answering Durbin's feeble question "What assurances do we have that you'll side with the little guy?" Roberts responded, saying "Senator, I'll guarantee to you that when the law is on the little guy's side, he'll get my vote everytime." No hint of pandering. No thought of saying what Durbin wanted to hear. He just stated his judicial philosophy without hesitation and with total clarity. You can't do better than that.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Chief Justice Roberts, FAIR, SCOTUS

Iran Threatens U.S.

In what might be its dumbest statement yet, Iran has threatened the U.S. with harm and pain. Here's the summary of the U.S.-Iranian exchange:

"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll." He did not elaborate but suggested Iran was awaiting additional American moves. Diplomats accredited to the meeting and in contact with the Iranians said the statement could be a veiled threat to use oil as an economic weapon. Iran is the second-largest producer within the OPEC, and a boycott could target Europe, China or India.
The White House dismissed the rhetoric out of Tehran. "I think that provocative statements and actions only further isolate Iran from the rest of the world," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to the Gulf Coast. "And the international community has spelled out to Iran what it needs to do."
John Bolton, America's ambassador to the United Nations, said Iran's comments showed how much of a menace it was. "Their threats show why leaving a country like that with a nuclear weapon is so dangerous," he told The Associated Press in a phone call from Washington. Bolton classified the Iranian comments as "reflecting their determination to acquire weapons."

I've consistently maintained that sanctions likely wouldn't hurt the mullahs who run the country. They'd only hurt the average Iranian. I've also maintained that, irrespective of our troop deployments, declaring war with Iran isn't smart policy. Even if we weren't in Iraq, I'd suggest a different tack: start supplying Iranians who hate the mullahs with weapons so they can take out their own government.

Before anyone starts saying that that's how the Taliban and Saddam gained power, I'd note that we're dealing with a different dynamic in this instance. In this instance, we're dealing with people who actually like America and want to live a western lifestyle. Saddam liked the western lifestyle but he hated America. The Taliban and al-Qaida hate the West and they don't want anything to do with western lifestyles.

It's also worth noting that in both instances, we chose people that hated our enemies but who were, at best, the least objectionable of two lousy choices. In both instances, we chose the group that we saw as the lesser of two evils. If we started arming Iranians, we'd be supporting people that love the internet, western clothing and the western civilization in general.

This isn't to say that we should expect this type of operation to be quick and clean. The mullahs are in power because they're willing to crush rebellions so that they can implement their worldview. In their minds, it's their religious duty to crush western societies. That their own countrymen and women want western civilization is of little consideration to them. They're as much infidels as Americans.

I suspect, though, that the U.S. has a presence in Iran, most likely special forces teams who are befriending Iranians in preparation for whatever future actions are taken.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Iran, John Bolton, UN, Terrorism

Dems: Data Mining OK to Identify Democratic Voters, Illegal to Identify al Qaida

Alright, I admit that not all Democrats think that data-mining, which is an integral part of the NSA intercept program, should be outlawed but alot of them screamed to high heavens when they first heard about it. It seems, though, that they're more than comfortable using data mining techniques to identify Democratic voters. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at their data-mining program:

A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march," said Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros. "It's unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?" Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is "worse than having no database at all."

This type of operation will cause a split in the Democratic Party. Not because of the data-mining but because the DNC won't have access to the names on this database. I wonder what the FEC will say to the fact that this private company is built to help Hillary. Would this firm sell names to Hillary? Would they just develop the list for Hillary? It seems to me that if they just gave the names to Hillary that that would constitute a campaign contribution. It seems to me that 'selling' Hillary those names below cost would similarly constitute a campaign contribution.

Let's also note this for what it is: an in-your-face Clinton manuever to say 'It's all about Hillary in 08.' Yes, it's a no-confidence vote on Dr. Dean but it's much more than that. This projects tells one and all that Hillary's getting elected is the only thing that matters to the Clintonistas. This action will hurt Democratic candidates because they can't access the information on this database. Anyone want to bet that this won't be a source of friction between Hillary's campaign and legislative candidates?

Now that it's official that Soros is funding a 'For Clinton' data-mining operation, I wonder if there will be calls for congressional hearings into whether (a) she has the Constitutional authority to benefit from this type of operation or (b) if this invades people's privacy. Sorry for the sarcasm but it just struck me as hypocritical since the Democrats railed endlessly about the data-mining involved in the NSA intercept program.

Finally, I agree with Captain Ed when he said "This puts Democratic candidates in a real bind; normally they would work with their elected leadership to coordinate voter strategy and outreach. However, now they will have to choose between that official leadership and this shadow elite that wants to use Soros' money to bypass the party's official management."

The truth is that the Clintonistas have hated Dr. Dean from the beginning. This is just the latest stick in Dean's eye from the Clintonistas.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Hillary, NSA, Harold Ickes, Howard Dean, DNC

Iraq: The Untold Truths

I've enjoyed Ralph Peters' reporting from Iraq immensely. He's now returning home so this is his last article from the trenches. Fortunately, he saved his best for last:

What actually happened last week, as the prophets of doom in the media prematurely declared civil war?

• The Iraqi army deployed over 100,000 soldiers to maintain public order. U.S. Forces remained available as a backup, but Iraqi soldiers controlled the streets.
• Iraqi forces behaved with discipline and restraint, as the local sectarian outbreaks fizzled, not one civilian had been killed by an Iraqi soldier.
• Time and again, Iraqi military officers were able to defuse potential confrontations and frustrate terrorist hopes of igniting a religious war.
• Forty-seven battalions drawn from all 10 of Iraq's army divisions took part in an operation that, above all, aimed at reassuring the public. The effort worked, from the luxury districts to the slums, the Iraqis were proud of their army.

Prophets of doom is an apt description for the Agenda Media. First, they won't leave their hotels so they're getting second-hand information (at best). To make matters worse is that they don't have a way of verifying the accuracy of the information that their Iraqi 'helpers' are feeding them. Finally, and worst of all, they don't try finding out anything about the total picture in Iraq.

Thankfully, we've had Col. Peters in theater reporting facts because he cared enough about 'the big picture' to go there and get the facts firsthand. He should be applauded for his great reporting.

AS a result of its nationwide success, the Iraqi army gained tremendously in confidence. Its morale soared. After all the lies and exaggerations splashed in your direction, the truth is that we're seeing a new, competent, patriotic military emerge. The media may cling to its image of earlier failures, but last week was a great Iraqi success.
This matters. Not only for Iraq's sake, but because standing up a responsible military subordinate to an elected civilian government is the essential development that will allow us to reduce our troop presence in the next few years. Much remains to do, and much could still go wrong, but I, for one, am more optimistic after this visit to Baghdad.

Hallelujah and Hooray!!! Good for them, too!!! This can't be seen as anything other than a major positive development. No need for qualifiers. Let's hope that these troops keep improving, keep gaining in confidence and keeping building their morale. It sounds like these soldiers are brimming with pride and patriotism, too. Good for them.

Let's go deeper and probe into the growth of Iraq's army. On Saturday, The Post conducted an exclusive interview with the commander of Iraq's ground forces. It was Lt.-Gen. Abdul Qadir's first sit-down with the press, he's been a busy man.
The general looks like a vigorous, good-natured grandfather in uniform. But his affable dignity masks a heroic past. An armor officer with extensive battlefield experience, Qadir stood up to Saddam, stating that his adventure in Kuwait was destined to fail. The reward for his integrity, the patriotism of the honest soldier, was seven years in prison. Only his history of combat valor saved him from death. Now Saddam's in prison and Qadir's determined to build a better Iraq.

This is an incredible man. Iraqis should be thankful that he's in a leadership position. Just standing up to Saddam must've taken an incredible amount of courage. Now he's training and leading forces. I can only imagine that these soldiers are well-trained and full of pride. I'll guarantee you won't read this account in the NY Times; I'd doubt if we'd hear Sen. Biden admitting anything like this.

Thank you for your outstanding reporting, Col. Peters. I, for one, am most grateful for the information that you reported.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Peters, Iraqi Military, Iraqi Civil War, Agenda Media

Chevron Boosting Oil, Gas Production

I wonder how Democrats, especially of the envirnmental extremist ilk will react to this:

Chevron, the country's second-largest petroleum producer, told Wall Street analysts concerned about the company's growth that daily output would rise from 2.5 million barrels per day of oil equivalent in 2005 to 3.1 million barrels per day by 2010. By 2008, daily output would be about 2.9 million barrels per day. "We as a company are doing a lot about supply," O'Reilly said in response to a reporter's question about the criticism the industry has faced from Congress over soaring gasoline prices and tight supplies.

Anyone wanna bet that the environmentalists scream bloody murder on this?

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Chevron, Environment, Refineries

What's the Rush?

A NY Post editorial headline caught my eye. The title is " THE GRAND RUSH TO DECLARE DEFEAT". It's an editorial on what's happening in Iraq. Here's a glimpse into the Agenda Media's heated rush to declare defeat:

Violence following the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra two weeks ago "proved" that, this time, for sure, America's mission to Iraq was ending in ignominy. "IRAQ - BREAKING POINT," screamed a Time magazine cover last week. "This is it," the magazine quoted one Sunni pol saying. "This is the start of the civil war." A front-page New York Times headline proclaimed: "Political Talks Are in Ruins." Yet, 48 hours later, the once-upon-a-time paper of record reported: "Iraqi Sunni Bloc To Rejoin Talks on Government." So much for "ruins."
Equally reckless was The Washington Post's report that some 1,300 people died in the week-long violence after the shrine-bombing. A review by Editor and Publisher magazine of news-service accounts found no evidence to support that number. "When our correspondent examined the books at the morgue, he could find only about 250 bodies logged in as killed in the violence," the E&P story quoted a Knight Ridder editor saying. Iraq's Cabinet said 379 people were killed.

It's been said that the Agenda Media doesn't report the news; it reports what it thinks should be that day's news. That's a bit grand for my blood but I don't totally disagree, either.

What is clear, though, is that their isn't alot of accuracy to these articles. When you report 1,300 dead from "the week-long violence after the shrine-bombing" but then it comes out as being between 250 and 379, someone isn't doing much fact-checking. That's misreporting on a magnitude almost approaching Katrina levels.

When someone says that "Political Talks Are in Ruins" but a headline from 48 hrs. later reads "Iraqi Sunni Bloc To Rejoin Talks on Government", that's sloppy reporting at best. When the NY Times declares that civil war has broken out but then a reporter, a former Army intelligence officer, on the ground sarcastically writes "I've been trying all week...I'm looking for...civil war...and I just can't find it", then you know it's shoddy reporting.

The questions that must be answered is simple: How can supposedly objective-minded reporters with proper eyesight with proper access to the facts get something so badly wrong? How can the American pubilc trust them with reporting verified facts while providing them with accurate, logic- and fact-based analysis?

I submit to you that these 'reporters' aren't objective-minded. In fact, they haven't been in ages, not sice Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate story. I'd also submit that that part of their 'accuracy problems' stems from such a biased world-view that they can't see events as they are. It's fair to say that we all come with our biases. We can't eliminate from the equation. What we must eliminate, though, is the blind, overwhelming bias of reporters and analysts.

Something that I hadn't thought of before but which makes alot of sense is that reporting has diminished in quality after the trend that brought in shock jocks. Ratings weren't determined by talent of the host or the accuracy of the content. Ratings were determined by how outlandish the claims they were. There's a case which I think I can make that reporters are hyping things so they get more notoriety so they get on more TV shows.

Isn't it time we demanded better?

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Iraqi Civil War, Agenda Media, Katrina, Military

Democratic Obsession: Denying al-Qaida

Michael Barone asks why Democrats keep insisting that there was no connection between al-Qaida and Saddam's regime even though there's sufficient proof of that connection. Here's his theory on why:

Democrats fear that more Americans would support Bush and the war effort if they believed there was. The career professionals, with their many years of training in the subtleties of the Middle East, have developed a vested interest in the notion that religious Wahhabis like al-Qaida could never collaborate with a secular tyrant like Saddam.

In other words, Democrats repeat the lie because they don't want people believing that the President. To them, it's all about regaining their seats of power. It isn't about setting policy based on facts. Here's what the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote in its report:

(U) The briefing slides contained a "Summary of Known Iraq -al-Qaida Contacts, 1990-2002," including an item "2001: Prague IIS Chief al-hi meets with Mohammed Atta in April." Another slide was entitled "Fundamental Problems with How Intelligence Community is Assessing Information." It faulted the IC for requiring "juridical evidence" for its findings. It also criticized the IC for "consistent underestimation" of efforts by Iraq and al-Qaida to hide their relationship and for an "assumption that secularists and Islamists will not cooperate." A "findings" slide summed up the Iraq -al-Qaida relationship as "More than a decade of numerous contacts," "Multiple areas of cooperation," "Shared interest and pursuit of WMD,” and "One indication of Iraq coordination with al-Qaida specifically related to 9/11."

Sounds to me like a connection, doesn't it? It certainly doesn't establish a connection between Saddam and 9/11 but that's another matter entirely.

Minnesota Democrats cite the 9-11 commission's report that it found no evidence of "operational" cooperation between al-Qaida and Iraq, although it did find evidence of many contacts. But, as Donald Rumsfeld likes to say, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Then there's this:

Light on the Saddam regime's collaboration with terrorists will almost certainly be shed by analysis of some 2 million documents captured in Iraq. But, as the intrepid Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard has pointed out, almost none of those documents has been translated or released either to the public or to the congressional intelligence committees. It appears that career professionals and, perhaps, political appointees have been blocking release of these documents.

It's worth noting that Stephen Hayes said that about 50,000 of these documents have been translated and already provide proof of this connection. Stephen Hayes isn't just a Johnnie-come-lately to this issue either. He's written "The Connection", which is the definitive book on this subject. Hayes has done the most extensive research on this issue and his conclusion is that there's a connection between Saddam and UBL.

The truth is that Democrats don't want people to have confidence in President Bush's policies in fighting the GWOT and in keeping America safe. The reality is that it's more important to Democrats to return to power than it is in winning the GWOT. Democrats are playing fast and loose with the facts and they're trying to divide people based on bald-faced lies.

That's my definition of being "un-American."

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Iraqi Civil War, Murtha, Ralph Peters

Kirby's Gone

WCCO-TV is reporting that Kirby Puckett, the most popular athlete in Minnesota sports history, died this evening. It's a loss every Twins fan will feel.

By this time tomorrow, there will literally be thousands of Kirby stories being told. Almost all of those stories will be told with smiles on peoples' faces. The lone exception is likely to be the story about how glaucoma cut his career way too short. In the end, losing his eyesight might have set him on a path towards his demise.

Kirby showed up to a press conference wearing his white pinstriped uniform on July 12, 1996 and announced "It's the last time you're going to see Kirby Puckett in a Twins uniform."

There wasn't a dry eye in the room. I suspect that there wasn't a dry eye in the TV audience, either.

As was typical Kirby, though, he wouldn't let his friends stay down, instead giving them a pep talk.

"I want my young teammates to know right now that when you put this uniform on, you play with pride and integrity, like Kent Hrbek and Molly [Paul Molitor] and Knobby [Chuck Knoblauch]...Just don't take it for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us."

One of those "young teammates" is the man who eventually took over for Kirby, Torii Hunter. To this day, Torii's the heart and soul of the Twins. He's also the Twin that was closest to Kirby, mostly because Kirby taught him how to be a professional, partially because, in his first spring training with the big club, he was assigned the locker in between Kirby and Dave Winfield.

When news of Kirby's stroke broke Sunday morning, Torii was so upset that he removed himself from the lineup and he left the ballpark. Yesterday, it was being reported that he'd be travelling to Arizona to be with Kirby. It's pretty certain that he'll be attending Kirby's funeral. The truth be told, I'd bet that most of Kirby's teammates will be at his funeral. To many, if not all of them, he was far and away the best player they ever played with or against.

Forget all the overhyped types that got more notoriety than Kirby. At various times, people rated Eric Davis, Jose Canseco, Ken Griffey and Darryl Strawberry as better but they couldn't hold a candle to Kirby. Canseco was the first player to ever hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in the same season. But he was erratic at best at the plate. And he was a worthless outfielder. All Kirby did was hit the ball hard most every at bat while being the best defensive centerfielder the Twins had.

Kirby was so talented that he could 'elevate his game' whenever his teammates needed him to. In my mind, he's still the best 'Game 6' player I ever saw.

Last night, I wrote about Kirby's outrageous Game 6 against Atlanta in 1991, calling it the best performance I've ever seen in the World Series. I'll stick with that opinion. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention his almost as outrageous Game 6 that he had against the St. Louis Cards in the 1987 World Series. All he did that day was go 4-for-4, score 4 runs, stole a base and drive in a run.

And I can't forget Kirby's 'Weekend in Milwaukee' performance, either. That, too, was in 1987. The last weekend in August, to be precise. The Twins were a lousy road team that year but monsters in the Metrodome. By the time they arrived in Milwaukee, the Twins had gone a long time, almost 2 full months, without winning a road series. Then they lost the opening game of the series.

In typical Kirby fashion, he put the team on his massive shoulders and carried them the rest of the weekend. All he did that weekend was go 10-for-12, almost hitting for the cycle in Sunday's game. Instead of getting the cycle, Kirby 'settled' for a 2 singles, two doubles and two homers while going 6 for 6 that day.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Kirby didn't go 10-for-12 Saturday and Sunday. He went 10-for-11. KSTP-TV had a special Sportswrap tonight and did a beautiful job with it. The part that got me was hearing TK saying that "He made me alot better manager. He made us alot better team." That's true, TK, but you're the best manager I've ever seen.

What Kirby story would be complete without telling about all the jaw-dropping homerun-robbing catches in straightaway centerfield? It's something that Kirby started and that Torii continues to this day.

This isn't to say that Kirby didn't have his faults:

In March 2002, Anne Potter filed an order for protection against Tonya Puckett, alleging that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Kirby. That month, a St. Louis Park woman asked for protection against Kirby Puckett, saying in court documents that she had had an 18-year relationship with him and that he had shoved her inside his Bloomington condominium. Then, in September 2002, Puckett was involved with a woman in a very public incident at Redstone American Grill in Eden Prairie. That time, the woman accused Puckett of dragging her into a restaurant restroom and grabbing her breast. After a nine-day trial, a jury ruled Puckett not guilty of false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct and fifth-degree assault. "I just want to go home," Puckett said that day, when the verdicts were released.

For a Twins' fan, that news was almost impossible to believe. His every-present smile was seared into the average fan's mind. The image of him signing autographs for the kids two hours after he'd left the lockerroom helped fans have nothing but love for Kirby. In the end, Dan Bareirro summed it up best, saying that we don't really know a person if we only know them from what they're like at the ballpark or hanging out in hotels on roadtrips.

In the end, though, I suspect that most fans will let their memories of Kirby, the ballplayer, wash away all the memories of his misbehavior.

You see, in the end, Kirby was just too likeable and too charismatic to not love.

We'll miss you, Kirby. Thanks for the memories.

Technorati Tags: Kirby Puckett, 1987 World Series, 1991 World Series, Cooperstown, Minnesota Twins

Anti-Flag Desecration Amendment To Receive a Vote in The Senate

Matt Margolis just emailed the bloggers on the GOP Bloggers blogroll that Sen. Frist will "announce that a constitutional amendment giving Congress the power to ban the physical desecration of the American flag will receive a floor vote in the United States Senate. The vote will occur during the last week of June."

As Drudge would say "Developing...."

Technorati Tags: Sen. Frist, Flag Burning Amerndment

PDB (Peters' Daily Briefing)

Here's some interesting facts from today's Peters' Daily Briefing from Iraq, entitled Infantry Patrol:

Instead of collapsing into sectarian strife, the brigade's area of operations had become quieter since the Samarra bombing. The people do not want any part of more violence. The zone's big event had been a thousand-man demonstration by Sunnis and Shias together at the al-Rahman Mosque, to protest the media's overreaction to the flurry of attacks that followed the bombing of the Golden Mosque.

John Murtha told an all-too-willing Bob Schieffer yesterday that civil war had broken out in Iraq. He's been spouting that lie since he came out with his plan to "immediately redeploy" U.S. troops. In fact, he said that he couldn't trust Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Pete Pace in that interview.

I wonder if he'll now say that he can't trust Ralph Peters' reporting from Baghdad's streets. After all, Peters' information goes further than anything that Gen. Pace or President Bush has said.

The truth is that Murtha's the liar. He's ignored Washington Times reporting that says

"A prominent Sunni religious leader in Anbar province, Sheik Abed al-Latif Hemaiym, told The Times in an interview in Amman that Sunnis were prepared to work with the Americans. "We now believe we must get on good terms with the Americans," Sheik Hemaiym said. "As Arab Sunnis, we believe that within this hot area of Iraq, facing challenges from neighboring nations who want to swallow us, especially the Iranians, we feel we have no alternative."

He's ignored the rebuilding projects that have been completed. (See my News from the Iraqi Theater series.)

He's lied about American troops being the main targets of the insurgents. According to the Washington Times reporting I just listed, terrorists who want to topple Iraq's government are the insurgents' main targets.

Considering Murtha's long list of lies, why shouldn't we think that he'll attack Col. Peters' reporting, too?

Staff Sgt. Adam T. Navarro, an Army Reservist serving in Iraq, is a member of New York's Finest in "real life." Born in Manhattan, raised in The Bronx and now a resident of Brentwood, Officer Navarro works in Queens. He could serve as a symbol of NYC's heart and soul: A big-fisted bear with a great sense of humor, strong opinions and a fan not only of the Yankees, but of Yankee Stadium itself. (He's a Post fan, too. Back home, his morning ritual begins with the sports section.)
His police experience has been a great advantage in Iraq (as he puts it, "Never underestimate the value of a New York City cop"). A veteran of Bosnia, as well, he sees a common threat: No matter what the elites or the media say, "The poor are always happy to see U.S. troops." He worries that the people back home aren't getting a true picture of Iraq. Navarro's a firm believer in the mission.

I couldn't agree more. So much for the notion that the overwhelming majority of troops want out ASAP.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Peters, Murtha, Peter Pace, Iraq

Dean Called on Spending Priorities

It seems that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid called Howard Dean on the carpet for his spending habits. Their complaint: Dean's spending money in strongly red states when he should be putting more money into competitive races. That's what happens when you have a chairman who thinks that Democrats should be competitive wherever they field a candidate.

Neither side was willing to give ground, according to several accounts of the meeting. Dean argued that his strategy is designed to rebuild the party across the country, and that he had pledged to do so when he ran for party chairman. Reid and Pelosi countered that if Democrats squander their opportunities this year, longer-term organizing efforts will not matter much.

It seems to me that they're missing the boat. It seems to me that it's impossible to be competitive in the short term if you don't have a compelling message. It seems to me that not having a compelling agenda also shrinks fundraising appeal.

Also hurting the D's are things like John Murtha's lie-filled diatribe yesterday where he tells the world that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a liar. As long as Democrats come off as military-haters, they're completely writing off a major block of voters. Calling Pete Pace a liar isn't the way to endear yourself with the military. It's the road to doom with that important and reliable voting group.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Dean, DNC, Pelosi, Reid, Murtha

Time to Challenge Murtha

It's time that someone challenged John Murtha's reckless lies. NOW.

It isn't surprising that John Murtha is spewing the same lies as before several soldiers disgraced him in town hall meetings settings. What's surprising is that he's now upped the ante by calling Pete Pace, Chairman of the Join Chiefs, a liar.

SCHIEFFER: Congressman Murtha, thank you for coming this morning, and I want to start by quoting something that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this morning on "Meet the Press." He said he believes the war in Iraq is going, in his words, "very, very well." What is your assessment?
Representative JACK MURTHA (D-PA; House Appropriations Committee): Why would I believe him? I mean, that administration, this administration, including the president, had mischaracterized this war for the last two years. They, first of all, they said it will take 40,000 troops to settle this thing right after the invasion. Then they said there's no insurgency. They're dead-enders is what the secretary of defense said. On and on and on, the mischaracterization of the war. They said there's nuclear weapons. There are no nuclear weapons there. There are no biological weapons there. No al-Qaeda connection. So why would I believe the chairman of the joint chiefs when he says things are going well.

Why would Murtha believe Pete Pace? The better question is why would anyone trust anything that Murtha's said about Iraq? This guy's an idiot. This guy is the liar. The title of Gateway Pundit's article is 9 Lies in 90 Seconds. Check out their account for documentation of Murtha's lie-filled diatribe.

I'd love to see someone challenge Murtha to a debate on this issue. Someone like Jed Babbin, Austin Bay, Ralph Peters or Christopher Hitchens. I'd love seeing the moderator come prepared to challenge Murtha with followup questions. Someone like Chris Wallace would do nicely. Murtha wouldn't appear in such a debate because he knows he's the liar and those are men of serious credentials who would challenge his every talking point. Murtha knows that any of these men would tear his assertions apart within seconds. He knows that he'd be exposed. So let the exposing begin.

The truth is that this diatribe breaks new ground. In the past, Murtha challenged President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld. This time, he calls the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs a liar. Anyone thinking that this won't inflame people in the military into voting against anyone allied with John Murtha is kidding themselves.

Democrats have lost the military vote badly the last 2 presidential elections as well as during the 2002 midterms. Any Democratic strategists who hoped that their candidate had a shot at picking off some military people just lost that shot. This plays into Republican hands. This interview should be turned into a commercial for next fall and for right now. It plays into the earned stereotype that Democrats not named Joe Lieberman hate the military.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Murtha, Iraq, Austin Bay, Ralph Peters, Chris Wallace, Christopher Hitchens

Pray For Kirby

Earlier today, the best player to ever wear a Twins uniform, Kirby Puckett, suffered a major stroke. The prognosis isn't good. I ask all my readers to keep Kirby in your prayers. This is what the Strib's beat writer for the Twins, LaVelle E. Neal III, said in his article:

Kirby Puckett, a Baseball Hall of Famer and the driving force behind the Twins' two World Series titles, was fighting for his life after suffering a stroke Sunday morning at his home in Scottsdale, AZ.
Puckett was first rushed to Scottsdale Memorial Hospital, then airlifted to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn where he underwent surgery for most of the afternoon, according to Twins President Dave St. Peter. Puckett was transferred after the surgery to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, St. Peter said.
According to two people familiar with Puckett's condition, he suffered bleeding in the brain and surgery was required to drain blood and relieve pressure. Scottsdale Osborn and St. Joseph's representatives said no information on Puckett was available, but both hospitals said they withhold patient identity and condition information at the request of the family.

Kirby was the face of the Twins during his playing days. He was a round ball of charisma, talent and work ethic. His teammates loved him. Because of his, Bert Blyleven's and Kent Hrbek's lockerroom pranks, the Twins were known as Club Fun in those days.

To understand Kirby's appeal, you have to look beyond Kirby the superstar. You also have to take into consideration the fact that he rarely tired of signing autographs after the game. During his playing days, he considered himself one of baseball's ambassadors. Major League Baseball couldn't have done better. You also have to take into account Kirby's infectious smile. He won people over with that smile and his personality.

Anyone that considers themselves even nominal Twins fans can't forget Kirby's Game Six in the 1991 World Series. I still consider it to be the most incredible and dominant performance in World Series history. All Kirby did that night was collect 3 hits, including the walk-off, game-winning homer in the bottom of the 11th inning off lefthander Charlie Liebrandt. He also made the spectacular up-against-the-plexiglas catch of a Ron Gant drive that would've been an easy double.

Here's how the SI article described Kirby's night:

Impossibly, both the Braves and the Twins had loaded the bases with less than two outs in the eighth inning and failed to score. Improbably, both threats had been snuffed with mind-boggling suddenness by double plays. Atlanta was done in by a slick 3-2-3 job courtesy of Minnesota first baseman Kent Hrbek and catcher Brian Harper. The Twins were stymied by a crowd-jolting unassisted DP by Lemke, who grabbed a soft liner off the bat of Hrbek and stepped on second. So by the bottom of the 10th, when Harper, seeing Larkin make contact, threw his batting helmet high into the air in the on-deck circle and Gladden jumped onto home plate with both feet, the switch was thrown on a 30-minute burst of emotion in the Metrodome stands, an energy that, if somehow harnessed, would have lit the Twin Cities through a second consecutive sleepless night.

For it was only 24 hours earlier that Minnesota centerfielder Kirby Puckett had virtually single-handedly forced a seventh game by assembling what has to rank among the most outrageous all-around performances the World Series has ever seen. Puckett punctuated his night by hitting a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning off Atlanta's Charlie Leibrandt. The solo shot gave the Twins a 4-3 win and gave Puckett's teammates the same "chill-bump feeling" Braves manager Bobby Cox confessed to having had in Atlanta, where the Braves had swept Games 3, 4 and 5 earlier in the week to take a three games to two lead into Minneapolis.
----------
Understand what Kelly and 55,155 paying customers had just seen Puckett do beneath the dome. In addition to his game-winning home run, he had singled, tripled, driven in a run on a sacrifice fly, stolen a base and scored a run of his own. In the third inning he had leapt high against a Plexiglas panel in centerfield, hanging there momentarily like one of those suction-cup Garfield dolls in a car window, to rob Ron Gant of extra bases and Atlanta of an almost certain run.

Kirby wasn't just a great player who could elevate his game as high as he needed it to go but he was a player with an incredible work ethic. He once did a commercial for Gatorade. Kirby's talking, saying "They want to watch me work out. They want me to make a commercial. So I look at them and I say "You want to make a three hour commercial?"

Here's how Patrick Reusse, the best baseball writer in the Twin Cities, wrote about getting the news about Kirby:

Al Newman went to church on Sunday morning. "I just had this thought about Puck, and included him in my prayers," he said. After church, Newman went to Hammond Stadium, where he would be scouting the Twins and Boston for his new employers, the Arizona Diamondbacks. "I ran into Tom Kelly, and we started talking about Puck," Newman said. "We were worried about him. He had gotten so big, and with that history of the men in his family dying young, we were worrying."
An hour later, around 10:30 a.m. in Florida, Newman received a call informing him that 44-year-old Kirby Puckett, Puck to anyone associated with the Twins since the mid-80s, had suffered a massive stroke in Scottsdale, AZ. Hours later, Newman was watching the final innings of the exhibition game. "I was sitting here scouting, but thinking about Puck, thinking about including him in my prayers, and I got a little tear in my eye," Newman said of his Twins teammate and friend. "How does that happen? You're in church, you think, 'I'll say a prayer for Puck,' and 90 minutes later, you find out he had a stroke and he's fighting for his life."
Newman was the Twins third base coach in 2003 when he suffered a stroke. It was an ordeal, but his recovery was complete within a few months. Puckett's situation Sunday was much more grave, so much so that Twins people gathered for spring training seemed to be trying to prepare themselves for the worst.

Newmie, as Newman was called in his playing and coaching days with the Twins, was one of Kirby's best friends on the team. Of all of Kirby's teammates, I suspect that the news of Kirby's stroke will affect Newmie the most, partially because of his being a stroke survivor but mostly because of his close relationship with Kirby.

Finally, Reusse recounts this story:

What did Kirby Puckett mean to us in those days, mean to Minnesota and to baseball in those days? "There was a TV crew here from a Spanish-speaking station in Miami maybe 12 years ago," Oliva said. "The man had his 8-year-old son with him. He introduced me and said, 'This is Tony Oliva, a great Cuban player for the Twins.' And that little boy said, 'No, Papa. The great player for the Twins is Kirby Puckett.'"

Had Kirby heard that, I suspect he would've corrected the little boy, telling him that Tony O, as Twins fans recall him, was the reason for most of Kirby's success.

Let's hope that Kirby recovers from this massive stroke so we can go back to remembering the greatness that was Kirby Puckett, Twins centerfielder. That's how we should be thinking of a 44 year old man, right?

Technorati Tags: Kirby Puckett, 1991 World Series, Baseball

Agenda Media: Truth Averse?

To say that I've been wary of the Agenda Media is understatement. After reading Ralph Peters' latest account from Iraq, though, I'm now asking a more important question: Are the Agenda Media averse to the truth? Here's the part of Col. Peters' column that's got me asking that question:

I’m trying. I've been trying all week. The other day, I drove another 30 miles or so on the streets and alleys of Baghdad. I'm looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can't find it. Maybe actually being on the ground in Iraq prevents me from seeing it. Perhaps the view's clearer from Manhattan. It could be that my background as an intelligence officer didn't give me the right skills. And riding around with the U.S. Army, looking at things first-hand, is certainly a technique to which The New York Times wouldn't stoop in such an hour of crisis.
Let me tell you what I saw anyway. Rolling with the "instant Infantry" gunners of the 1st Platoon of Bravo Battery, 4-320 Field Artillery, I saw children and teenagers in a Shia slum jumping up and down and cheering our troops as they drove by. Cheering our troops. All day, and it was a long day, we drove through Shia and Sunni neighborhoods. Everywhere, the reception was warm. No violence. None. And no hostility toward our troops. Iraqis went out of their way to tell us we were welcome. Instead of a civil war, something very different happened because of the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra. The fanatic attempt to stir up Sunni-vs.-Shia strife, and the subsequent spate of violent attacks, caused popular support for the U.S. presence to spike upward. Think Abu Musab al-Zarqawi intended that?

I've preached alot about getting your information and analysis from the Right blogosphere and from dedicated reporters. Peters' column is proof that the American Agenda Media isn't willing to take risks to get the story that paints the accurate picture. They're more than willing to just 'phone it in' from their hotel rooms.

It's insulting to have the 'Paper of Record' tell us that civil war had broken out in Iraq, then find out from a soldier-turned-journalist that the NY Times' article wasn't accurate, which leads to another pet peeve of mine: Why is it that the clowns who won't even make an effort to report are considered reporters but great investigators from the Right blogosphere like Ed Morrissey, Brian Maloney and others aren't considered journalists?

Quite frankly, it's insulting to hear the out-of-touch media 'giants' like Dan Rather and Marvin Kalb declare bloggers as out-of-control but then state that people who have editors 'check' their work are true journalists.

You owe it to yourself to read Col. Peters' columns from Iraq. Without his reporting, we wouldn't get the true picture of what's happening over there.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Peters, NY Times, Iraqi Civil War, Agenda Media

Wrong As Usual

That's all I can say about Eleanor Clift's latest MSNBC column. She starts getting things wrong in the first paragraph. No sense waiting, right?

John Kerry lost the presidency in Ohio, a state with huge job losses that should have been his to win. But voters had no clear idea of Kerry’s economic agenda, and the moral implications of gay marriage were drilled into them every Sunday by their neighborhood pastor.

Kerry lost because (a) the Ohio GOTV effort was so rock solid; (b) Ohioans knew that Kerry was a tax-and-spend liberal who wasn't a good panderer; (c) Christians coming out in droves so that their voices be heard in a major cultural issue; and (d) because Kerry didn't have a serious approach to fighting the GWOT, something that persists to this day. Other than that, Ms. Clift was right. Sorta.

When Clift says that Christians had "the moral implications of gay marriage" "drilled into them every Sunday by their neighborhood pastor", the implication is that evangelical Christians didn't understand that already. Also implied in that paragraph is that courts should settle major social issues, not passion-driven voters.

The only way the Republicans can win in Ohio is if the Democrats blow it, and they’re working at it. Democratic Party leaders pressured Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett to withdraw from the Senate race (in favor of a veteran congressman) with undercover operatives launching a whisper campaign about Hackett’s service that was reminiscent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Kerry, and equally reprehensible. And with every House seat critical for the Democrats to regain control, the party is seeking to retain the seat of Rep. Ted Strickland, their candidate for governor, but still fell short of the required number of 50 signatures. Fifty signatures! How hard is that? In addition to these snafus, after a string of losses over two decades, Ohio Democrats aren’t sure they know their voters anymore. The political muscle of the religious right, which grew the conservative electorate in a state historically focused on bread-and-butter issues, has Democrats running scared, as well it should.

Here's another classic case of liberal denial. As Clift says, Ohio Democrats aren't sure they "know their voters anymore" but "it's still Democrats' race to lose"? There's only one way to explain it: typical liberal logic. The truth is that Democrats, not just in Ohio but nationwide, have become the elitist party. They've stopped being the "Party of the People" that they were well into the 80's.

The truth is that most Americans think of themselves as having traditionalist viewpoints on cultural issues. Most people don't want courts forcing their liberal social views on unsuspecting Americans and rightfully so.

In my opinion, liberalism died when progressives took over the Democratic Party. No longer was it good enough to be a traditionalist on the issues. NOW wasn't happy just with abortion rights or equal rights for women. They fought for judges that said that abortion wasn't just legal but available anytime the woman wanted. They fought for judges that said a parent couldn't be involved in their minor daughter's 'reproductive rights'. Anti-war activists weren't just opposed to the military. They started labelling good men like Joe Lieberman as Republican lite and sellouts.

A group of 31 mainstream pastors has filed a complaint with the IRS challenging the tax-exempt status of churches that openly engage in partisan campaign activity, which is unlikely, even if the campaign succeeds, to stem the tide of evangelical support for Blackwell. His political rivals are looking for ways to expose him as a black Elmer Gantry, a huckster with no core convictions.

Notice the prominent placing of the term mainstream pastors? The implication is that pastors that actually believe the things that the Bible teaches are somehow far outside the political mainstream. Notice, too, the way that Clift and his political enemies don't attack his positions on the merits. They simply label him as being a "huckster." I'm certain that they believe that. Still, it isn't like the name-calling is persuasive to anyone with actual intellectual capabilities.

Clift's saying that this should be the Dems' year to win in Ohio sounds much like Bob Beckel and Susan Estrich telling everyone that the race was over in 04, that it was Kerry's "race to lose." Either Kerry was more than up to the task to lose by 3+ million votes or Estrich and Beckel were wrong.

I suspect that Clift is wrong, too.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ken Blackwell, Ohio, Hackett

"Trust Us" Isn't Good Enough

That's the message that Francine Busby delivered for the Democratic Weekly radio address. Ms. Busby is running for the U.S. House seat vacated by disgraced Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who was sentenced yesterday to 8+ years in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes.

"Given the record of this administration, 'trust us' is not a safe enough answer for the American people," Busby said, accusing the administration and Republican-led Congress of underfunding ports security and ignoring warnings on Hurricane Katrina. "At our ports, like our borders, Americans expect and deserve a Congress committed to stopping people who are intent on breaking the law," she said.

That sounds tough but I'm curious as to what laws are being broken at our ports. Talk is cheap. As for border security, what would Ms. Busby propose? After all, she's a San Diego resident. In fact, she's a school board member in San Diego. She "promised to be "an independent voice" in Congress. How do we know that that's what she'll be if she doesn't have her own plan for securing the California-Mexico border?

Unless and until we see proof of that independant streak in Ms. Busby, we'll remain skeptical at best. After all, talk is cheap.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Democratic Radio Address, Francine Busby, Randy Cunningham, Border Control, Illegal immigration

Iran's Nuclear Program Hits Obstacles

Saturday's NY Times has a compelling article on Iran's nuclear program. Here's some key parts of the article:

When Iran defiantly cut the locks and seals on its nuclear enrichment plants in January and restarted its effort to manufacture atomic fuel, it forced the world to confront a momentous question: How long will it be before Tehran has the ability to produce a bomb that would alter the balance of power in the Middle East? Iran's claims that it is racing forward with enrichment have created an air of crisis as the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency prepares to meet Monday in Vienna before the United Nations Security Council takes up the Iran file for possible penalties.
Yet behind the sense of immediate alarm lies a more complex picture of Iran's nuclear potential. Interviews with many of the world's leading nuclear analysts and a review of technical assessments show that Iran continues to wrestle with serious problems that have slowed its nuclear ambitions for more than two decades. Obstacles, the experts say, remain at virtually every step on the atomic road. And the most significant, they say, involve the two most technically challenging aspects of the process, converting uranium ore to a toxic gas and, especially, spinning that gas into enriched atomic fuel.

These paragraphs are indicative of the issues that nuclear analysts have raised on Iran's nuclear capabilities. To say that Iran faces major hurdles before building a nuclear weapon and delivery system would be accurate if this report is correct.

Therein lies the problem, though. Do we know that these theories are accurate? I'd hate to base our policy on the CIA's analysis or the IAEA's assurances. The good news is that this article highlights the fact that we don't have to go by those factors alone. We can rely on the opinions and observations of nuclear industry experts who know what types of hurdles the Iranians need to overcome.

According to the analysts, the Iranians need to do repairs and build new machines at a prototype plant before they can begin enriching even modest quantities of uranium. And then, for a decade, they would have to mass produce 100 centrifuges a week to fill the cavernous industrial enrichment halls at Natanz. What is more, the gas meant to feed those machines is plagued by impurities. The perception gap was underscored in February when Tehran issued a stark warning. By late this year, Iranian officials said, they would begin installing nearly 3,000 centrifuges at the giant Natanz plant, buried deep underground to withstand attack. That many centrifuges, international inspectors knew, could make fuel for up to 10 nuclear warheads every year.
In Washington and Europe, the announcement was dismissed as an empty boast. "Maybe they can move that fast," said a senior American official who tracks Iran's program but who declined to be named because it is an intelligence matter. "But they would need lots of help, luck and prayer."

In other words, these experts find their professed enrichment capability to be suspect at best. Again, caution is needed since we don't know what help Iran has received along the way but if they're just getting technical advice, the flow of equipment can be monitored to a degree of certainty, especially in a post-9/11 world.

I strongly recommend reading the entire article.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Iran, Natanz, Nuclear Weapons, Centrifuges

Iraqi 'Crisis Has Passed'

Sounding a note of good cheer, Army Gen. George Casey said "It appears that the crisis has passed." He had this to say, too:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq yesterday declared an end to a 10-day wave of sectarian violence that killed an estimated 350 civilians, asserting that many reports of violence were "exaggerated."
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Gen. Casey said that in a reported 30 attacks on mosques, only two were severely damaged. Of eight mosques that were reported damaged, inspections showed only one had damage, a broken window. "The overall levels of violence did not increase substantially as a result of the bombing," he said in a statement that seems at odds with the 10 days of television footage and commentary. "It took us a few days to sort our way through what we considered in a lot of cases to be exaggerated reports."

In other words, we can't trust the media to get their stories straight. Even when they had footage of the events unfolding, their reports were unreliable.

The good news is that the Iraqi people didn't let this disintegrate into a much worse situation. Alot of credit also goes to Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, Ibrahim al-Jafaari and other leaders, who urged calm and reconciliation. It appears as though those pleas were heard and heeded.

Thus far, I've been impressed with how Iraqis have held together amidst all the violence and all the attempts to plunge Iraq into utter chaos. They haven't, which should be seen as an encouraging sign. These are all positive signs that Iraqis want real freedom and that they're 'getting' this governance thing.

Asked if civil war could break out, Gen. Casey said, "Anything can happen." However, the four-star general added: "The vast majority of the Iraqi people remain committed to forming a government of national unity."

The next important step is to form a government. It's taken too long a time to do that. Hopefully, U.S. Amb. Khalilzad will be persuasive in getting the different factions pulled together. If and when that happens, the Iraqi people will have met another milestone.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: General Casey, Ambassador Khalilzad, al-Sistani, al-Jafaari

Get Out the Butter, He's Toast

This has been Rod Blagojevich's month from hell and because of it, he's pretty much toast. It all started with Blagojevich going on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The interview focused on his executive order requiring pharmacies to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control. Interviewer Jason Jones pretended to stumble over Blagojevich's name before calling him "Governor Smith." He urged Blagojevich to explain the contraception issue by playing the role of "a hot 17-year-old" and later asked if he was "the gay governor." At one point in the interview, a startled Blagojevich looked to someone off camera and said, "Is he teasing me, or is that legit?"

He doesn't know that the Daily Show is a comedy? That's like someone not knowing that Dell makes computers. Even if you don't watch the Daily Show, which I don't, you still hear about it by watching the news shows. If there's anything that will take a politician down fast, it's being a joke on a national stage. Still, it gets worse:

...the naming of a Nation of Islam official to a commission that fights discrimination has exploded into an election-year furor for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, putting him in the middle of a conflict among blacks, Jews and gays. Even if Blagojevich makes his way through the racial and religious minefield this issue presents, his claim of ignorance about the appointment could reinforce his image of a detached, uninformed governor.
"No matter what he does, he's going to tick somebody off," Rick Garcia, political director of the gay rights organization Equality Illinois, said Friday. "It's completely a no-win situation." Two Jewish members of the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes resigned Thursday rather than serve alongside an aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, known for his disparaging remarks about Jews, whites and gays.
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The Democratic governor, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, said he did not realize he had appointed a Nation of Islam official until learning about it from news reports.

That's called being caught between a rock, a hard place and the pits of hell. There's nothing good that can come of this for Blagojevich. NOTHING. He was stumbling before this but these major problems have finished him off. (If I recall correctly, his JA rating was in the upper 30's before this, which is hardly the number you'd like it to be at heading into the primary/caucus season.

I'd now call this governorship leaning Republican.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Rod Blagojevich, 2006, The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Louis Farrakhan

More Democratic Desparation (And They Don't Even Know It)

Maryland Democrats are getting desparate in their attempts to stop Michael Steele in Steele's bid for the U.S. Senate. Here's their desparation strategy:

Maryland Democratic leaders are aiming to tie Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele to the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina to dampen his appeal among black voters in his U.S. Senate bid. "I think it's one of President Bush's major failings as president, and I think it symbolizes a very disturbing approach to governing," said Derek Walker, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party. "Bush has wrapped himself around Steele's campaign, and Steele has wrapped himself around Bush. Steele needs to address that," Mr. Walker said.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat and House minority whip, said: "I don't think the African-American community is going to want to give a stamp of approval to the Bush administration."

If that's what passes for Democratic strategerry, then they need a major influx of competent strategists in that party. That's a stretch and a half. They're planning on using Katrina to dissuade black voters from voting for Steele.

Meanwhile, Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey, a Democrat, said his initial "concerns" about blacks voting for Mr. Steele have subsided. "I had some concerns, but my sense is that the whole Katrina episode has reminded a lot in the African-American community as to why they're Democrats," Mr. Ivey said.
Isiah "Ike" Leggett, the former state Democratic Party chairman, however, said linking Mr. Steele to Hurricane Katrina is "a hard sell. You can't tie everything that has happened with the president and the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans in such a direct way to a person holding office in the state of Maryland," said Mr. Leggett, who is running for Montgomery County executive.

Finally some people that aren't clueless. This is just more proof of what I've been saying in my outreach articles: The black monolithic vote is crumbling before our very eyes.

Not a decade too soon.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Michael Steele, Hoyer, Maryland, Maryland Politics

Bennish Banished (Temporarily)

The geography teacher that compared Bush with Hitler has been put on "paid leave in part to shield him from the public outcry." How nice.

By many accounts, teacher Jay Bennish was notorious for veering off topic to blast President Bush, capitalism and U.S. foreign policy during his social-studies classes here at Overland High School. Then Sean Allen got an MP3 player for Christmas. This week, Mr. Bennish was placed on administrative leave pending a school-district investigation after 16-year-old Sean recorded a lecture during his sophomore geography class in which the teacher compared Mr. Bush to Adolf Hitler.
During the 20-minute recording, Mr. Bennish said there were "eerie similarities" between "things that Adolf Hitler used to say" and Mr. Bush's statements during his Jan. 31 State of the Union address. Mr. Bennish also said that capitalism was "at odds with human rights," and that the United States was "probably the most violent nation on planet Earth." Jeff Allen, Sean's father, said his son would often complain about his teacher's left-wing rants, but Mr. Allen assumed he was exaggerating, until he heard Mr. Bennish on the recording. "I had no idea he was this nuts," said Mr. Allen.

Sean Allen has done a great service to the nation. It's time we fired hatemongers like Mr. Bennish. This isn't a free speech issue, either. This is about fulfilling your professional duties. If Mr. Bennish wants to organize a protest and say these things, I'll defend his right to say it with whatever tools I've got at my availability. But I'll do everything I can to fire teachers that wander that far off topic in the classroom.

Debate in the classroom is fine on contentious issues. This isn't debate, it's a diatribe. And it's off-topic. He's paid to do a job. Clearly, wandering that far afield isn't part of the job description for a geography teacher.

Furthermore, with what verified facts can he justify saying that capitalism was "at odds with human rights" Or that the United States was "probably the most violent nation on planet Earth"?

If you're debating, you've got to present coherent information first before offering opinions. There isn't any proof that Mr. Bennish tried laying a factual foundation for his diatribe. There's only proof of his factless diatribe.

That's how Bennish let his students down. That's how he let the school down.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Jay Bennish, Sean Allen, Hitler, Bush

'Storm the White House'

Just when I thought the lunatic fringe base of the Democratic Party couldn't get worse, I'm proven wrong. Here's the latest example:

An anti-war group that belongs to the umbrella organization United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) has announced that it intends to topple the Bush administration during a March 15 Washington, D.C. protest. In a message headlined "Storm the White House" that appears on the UPJ Web site, the group Political Cooperative is urging its members:
"TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE BY STORM, Stop Genocide, Torture and Occupation."
The message goes on to explain:
"We will not allow the Slave Holders that Still Prevail in this Country to Rule us any longer...The Administration is Criminal and if they will not step down, we must storm in, show them how many of us do not accept a criminal government." The Political Cooperative goes so far as to announce its plans to install an interim government after the Bush administration is toppled:
"The Political Cooperative will put a new, temporary government in place that is comprised of people from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all the organizations that have finally made us aware of the truth of the savage practices and illegal policies of our government in assassinating our own officials as well as people throughout the world who oppose their criminal activity."
Bush-bashing filmmaker Michael Moore apparently endorses the coup plan, linking to the "Storm the White House" message on his Web site.

The slave holders? The "Administration is criminal"? These idiots are far enough left that they'd make San Fransiscans look moderate. And having Michael Moore endorse the plan is just the type of thing that this White House needs as it tries to convince people that they can't entrust the country to liberals.

Now all we need is another Pelosi blast or another Reid recrimination or a John Murtha diatribe and the image of the Democratic Party being the party of the political lunatics will be seared into peoples' memories forever.

Let's all pray that this 'event' gets covered by all the major media in Washington.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Storm the White House, Michael Moore, Looney Left, United for Peace and Justice

Roberts Unimpressed With VT Campaign Finance Law

Based on this LA Times article, it's safe to say that Chief Justice John Roberts wasn't impressed with the Vermont campaign finance law the Supremes heard Tuesday.

"We are trying to create competitive elections and grass-roots campaigning," with volunteers going door-to-door, said Vermont's attorney general, William H. Sorrell. "A tremendous amount of campaigning can be done with a limited expenditure."

That's a quaint goal but it also gives incumbents an incredible advantage since their name recognition is usually higher than their challengers. That's besides the fact that this is a means to limit political speech.

"Is Vermont a clean state or corrupt?" Roberts asked the Vermont attorney general. If it is corrupt, he said, more politicians should be prosecuted. "How many prosecutions have been brought for political corruption?" he continued. Sorrell said that the problem was not bribery, but that money influenced what legislation won a hearing. During state hearings, lawmakers admitted that the drive for campaign money affected their decisions, he said. "In Vermont, if you accept $1,000, they think you have been bought," Sorrell said.
Roberts said he was not convinced. "I assume if they think the candidate can be bought, they would act accordingly at the polls, don't reelect that candidate," he said.

That last Roberts sentence must've made Sens. McCain and Feingold cringe. Their legislation is built on the premise that laws should be enacted to improve the image of Washington's political class without there being a substantive problem. In essence, their legislation's justification is similar to the 'justification' given for filibustering the Patriot Act: Neither group could cite specific problems; they could just worry about hypothetical situations.

Had Chief Justice Roberts replaced Justice O'Connor on the Court when BCRA was heard, that law wouldn't have passed Constitutional muster. It would've been struck down. I suspect that the Supremes are just looking for a good case on the matter so they can strike BCRA down.

Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court, in the case of Buckley vs. Valeo, struck down federal spending limits and said candidates had a free-speech right to spend as much money as they could raise. The Vermont case, Randall vs. Sorrell, challenged that rule. But a majority of the justices seemed inclined to stick with it. "You are not talking about money. You are talking about speech," Justice Antonin Scalia told the defenders of the Vermont law. "You are constraining speech. And that is very unusual in American democracy."

As usual, Justice Scalia is right on the money. Free speech, especially politically free speech is one of the cornerstones of American society. When we can't speak out against the political class during the primary and general election seasons, then we've lost the ability to shape the debate.

That's unacceptable in the greatest democracy in the world's history.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: McCain-Feingold, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Vermont, Politics

Minnesota CD-6 Race Getting National Publicity

I was astounded this morning to see a column in Townhall.com about the MN CD-6 race. Still, it's a welcome sight. While I still think that whoever wins the GOP endorsement will win this race, I'm still positive that picking the right candidate matters. Here's a look at Daniel Sullivan's column:

The race for Minnesota’s vacant Sixth District Congressional seat has increasingly become one to watch. Open seats are rare in Congressional races and less predictable; this year such unpredictable races are especially important. The Sixth District covers an area of suburbs and exurbs north of St. Paul, as well as some smaller cities and farmland to the west. It's a sort of conservative island in Blue State Minnesota, but if Democrats expect to seize the House, they must be able to win in districts like this, where the population is booming and Republicans have formed a strong base.

In most Minnesota House races, Republicans have 1 decent candidate, maybe 2. In this district, we have an embarassment of riches. Phil Krinkie and Jim Knoblach (pronounced nob-lock) are or have been committee chairs, with Knoblach still chairing the House Ways and Means Committee. Jay Esmay is an entrepreneur with solid conservative credentials. Then there's my choice, State Senator Michelle Bachmann, whose moniker is "the Complete Conservative".

As I reported earlier, Sen. Bachmann visited our church to talk about the 'Definition of Marriage' Amendment that she's working on.

As I said then, I found her to be a terrific speaker who responded to questions crisply and directly. I found Sen. Bachmann to be persuasive in making her arguments in a logical, straightforward way. Combine that with her personality and her seemingly endless energy and it's easy to believe that Sen. Bachmann is a future GOP superstar.

Phil Krinkie bills himself as "the consistent conservative". The downside is that he's also known as "Dr. NO". That isn't a flattering image if you're trying to grow the GOP base.

A little over a month ago, things got dicier on the Democratic side:

For some time, the Sixth District looked as if it would be an opportunity for the latter group to prove itself, with former Methodist minister Elwyn Tinklenberg apparently cruising to a Democratic endorsement. But the party’s 2004 candidate, activist and organizer Patty Wetterling, who until recently planned to run for the U.S. Senate, announced her intention on February 3rd to run again for the Sixth District. The Democratic primary has thus become another proxy battle between the Deaniacs and moderate Democrats.

Patty Wetterling has done lots of good things as a child safety advocate but she's a single issue candidate. The rest of her positions are clearly out of touch with Central Minnesota's voters. In fact, she once said that she "could never win the Sixth." When she said that, she was right. She said that in November, 2004. Things haven't changed in CD-6 since then.

It'll be interesting to see which candidate Democrats endorse. While it makes more sense to pick Tinklenberg on ideological fit, they might well choose Wetterling because of her name recognition and because she's got three times the money in her campaign coffers as Tinklenberg.
The GOP precinct caucuses are this Tuesday, March 7. The state Republican nominating convention falls a week before the Democratic one.

In the end, though, I expect to hear Sen. Bachmann being declared the winner this November.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Michelle Bachmann, Elwyn Tinklenberg, Patty Wetterling, Phil Krinkie

Nuclear Deal Reached

In a surprise, President Bush and Indian Prime Minnister Singh were able to announce the signing of a landmark nuclear energy agreement that should have far-reaching implications.

"We concluded an historic agreement today on nuclear power," Bush said. "It's not an easy job for the prime minister to achieve this agreement, I understand. It's not easy for the American president to achieve this agreement, but it's a necessary agreement. It's one that will help both our peoples."

This is what leadership is about. This deal wasn't expected to get finished on this trip but President Bush hammered it out. Credit also goes to Prime Minister Singh, too. This treaty will help in a number of different ways, not the least of which is getting full inspections of both the military weapons program and the energy-producing program. India getting nuclear power will make a big difference longterm, too.

As you'd expect, though, the nitpickers have already started criticizing the treaty:

Critics said the deal undermines the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement, which India won't sign. And they say it sends the wrong signal to leaders of North Korea and Iran, who have snubbed their noses at international calls to halt their nuclear weapons programs.

The last time I looked, India simply had nuclear technology. The last time I looked, Iran and North Korea had that, too, but they were terrorist-supporting countries, too. The last I checked, having a willingness to support terrorists should cause countries to get snubbed.

Further, it's noteworthy to think that giving the IAEA full permission to inspect their military and domestic nuclear capabililities is worth far more than Iran's signing the NPT, then kicking the inspectors out. Iran's signing of the NPT is a joke. There isn't a European country that's worried about India's nuclear program. We know that there's plenty of European countries that are worried about Iran's program.

It's times like this that criticizing everything that the President does looks especially stupid.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Bush, India, Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, IAEA

Power to the People

Ralph Peters has another installment on the mythology created by the Agenda Media. Here's some of his observations:

One of the most persistent myths about Iraq is that our efforts to improve the electrical system failed. That's just plain wrong. The country's in far better shape than it was under Saddam. But freedom always has a cost: In this case, the demand for power soared after Saddam fell, and crashed the grid. It's been a long, hard fight to get it back up. Iraq never had an adequate power grid. Under the Ba'athist regime, Baghdad might have enjoyed power 18 or 20 hours a day, but other cities got three or four. One of the first things we did was to distribute power more equitably. Baghdad gets less, so its residents complain, but if you're in almost any other Iraqi city, you're far better off today than you were three years ago.

TRANSLATION: Everything that the Agenda Media has told you is 95% bull. When Michael Moore portrays Saddam's Iraq as a heaven on earth, it's 100% bull. When Ted Kennedy sticks with the "Iraq is a quagmire" meme, it's a lie.

When I post the things I get in CentCom's weekly newsletter, trust them. When Col. Peters or people of his stature report from Iraq, trust them.

In the wake of the war, we faced two immediate problems:

• First: The grid was even more decrepit than the worst pessimists had suspected. Saddam never funded electrification adequately; spare-parts money from the Oil-For-Food program went to build palaces and monuments instead.
• Second: As soon as the borders opened, appliances flowed in, from refrigerators to air-conditioners to satellite dishes (the dishes are everywhere). Money came out from under a few million beds and the country went on a massive shopping spree that hasn't ended. As soon as the Saddam-era system was exposed to "normal" demands, it crashed.

Nonetheless, power generation last July averaged 5,300 megawatts; the top pre-war peak was 4,300. Just now, output's down to 3,900 to 4,200 megawatts, because the system's being serviced and upgraded to meet this summer's demands.

In other words, because, in Michael Isikoff's words, "We don’t cover hospital and school openings. We cover bombings.", rest assured of the fact that we aren't getting the full story. (Follow this link to view the video.)

The truth is that the old saying still applies "If it bleeds, it leads." That might make for a splashy lead-in to the newscast but it isn't a way to keep us informed properly.

Cross-posted on California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Peters, Iraq, Rebuilding Iraq, Agenda Media

Sensenbrenner Speaks Out

After holding his fire since before Christmas, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, (R-WI), gets his say in a USA Today op-ed. The opening paragraph says it all. Here it is:

Zero. That's the number of substantiated USA Patriot Act civil liberties violations. Extensive congressional oversight found no violations. Six reports by the Justice Department's independent inspector general, who is required to solicit and investigate any allegations of abuse, found no violations. Intense public scrutiny has yet to find a single civil liberty abuse. Despite many challenges, no federal court has declared unconstitutional any of the Patriot Act provisions Congress is renewing.

In other words, Chairman Sensenbrenner thinks that all the rhetoric before the first temporary extension was just that: rhetoric focused on theoretical possibilities, at least in the mind of paranoid people. Because these provisions are closely monitored, civil rights violations aren't likely to happen. We know that they haven't thus far.

Most important, this renewal would permanently tear down the pre-9/11 "wall" that prevented the FBI and CIA from communicating. This law recognizes the vital importance of sharing information to "connect the dots." The Patriot Act has made it much more difficult for America's enemies to live openly among us as they plot to murder innocent Americans.

This is far and away the single biggest improvement caused by the USA Patriot Act. Had the USA Patriot Act been in place when the Able Danger people wanted to brief the FBI on the activities of Mohammad Atta, we might have prevented 9/11.

Yes, I care about protecting my civil rights but I care alot more about staying alive.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Patriot Act, War on Terror, James Sensenbrenner

Why DFLers Are Afraid of Voting on Same Sex Unions

Katherine Kersten, my favorite Strib columnist, has another great column up titled Why are DFLers scared of voting on same-sex union?. Methinks that it's because they know it's a lose-lose bigger situation for them. DFL'ers saw how definition of marriage amendments pulled people to the polls in 2004. The last thing they want here in Minnesota is to let something like that onto the ballot.

According to Ms. Kirsten, here's how they're trying to dodge this issue:

The marriage amendment is unnecessary. Opponents note that Minnesota already has a law limiting marriage to one man and one woman. But in states such as Iowa and Maryland, similar laws are under legal assault. Activist state courts can throw out a Defense of Marriage law like Minnesota's as discriminatory, unless it is backed up by a similar provision in the state constitution.

God knows that there's plenty of liberal activist judges who'd gladly rip a DOMA apart here in Minnesota. I suspect that the Roberts Court would toss out such rulings because they'd side with voters expressing their will via a vote over a panel of black-robed activists.

Here's another dodge:

The marriage amendment is divisive. What delicious irony! Same-sex-marriage supporters themselves created the rancorous dispute they now lament, by relentlessly promoting a radical social experiment that is essentially unique in human history.

Let people vote on it. That's how the constitutional amendment process is laid out in Minnesota. If people want to dwell on this issue, that's their problem. I won't lose a minute of sleep over it.

The amendment is discriminatory, a product of unfounded fear and hatred of gays. The Muslim faith permits a man to marry four wives. I oppose redefining marriage in America to allow polygamy. This doesn't mean I "hate" or "fear" Muslims, or wish to discriminate against them. It merely means I believe one man-one woman marriage is best for American society and families.

Makes sense to me. Why let a modern 'movement' get in the way of us upholding 6 millenia worth of marriage tradition, right?

The marriage amendment is a cynical political wedge issue, a distraction from issues that people really care about, like schools and housing. What could be more vital than marriage, a universal social institution that connects fathers and mothers to their children, and thereby perpetuates the social order? Redefining marriage to include people of the same sex will erode expectations that children need both a mom and a dad, and that the mom and dad should be married. Our inner cities are reeling from the disastrous consequences of abandoning these ideas. The long-term consequences of redefining marriage are unknown and potentially disastrous.

Same sex marriage opponents are dismissive of the value of a mother-father home but that doesn't mean that the evidence isn't abundant showing the strength and stability of a 'traditional' family.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: DOMA, Democrats, Midterm Elections

Eminent Domain Legislation Working Through Minnesota House

The Strib's David Peterson is reporting on the progress being made on eminent domain reform legislation currently wending its way through the Minnesota House. Here's some noteworthy quotes to ponder:

"Some infirmities were brought up today," said Rep. Chris DeLaForest, R-Andover, who chaired the session. "And as it wends its way through, they will be tightened up."
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Miles Seppelt, economic development director for the city of Hutchinson told the committee that "the standard in the bill for a building to be in such bad shape that it can be condemned is so high that the city's building inspector told him he has "never seen anything that dilapidated in his entire career."
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Jeff Eaton, senior vice president of real estate services for United Properties, representing the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, said the bill "swats a mosquito with a sledgehammer."

Particularly disturbing is Mr. Eaton's quote that the bill "swats a mosquito with a sledgehammer." Though we haven't dealt with anything like Suzette Kelo dealt with in New London, CT, I'd doubt that we'd consider the stealing of our properties just so a contractor can make a bushel basket full of money as a proverbial "mosquito." And if the "mosquito" is pesky enough, I'd use a "sledgehammer" on it in a heartbeat.

Mr. Eaton's comments belittle the seriousness of the problem. They also show a utter disregard for private property, like it's just another untapped commodity. With all due respect, our property shouldn't be viewed as a contractor's next project site. EVER.

Johnson said that what began as a one-sentence bill has expanded with time to six pages to make allowances for important projects. The problem, he said, is that standards today for what is "blighted" are so loose that any claim that can be made "with a straight face, is good enough."

Clearly, that type of definition of "blighted" property isn't acceptable.

The city government of New London, CT won the first round in Kelo v. New London but they've sparked a bipartisan firestorm of eminent domain reforms nationwide. I hope a contractor challenges one of these reforms just so it can make its way back to the Supreme Court so they can swat that ruling aside. Frankly, I think that an eminent domain constitutional amendment would sail through both houses of Congress & be ratified within a couple months by 40+ state legislatures.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Kelo v. New London, Eminent Domain, SCOTUS, Property Rights

Bloody Thursday, Black Friday?

With Vikings' owner Zygi Wilf promising to spend alot of money on free agency (ESPN's John Clayton says that we're $24 million under the cap) and lots of teams being way over the cap, I decided to put together a list of possible 'cap cuts' from the teams most over the cap entering 'Bloody Thursday'. Here's the list by team of potential cuts and players already cut (players already cut are in bold print):

KC Chiefs
LB Shawn Barber $4,707,142 ($1,278,568) OL Chris Bober $2,175,000 ($1,275,000) RB CB Dexter McCleon $2,775,000 ($1,600,000) CB Eric Warfield $4,264,285 ($2,121,425) OL John Welbourn $1,400,000 ($1,400,000) S Greg Wesley $3,766,666 ($1,099,998) S Jerome
Still over cap after cutting these guys: $11.8 million
Miami
QB Gus Frerotte $1,680,000 $1,430,000 CB Reggie Howard $4,000,000 ($1,000,000) OL Jeno James $3,208,333 $374,999 S Tebucky Jones $6,800,000 ($6,500,000) CB Sam Madison $6,305,931 ($2,625,000) OL Damion McIntosh $4,475,000 ($4,275,000) LB Junior Seau $2,923,750 $2,100,000 DT Jeff Zgonina $895,000 $770,000
Those in BOLD already cut.
Still over cap after cutting these guys: $7.5 million
Tennessee Titans
Player Cap number 2006 savings
OL Eugene Amano $393,833 ($384,999) OL Ken Amato $695,002 ($204,994) RB Travis Henry $2,142,000 ($1,574,000) OL Brad Hopkins $11,160,336 ($4,608,990) OL Benji Olson $9,083,250 ($5,982,750) QB Billy Volek $3,273,335 ($1,953,329)
Those in BOLD already cut.
Still over cap after cutting these guys: $4.1 million
Washington Redskins
S Matt Bowen $2,400,000 ($2,000,000) K John Hall $1,965,000 ($1,035,000) CB Walt Harris $2,750,000 ($2,000,000) DT Brandon Noble $2,630,000 ($1,700,000) QB Patrick Ramsey $2,881,500 ($1,688,000) OL Cory Raymer $1,118,333 ($984,999)
Still over cap if cutting these guys: $7.7 million
Atlanta Falcons
CB Kevin Mathis $887,500 ($325,000) DE Brady Smith $3,125,000 ($2,500,000)
Still OVER cap if cutting these guys: $8.9 million
Jets
LB Eric Barton $3,915,000 ($1,170,000) WR Laveranues Coles $10,000,000 ($6,000,000) OL Jason Fabini $4,500,000 ($3,200,000) QB Jay Fiedler $6,495,000 ($6,095,000) OL Pete Kendall $5,187,000 ($4,362,000) CB Ty Law $10,060,000 ($7,660,000) LB Barry Gardner $815,000 ($655,000) DT Lance Legree $1,850,000 ($1,450,000) RB Jerald Sowell $922,857 ($551,428) OL Kevin Mawae $4,466,666 ($633,330) QB Chad Pennington $15,000,000 ($3,000,000)
Those in BOLD already cut.
Still over cap after cutting these guys: $ 11.1 million
Still $2 million over if cutting everyone from this list except Coles, who I’d think would restructure deal.
Denver Broncos
DT Trevor Pryce $10,296,666 ($8,529,996); RB Mike Anderson (cap savings unknown) TE Jeb Putzier (cap savings unknown) OL Matt Lepsis (O) $6,950,000 $5,050,000; DT Gerard Warren (O) $8,250,000 ($7,600,000)
I haven't been able to figure out where the Broncos are with the cap because of Anderson & Putzier's cap savings realized.
Indianapolis Colts
DT Josh Williams $3,700,000 ($1,300,000) QB Travis Brown $630,500 ($545,000) DT Joaquin Gonzalez $645,000 ($445,000)
Those in BOLD already cut.
Still over cap after cutting these guys: $ 9.4 million
Pittsburgh Steelers
OL Jeff Hartings $8,129,166 ($4,749,997) S Mike Logan $1,758,333 ($1,474,999) QB Tommy Maddox $1,700,000 ($600,000) OL Chukky Okobi $2,097,500 ($1,751,500) RB Duce Staley $4,371,250 ($857,500) CB Willie Williams $1,235,000 ($985,000)
Cutting these players gets them $3.42 under

To summarize, the Dolphins, Chiefs, Colts, Jets and Titans will still need to cut alot more players to comply with the cap by Friday.

Of the players already cut, my wish list for the Vikings are: Denver RB Mike Anderson, TE Jeb Putzier; Bills OT Mike Williams; Oakland's SS Derrick Gibson. Of the players listed that I'd like to see cut, I'd include Pittsburgh C Jeff Hartings, Jets WR Laveranues Coles & Tennessee RB Travis Henry as players I'd hope the Vikings would consider.

Let the bloodbath begin.

Today's Must Reading, Part II

Ralph Peters has another must read article in the NY Post tonight. To say that he isn't happy with the 'reporting' from Baghdad is a vast understatement. Here's a glimpse into this report:

OUR Humvees splashed through troughs of sewage, between ponds of filth that covered several acres. Shanties crowded on accidental islands fringed with stands of reeds. A stall selling brilliant vegetables did a brisk business at the edge of the sludge. The Risalah slum is home to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis no one ever cared about. No one. Until the U.S. Army arrived. And tried to make their lives better. We were on our way to inspect a "minor" project to change the lives of the poor.
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From top to bottom, Baghdad's culture is broken. It often seems to be every man for himself, and damn the world. Yet, that first impression deceives: More and more Iraqis are stepping up to build a better society. Saddam didn't just ravage the physical infrastructure, he wrecked the moral infrastructure, too. The recovery will be long and often painful. But the patient wants to get better, something that's easily lost amid skewed headlines.
After inspecting a number of antiquated water-processing plants, where Gandara offered tough love and tools to Iraqi managers (he'll deliver expertise and spare parts, but won't do their work for them), we wrap up the tour at the far western edge of Baghdad, where the dug-in poor live in shanties, and new arrivals huddle in squats.

Does this even remotely sound like the reporting that we've heard from correspondents from the AP, CNN, Washington Post and others? We all know that it doesn't sound anything like it. It sounds more like the reporting that Laura Ingraham provided. These are the types of articles that America must hear if it's to get a complete picture of what's happening in Iraq.

It's reports like these that weren't getting out that inspired me to start my "News From the Iraqi Theater" series. Democracies can't function unless the people get accurate information on the important issues of the day.

As long as I'm on my soapbox, citizens should be insulted when the Agenda Media doesn't give us the story because (a) that's their job; (b) we need them to do their job properly; and (c) we need the information so that fools like John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their ilk can't demagogue the Iraq issue.

Murtha's constant yapping about there being a civil war, that we're the targets, not Iraqis, that our "troops are living hand to mouth", etc. would be shot down with a flood of ridicule if the Agenda Media weren't so obsessed with being the liberals' mouthpiece. But I digress.

Notice that Col. Gandara supplies the tools and materials but Iraqis are doing the work. I've included that type of information in my articles, too, because that was a major complaint in the early aftermath of the fall of Baghdad. (See here and here as examples of this 'reporting'.)

As I said when I started the series, I'm giving you these updates because the Agenda Media won't. Thankfully a talented man like Col. Peters ant others like Austin Bay and Michael Yon are fulfilling that role.

I suspect that Americans will notice the difference in 2-3 years after things have settled down more. To think that all fighting will be quashed in a Middle Eastern country isn't reasonable in the short terms. That shouldn't be our yardstick. Rebuilding infrastructure and training troops should be. Based on those benchmarks, especially considering Col. Peters' reporting of the latest infrastructure projects, I'd say that we're making progress.

Something that isn't making into the NY Times, CBS, the AP or the Washington Post nearly often enough.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Ralph Peters, Agenda Media, Iraq, 4th ID

Culture of Corruption, Democratic Style, Partt II

The Hill, self-titled as "The Newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress", is reporting that one of the most bitter partisans in the House, John Conyers, (D-MI), might be the target of an investigation for unethical practices. Here's the ethical lapses he'd be investigated for:

Deanna Maher, a former deputy chief of staff in Conyers’ Detroit office, and Sydney Rooks, a former legal counsel in the district office, provided evidence for the allegations by sharing numerous letters, memorandums and copies of e-mails, handwritten notes and expense reports with The Hill.
In letters sent separately by each woman to the House ethics committee, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, they allege that Conyers demanded that aides work on several local and state campaigns and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children. They also charge that some aides illegally used Conyers’ congressional offices to enrich themselves. Maher decided she could no longer work for Conyers in such an unethical environment and quit in May 2005. Rooks had left Conyers years earlier; she was a full-time staffer working in the office for him from 1997 to 1999. Before leaving, Conyers placed her on paid administrative leave for several months and stopped paying her in April 2000.
"I could not tolerate any longer being involved with continual unethical, if not criminal, practices which were accepted as 'business as usual,'" Maher wrote in a letter to the ethics panel dated Jan. 13, 2006.

These aren't small issues. Getting investigated for these activities isn't something to be taken lightly. But the Agenda Media won't report a peep about this because it doesn't fit the "Culture of Corruption Republicans" meme. If anyone sees something about this issue in the Washington Post, NY or LA Times or on CBS, drop me a note here.

The truth is that Conyers isn't the least bit concerned about ethics unless it involves a Republican. He's among the most bitter, hateful partisans in House history, along with Maxine Waters, David Bonior, Jim McDermott and Nancy Pelosi. He's been in power forever. He's one of the few still sticking around that remembers what it's like to be in the majority.

Until the Republican Revolution in 1994, he was part of the majority that exempted themselves from the laws they passed (with the exception of taxes). They couldn't be sued in civil courts for their misbehavior. That's the mindset that he operates with. In his mind, ethics don't apply to him.

I want there to be a fair, evidence-based investigation. If that investigation finds wrong-doing, then Rep. Conyers needs to be ousted from the House. PERIOD.

A partisan dispute over staffing issues shut down the ethics committee in 2005, but GOP sources said the panel, known formally as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, has since hired a staff director and a team of investigators. The committee is evaluating which investigations to pursue, including the Conyers matter. Rooks said that she spoke to Ken Kellner, a lawyer on the committee, last year but that he dismissed her complaints "as old news." While the ethics committee has been aware of the allegations against Conyers for at least two years, Maher’s allegations date back to 1998, a year after Conyers hired her.

Typical. And disgusting.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: John Conyers, Culture of Corruption, Democratic Ethics Violations

Today's Must Reading

The NY Post has Ralph Peters' column up from Iraq. To say that he doesn't have a high opinion of the Agenda Media is understatement. Here's a glimpse into his column:

The reporting out of Baghdad continues to be hysterical and dishonest. There is no civil war in the streets. None. Period. Terrorism, yes. Civil war, no. Clear enough? Yesterday, I crisscrossed Baghdad, visiting communities on both banks of the Tigris and logging at least 25 miles on the streets. With the weekend curfew lifted, I saw traffic jams, booming business, and everyday life in abundance.
Yes, there were bombings yesterday. The terrorists won't give up on their dream of sectional strife, and know they can count on allies in the media as long as they keep the images of carnage coming. They'll keep on bombing. But Baghdad isn't London during the Blitz, and certainly not New York on 9/11.

In other words, Col. Peters is suggesting that we ignore the Agenda Media and start searching for the truth about Iraq. Col. Peters characterizing the 'reporting' as hysterical and dishonest is meant to be a hard shot at the nincompoops who act like they're the authorities on Iraq. It should be noted that Col. Peters isn't a Bush apologist by any stretch of the imagination.

No one's fleeing the Black Death, or the plague of terror. And the people here have been impressed that their government reacted effectively to last week's strife, that their soldiers and police brought order to the streets. The transition is working.
Most Iraqis want better government, better lives, and democracy. It is contagious, after all. Come on over. Talk to them. Watch them risk their lives every day to work with us or with their government to build their own future.

Imagine that. Iraqi people prefer order in their lives. They even prefer freedom over living under a tyrant. Worse yet (in the Agenda Media's eyes), this freedom thing is contagious. Does this mean that we should put the Agenda Media on suicide watch? I'm sure this isn't what they wanted to hear but I'm equally positive that it isn't that big a deal to them since they make most of their 'reports' up anyway.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Ralph Peters, Civil War, Agenda Media

They're American Ports

That's the title of Hillary's op-ed for the NY Daily News. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez co-authored the op-ed.

Wouldn't it have been nice if the Co-President had given a damn about American ports when the Chinese were gaining access to American ports in the late 90's? Wouldn't it have been nice if they'd implemented policies that would've stopped those takeovers?

Think of this logic: We were told that SDI shouldn't be funded because terrorists were more likely to smuggle a dirty bomb or biological weapon in than we were likely to see a missile attack. I don't disagree with that. If that was true then, why would the Clintons turn control of major West Coast ports to the Chinese? Or did they just trust the Chinese to be honest and trustworthy?

One last thing: Did the Co-Presidents get involved in the review process then? In the final analysis, Hillary would have more credibility if she wasn't involved in turning major ports to the Chinese.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Hillary, Dubai Ports World, Homeland Security