Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Memorable Day

We took our 15 month old daughter to her first Memorial Day parade and ceremony, yesterday. It was another life changing day for me. One of those things you can only learn from being a parent.

My daughter will learn to love her country from her parents and her family. And she will learn it from her community and from her nation. She will learn it from before she can remember. It will not simply be a few semesters in school. She will not remember yesterday. Neither will most of the 3 and under kids at yesterday's ceremony. She will be bored in the coming years, as were the 3-10 year olds, yesterday. But one day, all of the memories from before she can remember will line-up and make sense. How did I learn the pride I have for our great nation? Why do I hold back tears when I see 300,000 people at a car race stand silently, with their hats off and hands over their hearts as our national anthem plays? Or at the introduction of a Medal of Honor winner or a soldier recently returning from Iraq? Because I was raised, not taught, to know that we are part of the greatest nation in history. My daughter will know this as well.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Iran is not going away

This is the problem with surrender talk. It encourages the enemy. Any dimwit can see this. But when it is for political gain, it is spun as reason.

Pajamas Media
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The Democrats now desperately need George Bush’s surge and the efforts of American soldiers on the ground to fail in the long Iraqi summer.
...

Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which recently laid out evidence of Iranian meddling in Basra, weighs in this week with a report that U.S. officials believe Iran is coordinating with al-Qaeda in Iraq, other Sunni insurgent groups, and Shiite militias for a big summer offensive. Not terribly hard to believe, as it would only be an escalation of what Iran has been suspected of doing for some time. Playing both sides against the middle.

In short, Iran’s goal this summer is to shed enough blood and create enough chaos in Iraq to undermine any confidence in the surge and tip the balance in a wavering Congress.

Iran wants a Tet. So do the Democrats.

UN in the headlines

Two separate articles about the UN have shed light on this corrupt organization once again. The UN has been flying under the radar since Kofi resigned. Now Fred Thompson speaks. And so do the French - in unison with the US.

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Fred Thompson:

We ought to remember that the U.N. let Saddam steal tens of billions of dollars — money meant to be spent on food and medicine for his own people.
...

That’s why accusations made by former U.S. ambassador John Miller are so disturbing. Miller accuses the United Nations of promoting human trafficking by failing to punish U.N. officials and peacekeepers who have engaged in the trade.


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Jerusalem Post:

Sarkozy announced that France will join the official US-led struggle against head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, who recommended that Iran be allowed to enrich uranium in some of its nuclear plants.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson says he's thinking about running for president. Thinking? From the sounds of this message, I'd say he's "about to be" running for president. Here are some interesting quotes (Pajamas Media)

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Whether or not the Internet can elect any particular candidate in any particular race, it’s clear that all of you and our many friends across the blogosphere and the Web are part of a true information revolution.
...

To solve our problems, we have to realize that our country is pretty evenly divided along party lines. With close numbers in the House and the Senate, there will be no real reform without real bipartisanship. Too often, what we are seeing isn’t an effort to find solutions, but rather insults and purely partisan politics.
...

Sowell asks us, “In this day and time, can’t we have a responsible adult discussion of issues while the nation’s fate hangs in the balance in its most dangerous hour?”

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Friend's reaction to the "News"

I sent out a link to a HotAir piece by Michelle Malkin about the horrific rape, torture, mutilation and murder of a couple in Tennessee. Watch the story, first.

A Horror Story the MSM Won't Tell

I got this in response from a friend. With permission, I and post it in it's entirety.

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You know that if the victims had been black, this thing would have had some serious legs. It would have been a landmark case that brought out all the vermin like Sharpton, Jackson etc. It really is curious that this did not get more play. They say that only two of them may face capital punishment. Is there a single person there that shouldn’t be strung up? Is the politically correct thing gone so far beyond where it should be that white people don’t feel right about making a fuss over this. Or is the crime so horrible that we don’t want to examine it too closely in the light of day because we might have to admit that our fears and prejudices might be justified? I think the media is afraid of bringing up the black/white aspect of this thing because it is so volatile that the news outlet itself would be the target of criticism and rancor. I think there are a lot of reasons why this thing played out the way it did, and Malkin’s point has some merit too. It is scary that the media reporting is actually shaping our reactions to things, and is actually influencing society to place value on things that are meaningless and ignoring things that should have us marching in the streets. It is absolutely repulsive that they focus on celebrities and other mindless crap to the extent that they do. The Anna Nicole thing? Are you shitting me? It is still going on. A trailer trash slut gets daily coverage for months at a time? But they are in competition for viewers and they will air what they think will garner the largest audience. They trade their integrity for ratings, and even if individuals within the media abhor this strategy, they are fighting an uphill battle because that is not what they sell anymore. The fact that you have to actively seek out real news is horrible. But that is where we are at. I blame television. It now tells us what to think, what is cool, what is important, what to buy, who to like, what to wear. And we worship at that altar. I think a hundred years from now, social scientists will be able to examine TV’s negative influence and recognize how it dragged us down. I see the effect it has on my kids and their friends and I worry about what it will mean long term. The trash shows and “news” magazines” are so bad now what will they show 10 years from now to get ratings. Wow, what a rant !!!I I’m exhausted.

"Civil" War in Gaza

Instapundit: "Do you need a civil society to have a civil war?"

Sounds like civil war to me. But since the phase has been prematurely used and reflect on Iraq, the mainstream media doesn't want to apply it to the Palestinians. (timesonline)

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Yesterday’s fighting began at about 6am when a group of Hamas loyalists raided the Gaza home of Rashid Abu Shabak, a Fatah security chief, killing six of his bodyguards. Mr Shabak’s family was not home at the time. Later Hamas fighters mistakenly killed five members of their own military wing when they ambushed a Palestinian security convoy. Yesterday afternoon, Israel fired missiles at a Hamas military compound in retaliation for recent rocket attacks from Gaza, which injured several Israeli civilians. Four Hamas militants were killed while eating lunch in the camp cafeteria.

Israel has accused Hamas of using rocket attacks to provoke a military incursion from Israel into Gaza, which would unite feuding Palestinians against a common enemy.

...

Hamas has accused Fatah of “collaborating” with Washington, and accepting money and arms to bolster Mr Abbas’s elite Presidential Guard. One of Hamas’s first targets this week was a camp used by the force for training.

Fatah counters that Hamas fighters are undermining the unity Government’s authority and the Palestinian cause by refusing to lay down their weapons or fall into rank.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

History Lesson: US, Russia, Middle-East

An informative piece in the Opinion Journal by Bernard Lewis. He describes how the US and Russia treated the Arabs from the 70's until now, how the Russians played hardball and got respect, and how the US was soft until 9/11. Interesting history. Ominous future.

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During the Cold War, two things came to be known and generally recognized in the Middle East concerning the two rival superpowers. If you did anything to annoy the Russians, punishment would be swift and dire. If you said or did anything against the Americans, not only would there be no punishment; there might even be some possibility of reward, as the usual anxious procession of diplomats and politicians, journalists and scholars and miscellaneous others came with their usual pleading inquiries: "What have we done to offend you? What can we do to put it right?"
...

As Osama bin Laden explained, in this final phase of the millennial struggle, the world of the unbelievers was divided between two superpowers. The first task was to deal with the more deadly and more dangerous of the two, the Soviet Union. After that, dealing with the pampered and degenerate Americans would be easy.
...

From the writings and the speeches of Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, it is clear that they expected this second task, dealing with America, would be comparatively simple and easy. This perception was certainly encouraged and so it seemed, confirmed by the American response to a whole series of attacks--on the World Trade Center in New York and on U.S. troops in Mogadishu in 1993, on the U.S. military office in Riyadh in 1995, on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000--all of which evoked only angry words, sometimes accompanied by the dispatch of expensive missiles to remote and uninhabited places.

Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two--to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then. The U.S. actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq indicated that there had been a major change in the U.S., and that some revision of their assessment, and of the policies based on that assessment, was necessary.

More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory. It is not yet clear whether they are right or wrong in this view. If they are right, the consequences--both for Islam and for America--will be deep, wide and lasting.

Monday, May 14, 2007

It's the Economy, Stupid.

Remember that phrase? Instapundit reader Thomas Prewitt writes:

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Funny how Bush 41 led a hugely successful military effort with Gulf War I yet lost an election because of the perception that "it's the economy, stupid."

Now, Bush 43 is in the tank because of the perception that Gulf War II is a disaster based on lies and gets no credit for a remarkable economic turnaround with record stock market highs, low unemployment, and huge chunks taken out of the budget deficit.
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Here's the punchline from Bizzyblog.

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The investment-related Bush tax cuts of 2003 have caused tax collections to increase dramatically. So far this year, those cuts primarily explain why the deficit is 56% lower than it was at this time last year.”
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Finally, some perspective. Remember, we're trying to pass funding for the war at $125 billion. "... the surplus for the month was $177.7 billion..."

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Emporer's Cloths

So the French elect a President that wants France to be more like the US? How can that be? They hate us? At least that's what our media tells us. Fred Thompson sheds some light on some indications that maybe everyone doesn't hate us.

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The election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the presidency of France has been a serious blow to those who claim that America has earned the undying hatred of Europeans. Oh, to be sure, the French media hates us, but there are a lot of people who say ours does too. Regardless, Sarkozy’s victory has sent shock waves through the world’s media centers.

A French president who openly admires America is an embarrassment to those who view us as the country bumpkin cousins of the sophisticated Europeans. ...

...He has praised America’s dynamism, freedoms and prosperity, and he promises to work for reforms that will make France more like the U.S.

So what’s happening here? Could it be that we’ve mistaken the French media for the French people? Might the same be true of Germany, where pro-American Angela Merkel beat a critic of the U.S. to become that nation’s leader?
...

... It has been a long road, but the forces of civilization and order are beginning to understand that we are in a global struggle against the forces of death and destruction.
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Just a reminder that Fred Thompson might be running for president. ;)

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Hope in France

Stay tuned to the internet, because you won't learn that the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is a conservative. Well, he's been labeled "center-right", but he is pro-America and anti-terror. David Kopel informs us of some quotes from his first speech as President-elect:

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"I want to launch a call to all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, of liberty, of democracy and of humanism, to all those who are persecuted by the tyrannies and by the dictators, to all the children and to all the martyrized women in the world to say to them that the pride, the duty of France will at their sides, that they can count on her."

"France will be at the sides of the Libyan nurses locked up for eight years; France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt; France will not abandon the women who are condemned to the burqa; France will not abandon the women who do not have liberty. France will be by the side of the oppressed of the world. This is the message of France; this is the identity of France; this is the history of France."

"My dear compatriots, together we will write a new page of our history. This page of our history, my dear compatriots, I am sure that it will be grand, that it will be beautiful. And from the bottom of the heart, I want to say to you, with the most total sincerity which is mine at the time when I speak to you: Long live the Republic and long live France."

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Opposing Forces

Instapundit posts about an error by Reuters and comments on general Reuters trust.

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MORE BOGUS KYOTO HISTORY FROM REUTERS: "President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing it would cost U.S. jobs and that it wrongly excluded 2012 goals for poorer nations such as China."

Er, no. The U.S. refused to ratify Kyoto under President Clinton. We've been over this before. It's all spelled out in Wikipedia, even. Really, if Reuters can't get simple things like this right, why should we trust them for actual news?
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He also mentions that the Bush administration should be fighting back. I wish Bush would fight back too. But I think Bush wants to stay out of it. I think he believes that in a free speech, capitalist society the truth will come out without his meddling. Supports of the truth should make his case for him. The problem is that the dominance on those who are not interesting in the truth. I agree with Instapundit, that Bush should speak up more. This action will aid those of us in the alternative media in presenting and policing the truth.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Ignorance or Lies? Lies.

Ace of Spades clips pieces of an article in The New Republic noting the ignorance or lies that congressional leaders are using in order to get votes.

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Where all this leads is clear. Piece together a string of demonstrably false "facts on the ground" from a suitably safe remove, and you're left with a scenario where we can walk away from Iraq without condition and regardless of consequence. You don't need to watch terrified Iraqis pleading for American forces to stay put in their neighborhoods. You don't need to read the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which anticipates that a precipitous U.S. withdrawal will end in catastrophe. Why, in the serene conviction that things are the other way around, you don't even need to read at all. Chances are, your congressman doesn't either.