The Samaritan Report

A Newsletter for Those Who Actually Give a Damn; As Chomsky Said: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” Keep THAT In Mind.

Chris Muir's Day By Day



Monday, March 31, 2008

Not Saying That I Agree With This, But...

Friday, March 28, 2008

Aprils Fools STILL Just Around The Corner...

In something far to neat-o to be ignored-o, Snarky Bastard "Tom" has hit his head on a rock and incurred a revelation: Obama is the Dem's Kwisatz Haderach.

"He's the token black. He mouths gauzy inspirational platitudes. He can electrify an audience. He's...Black Vulcan!":


Democrat-leaning voters might want to reconsider the claim that their party is the party of the "little guy."

An excellent post over at American Thinker ought to dispell incorrent notions of America an an intentionally vile imperialist machine.

INCREDIBLE: just as Wolfowitz was vindicated, so too might appear to be the case with the Enron "scandal."

Oh, some things in life just don't stop getting better. Not only does Obama have the support of stark-raving-mad anti-Semites, he's got the French socialist vote as well!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Start of More to Come

This is great: a liberal Chicago black liberation lawyer talks about a Clinton “character gap.” Yeah. That’ll work.

The juiciest number of the day: U.S. contributions to UNRWA for '08 is nearly $150 million, just six million short of last year's total. A hell of a lot of good that's doing!

Michael J. Totten has a good piece in which he relates Kosovo's status as "Israel of the Balkans."

The Integrity Cage Match

In order that the Holocaust is not repeated, its survivors need to tell their stories - and they need the full resources at their disposal in order to do so. Any less is a perversion of, or at worst a will to repeat, history.

Europe is at last full of an unseemly mix of internationalists and political Islam apologists - and they may find they're not good bedfellows.

At the very least, even though it's taking a different method to confront terrorists (namely, diplomatic capitulation to tribal leaders, which changes much of the dynamic along the Pakistan-Afghanistan war), the Pakistani government is making some headway.

And hey, here's a few people's parting shots at Eliot Spitzer.

This story of the Hamas manifesto published by Obama's Trinity Church has been getting plenty of traction these days, as it particularly should for the Jewish community. New details on this emerge every day.

The MSM never ceases to amaze me. Power Line's Scott Johnson absolutely rips into the BBC, and Charles Johnson catches the BBC once again in the act of performing its usual Ministry of Truth tactics. Rosslyn Smith dissects how the media will be expected to treat McCain into the general season. Patterico also takes on the latest LATimes hit job on the Maverick.

Easter-Time Hoedown!

The Marijuana issue might come to a head before long, at least once the basic arguments are fleshed out. Of course, the complexities of the issue are probably what make Obama so nervous about taking a firm stance on the issue. New Politics. Heh. Some still wonder if Obama has got this Wright thing under control. In fact, it sees that the Dem party's gotten worse and worse at nominating men of convictions. Rand Simberg, for one, has finally had it with John Kerry.

Oh, and take note: if our government were only a little bigger, and Wright only a little more of a fanatic, we'd have this.

And the Spitzer thing ain't over. Charles Johnson caught the AFP labeling the governor, now that he's a known wrongdoer (or so I'm imagining is their excuse), a Republican. The AFP, whether it was purposeful or just a reflex, immediately corrected itself. Charles also noted the excquisite timing of Spitzer's bad-assery. He's getting curiouser and curiouser or more and more obvious. That said, the transition isn't going smooth, either.

And this week has seen a lot of weird weather in the U.S. Hail in Los Angeles. A tornado in the ATL. And now, floods right down the middle.

Now that McCain's the obvious Republican choice while the Dems will battle it out until the convention, Paul Mirengoff suggests the Maverick kick an economic advisory into high gear asap.

More evidence that a bastion of crapola can be found within the UC system.

For those fellow Jews who are not yet convinced that McCain is a better preference than is Obama on our one common issue, well...just click on those hyperlinks.

Former candidate Sharpton's trying to do a favor for the childlike Obama by not endorsing him even when explicitly asked for one by pulling a leaf out of Limbaugh's book of presidential election campaigning.

Yeah, um... Anti-semitic. Blood libel. In Russia.

Here's what happens in the sharia-laden Saudi kingdom.

84% of Palestinians supported the slaughter at the Yeshiva. And Dick Cheney just now had the gall to say: "“Terror and violence do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people." Charles Johnson appropriately notes that
“Terror and violence” are “the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

If someone wants to contest this notion, then I'd like to see the evidence.

In a vote that caused global sighs of relief, Taiwan chose not to piss of China any more than it all ready is, what with the Olympic boycotts and Tibet stuff and all.

And finally, here's a reality check on nation of dwindling hopes: NoKo.

The Soft Approach

Oh, I just love the '08 Democrat primaries! What could be better than the Clinton campaign calling Richardson Judas over Easter! Hah!

The Obama has a strange attraction to anti-Semitism. And no, I cannot explain it, I'll need a volunteer (Yoni, you there?). 'Twas Powers, then Wright, now McPeak. Speak up, Obama, or stay the hell away from the White House!

Another crop of military-hating hippies crops up again in the usual places.

When the passport story came out, the Obama campaign thought it nabbed a bombshell. Well, not so much.

And in addition, I haven't ever seen a film treated with as much opprobium.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Spelling Out the Cost of Selling Out

First, here's info on black liberation theology's negative reception.

Now, as we're all aware Obama gave a big speech a few nights ago. That most obvious lie encountered amidst the platitudes aside, Ed Morrissey notes the narrowness of Barack's intended audience and Allahpundit offers his own original viewpoint, upon which Ace comments while gathering other opinions. Paul Mirengoff presents the central dilemma of the liberal mentality:
By peddling a mind-set of victimization and by failing to support meaningful education reform out of deference to teachers’ unions, the Obamas, like nearly all modern-day liberals, represent the problem, not the solution.

Paul additionally notes it's up to voters whether they can stomach the Obama-Wright package, and asserts this association is problematic for Obama.

Jim Hoft has, meanwhile, approached a number of angles. He takes down the apologists, notes Obama's shameful grasp of history and later shock at the reaction and his ever-changing opinions of Wright, and finally learns the media on fair coverage.

Of course, there's so much criticism to offer here, so I'll do my best. Jim Geraghty wonders why Obama knew of Wright's rhetoric and still brought his daughters. Charles Krauthammer calls the speech fraudulent. Shelby Steele calls the speech another part of the "Obama Bargain" and Limbaugh claims it was a Rorschach test designed to intimidated the media. To IBD, Obama used the speech to change the subject, while to Scott Ott Obama was calling for racial unity to overcome capitalism. What confuses some is Obama's cluelessness concerning Rezko simultaneous with his willingness to embrace Wright. Some say we should be suspicious of Obama's mentality, others say of his past, and still others of his authenticity. The latter is truly a sticking point for some.

Still others were unhappy about Obama's comments and later follow-up regarding his grandmother.

And yet, quite unfortunately, commentary wasn't devoid of raves.

Wright Before That Speech

Whew! So, we've a lot on which to catch up. Let us examine some reactions to Wrightgate from before Obama's speech.

We will start with some commentary from Paul Mirengoff:
Wright has been Obama's pastor for 20 years. He married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Obama says he was not at the church on the day Wright blamed America for 9/11. "It sounds like he was trying to be provocative," is the best Obama can offer on this one.
[snip]
Wright isn't just someone with whom Obama is friendly. To criticize Obama for having friends with controversial, or even abhorrent, views would constitute guilt by association. But Wright is Obama's spiritual leader. To be sure, no thinking person always agrees with his minister, priest, or rabbi on political and social issues. But it's unusual for a thinking person to retain an affiliation with a church whose leader attacks his country unless, at a minimum, that person considers those attacks not "particularly controversial."
Obama should explain why he retained his apparently close affiliation with Wright and his church in more persuasive terms than he has to date. Otherwise, I think it's reasonable to draw adverse inferences based on that affiliation, including the inference that Obama doesn't quite measure up as a "post-racial" figure.


After reacting to Obama's lame defense of the pastor, Paul goes on to conclude that:
In sum, Barack Obama's close and longstanding affiliation with Wright and his church probably does tell us something important about the man. It doesn't tell us that he agrees with Wright's most extreme ravings, but it suggests that Obama is enough of a leftist to be attracted to, and comfortable at, a place where Wright's most extreme views, though controversial and provocative, are not outrageous.


And perhaps readers who might consider supporting Obama in the general would do well to consider the contents of the first sermon Obama heard from Wright that compelled the title of Obama's memoir. And it should come a shock to no one that the mainstreamed press did its utmost to flatten reaction to Wright, even before Obama's speech. What went on behind the scenes in the media is quite eye-catching!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The No-Pigment Curse

Vogue's guilty of original sin?

Dear Moscow...

A Jupiter move under the radar that can affect the world power system in ways unseen since the Reagan era. Ed Morrissey reports.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Conveyed The Due Credit

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the sexiest conflict in the world, and everybody wants to be involved.” So said Israel FM Tzipi Livni. Why? Because "before the IDF attacks Qassam workshops or warehouses it distributes flyers asking the residents to evacuate the area. But Hamas exploits the flyers and places small children on the rooftops in order to foil the attacks. And thus because of this trick the IDF is forced to halt many such bombings at the last moment...We are working with our hands tied because of all these laws and because we are part of the free world and because this is part of our values."

Credit should still be given where it's due, especially when Israel does something rare like avoid civilian casualties. Palestinians still explode bombs in their hands and bury themselves alive during smuggling runs. And these are just the reported cases! Meanwhile, two out of every five Mauritanians are slaves. Some might call that a monstrous crime.

Now, what is big government? Rush explains that Texans and Californians have learned the hard way concerning traffic law in the former and gasoline in the latter. But Rush seems to think it also applies to water rates in the south, applying it to conservation rather than the more likely and most obvious culprit, the drought.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

All Hands Below Deck

An Israeli Arab went on a total rampage, and now the mastermind has been fully brought to justice.

I hope the GOP knows what the hell it's doing concerning the location of its convention. That said, I think the Denver one for the Democrats is just gonna be hilarious. Nonetheless, they need to keep an eye on these guys.

Mama Clinton, cheerleader.

The foreign policy jist: Rice'll be chillin' with Medvedev's diplos tomorrow about Putin's demands for a drawdown of European missile defense. Other than that, favoring Russia over Georgia and Ukraine to back up Pakistani overflights on which we rely for communication with Afghan deployments is NATO's likely preference.

Don't be surprised when those student protests in Iran become full-out revolution.

Good God! First we got the NRSC putting up Keyes against Obama and then flubbing a chance to contest Mark Pryor's AK seat. Now, not only did the NRCC once again fail to seat Oberweis in Hastert's place, they got a scandal going at the link. Is Pelosi still fair game?

It finally comes out that the House Dems not only warped FISA to placate their trial lawyer buddies, but also to placate their constituencies.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Michelle O, Uncut and Revisited

I figure what with Obama having to let Wright and Powers off the hook, and getting his nose mixed up with Underground Weather and the Rezko trials, it's time to review the other personnel of Obama policy, Obama's wife:

America is a nation divided, yet not devoid of cynics, sloths, complacents, "just downright mean," "guided by fear," “just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”

"What I notice about men, all men, is that their order is me, my family, God is in there somewhere, but me is first. ... And, for women, me is fourth, and that's not healthy." - Kind of stupid when Hall of Fame Bears running back Sayers puts God and family first.

"Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community." - Well that's not a quote; that's the title of her thesis. Relevance? Unavailable at Princeton library through November 5, '08 (until Politico picked it up).

“Let me tell you, don’t get sick in America” - and don't read The New Yorker.

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual."

"Every woman that I know...is struggling to keep her head above water."

And of course the golden nugget:
"For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country."

Empty Forest, No Megaphone

So many talk of the "end" of conservatism, whatever that means, as a result of WFB's passing. But this is the press at work that as usual gets ideological dividends from democrats telling us in Hitlerian fashion that Conservatives are disintegrating. Who after all wants to side with a non-underdog minority?

But maybe, this election season, it's the Democrats who're really splintering.

David Weidner of MarketWatch opines:
"It's the editors and reporters who stepped out of their roles when it came to making Spitzer too good to be true. Big papers dutifully leaked embarrassing details about Spitzer's targets, generated by the attorney general's office, while protecting the source of the information. In most cases, reporters put careerism ahead of fairness or, at least, questioning the tactics of one of the state's leading law-enforcement officials.
At the height of his power, Spitzer was in control, and instead of challenging him, the media was part of his machine."

It appears that due to the Wright Wrevelations, the real Obama has stood up.

That's right: Porkorrupt Barack.

Half the Battle

The Obama infatuation concerns me. He's had to deal with Wright, Powers, Farakkhan, Rezko, Michelle, Underground Weather and Chicago politics. Personnel defines policy. And still Anderson Cooper, diligent in the Lebanon War, yet a vigilante for climate change believes Romney's affiliation with Mormonism (amazingly all these guys let Reid off the hook on this one) is far more pertinent than is Obama's ties with the Trinity Church.

But expect the media to spiral downward in its bottomless pit of cluelessness, as I'll bet even Cooper is incapable of reading in between the lines, to say nothing less of the lines themselves.

I'm not surprised to see the press won't cover the unethical passage of ethics reform in the Pelosi House.

What could be better news to cover right now, after all, than the divulged Saddam-AQ connections. They're as real as this hyperlink.

Great - as if there wasn't enough foreign policy headache to worry over, the Tibetans are once again going head-to-head with China (casualties included).

Ah, now that it's tax time, how about we review Obama's church? Obama accused pointed observations of "God Damn America" as cherry-picking. He then proceeded to aid the United Church of Christ in defending his former pastor. Obama's complacency with Wright's shenanigans is disturbing. A taste:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people... God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost."
Obama cannot pick and choose where his money goes.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Common Sense in Most Welcome

Never has a House Speaker been more critical than Pelosi's reaction to the fact that
"While the House bill would not grant immunity, it would allow phone companies to present their defense in a closed-door U.S. district court, with the judge given access to confidential documents about the surveillance program."
by saying that
"I think that is the proper way to decide whether they should have immunity or not -- not members of Congress' voting on it."

And now, a special KFI linkfest:
LAUSD School Administrator Charged With Sex Assault Has Been In Trouble Before
Trying to quit smoking? Do some Pot!
Elderly dudes drink way to much. Does this explain the driving?
Infant suffocation is *gasp* preventable!
Almost a fifth of 6th-graders drink. Early prep for Rush.
Hey, Joe (Jax)? You might want to contact your doctor.
Lose some, win some. That's the way of the home video business.
Wikipedia has no business to speak of whatsoever.
Does politics have an effect on cheated spouses?
People say the future is now, but those people are either PR hacks or inherently stupid.
California Republicans show their guts. Took 'em long enough!
Rush is right: watching the Dems' Florida recount in an exercise in exuberance for the GOP.
More evidence of Chicago-style "post-modernism."

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Don't Stare, I'm Busy

The presses, you see, cannot bring themselves to admit Spitzer's guilt (and of course his wives' statements following Monicagate are getting plenty replay in light of all this) largely due to his party affiliation. One LATimes columnist even demanded as a result of this fiasco that prostitution be legalized. Why? Because a Democrat was caught doing it - ergo, it must be ok! I can bet you now that if a Democrat jumped off a cliff tomorrow, expect a gaggle of reporters to be close behind. It is to be, sadly, expected these days.

Speaking of fiascos, Ed Morrissey recounts the Metzenbaum-Doggett debacle concerning the Justice Thomas hearings in light of Metzenbaum's recent death and in the added context of Doggett's well-spoken-of conversion to conservatism. Oh well, happens to everyone at some point...

Ah, far too good to ignore....Rocky Reid said our Founding Fathers were earkmark-o-philes! Eh, Rocky, it's factual history for you on line 3! Well, this is to be expected from the pork-&-tax-loving 110th!

Y'know, I respect Howard a lot, but now he's on the tail of...the Russian Mafia!?

Just So You Knew

There is no other armed forces that is as afraid of its nation's civilians.

Shots in the Dark

Jim Hoft notes in the "Client 9" aftermath that Spitzer's a rarity as a Democrat resignee. Then again, he's not in the business of the feds.

Tehran Police Chief Reza "modesty crackdown" Zarei, fond of coffee, walks on the beach and watching women pray in the nude, will be secretly tried after elections as a result of being caught in bed with six soiled doves. "Client 9" on line one for you, Zarei!

Maybe it's time to give that IPCC report a second look.

As the Democrat primaries are being reduced to identity politics, isn't it time for the GOP to have a strategy change?

In case nobody noticed, the "war on drugs" has reached an important climax and the question "where do we go from here?" begs for an answer.

Shocka: our tax money sponsors terrorist propaganda.

And now that Obama has silenced his cat, his bulldog has come out of the pen (or in his case, pulpit).

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Lest We Forget....

The Partially Biased Observations at blogspot remind us of the calls to war with Iraq by Dem leaders in '98 and '02. And the suggestions of AQ-Saddam links go back as far as the Clinton Administration. Also, Bill Ardolino reminds us that press matters.

And Jim Hoft reminds us that speaking on the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who died as a result of the 90s sanctions against Saddam, Madeleine Albright said "the price is worth it." Meanwhile, Saddam was building up his weapons program while the Oil for Food scandal occurred in plain sight:


Nowhere close to that figure - of children, no less - has been killed as a result of this war, even by ISI and the other insurgent groups.

And maybe it's just me, but Columbia U. must be feeling nausea right about now:

And don't forget that even though the stock market's been feeling it the past two days, the press found it necessary to feed recession fears by highliting that even though February unemployment fell to 4.8%, keeping the Bush average below the Clinton average, the relevant info (to MSM types) was the 63,000 jobs slashed last month. Picky, picky.

What we also forget is that all the far left has to do is convince enough Americans that AQ isn't a bad guy and attacked us for ok reasons, and they'll take total control of the feds no problem. And, guess who'll be celebratin'?

Well, turns out even Samantha Powers admits that just as with NAFTA, Obama cannot be trusted on his Iraq policy. Speaking of NAFTA, the Danish PM is the latest foreign leader to blast the Dem candidates' economic foreign policies.

Pots and Kettles in the Political Spectrum

Corruption at the EU is utterly rampant.

We've seen underdogma rear its ugly head in many contexts...now, see it in science!

Well, we all knew this would happen one day...CA state senator Lowenthal has apparently decided to introduce a resolution negating an existing law that literally prevents Communist propaganda from being used to advocate overthrowing the government.

And now, UCLA Political Science Associate Professor Michael Ross suggests that in the Middle East it is oil, not Islam, that subjugates women. In his own words in the abstract: "I present evidence that oil, not Islam, is at fault." Quite the useful idiot.

Furthermore, a little editorial thought for the day: are we, in fact, a country of immigrants? Obama seems to think so. And in a way, the answer is no. Unlike a lot of other countries (such as Israel, at least until the last few years), America is not dependent on an inflow of human capital. Sure, a little more is always nice, but immigration needs to rise and ebb, not adapt into a constant stream.

A century ago, William Graham Sumner wrote that "the type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man."
And in the present day, Charlie Martin provides a historical (half-century) walk-through perspective of health insurance, concluding that "in this mandated universal coverage plan, the government comes and makes me give someone money so it can be distributed to other people, and I don’t have any choice about participating. Where I come from, we call that a 'tax.' Whatever it is, it ain’t insurance." All in all a good read.

Armed with the knowledge that our three contending senators (McCain, Clinton, Obama) are in part Scots-Irish, Rand Simberg reaches a startling conclusion:
There is no "Irish-Catholic half" of the Scots-Irish. Scots-Irish aren't Irish at all. Neither are they Scottish. They were mostly Anglo-Saxon, not Celtic. They were also a violent people with an honor culture, mercenaries from the border area between England and Scotland. As the article notes, they were sent by the English to colonize Ulster, to get them out of Britain after the war between England and Scotland was settled and they had no more need for them. The ones too violent for Ulster were shipped off to America, so they're a double distillation of the most violent culture that the British Isles produced. After they fought (mostly for the South) in the Civil War, many of them headed out west.
People who think that America is too violent blame it on the proliferation of guns. But they confuse cause and effect. We have a lot of guns because we have a lot of Scots-Irish (aka rednecks). But it comes in pretty handy during war time.


HFSC Chairman Barney Frank argues for federal intervention in the housing sector. But when George McGovern, David Mamet and Jeff Jacoby all suggest that government can get too big...then well, just maybe, it's settled that federalism has its particular limits.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A Letter To The Moneymen

March 6, 2008
President Robert Zoellick
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433

Dear President Zoellick:

As you know, the World Bank is currently operating nine projects in Iran totaling $1.355 billion - including one project in Isfahan, the headquarters of Iran's nuclear program.

On October 25, 2007, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Iran's Bank Melli as a terrorist-financing institution and froze its U.S. assets. The New York Times reported on November 3, 2007 that the World Bank was using Bank Melli as the financial institution to transfer Bank funds to the Government of Iran.

On February 2, 2008, the World Bank's Web site posted:

"Disbursement requests received on World Bank projects in Iran were temporarily delayed in the final months of 2007 because of difficulties in executing through the normal channels as a result of certain banks being placed on sanctions lists. Arrangements have been put in place to ensure disbursements under project agreements are utilizing banking channels that are not subject to sanctions lists."


Over the last several weeks, my office repeatedly asked the World Bank staff to disclose which financial institution replaced Bank Melli as the conduit for World Bank disbursements to Iran. To date, my office has not received an answer. Furthermore, the U.S. Executive Director's office at the World Bank informed me that it has "no access" to this information.

On February 25, 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

"Now, financial-intelligence officials say the Iranian central bank, also known as Bank Markazi, is handling U.S.-dollar transactions for the blacklisted private banks, and is also helping them by backing their existing dollar-denominated letters of credit."


This week, the U.N. Security Council passed its third sanctions resolution against Iran. The resolution included the following article:

"10) Calls upon all States to exercise vigilance over the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all banks domiciled in Iran..."


The United States remains the top investor in the World Bank, contributing $950 million in 2006, $940 million in 2007 and another $942 million scheduled for 2008.

As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, which funds the U.S. contribution to the World Bank, I would like to know how the Bank will comply with Article 10 of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1803. It would appear the Bank should disclose to its Executive Directors the identities of the financial intermediaries used by Bank staff to transfer funding from the Bank to the Finance Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In addition, 26 members of the United States Senate recently urged the U.S. Government to designate the Central Bank of Iran, Bank Markazi, as a terror-financing institution. Press reports indicate the U.S. Government may take such action. Should this decision be made, I would also ask how and with whom the Bank staff would transfer funds to Iran in a manner that complied with U.S. laws and regulation.

Sincerely,
Mark Steven Kirk
Member of Congress

Meaty and Juicy: The Link-O-Rama!

There seems to be a kind of cut and run strategy here. We have a word for those who give a half-hearted attempt to willingly discredit someone with little evidence. But why settle for one word when we can get a whole expose?

Some people might not like it, but the recent unfortunate occurrences in Pakistan underscore that if the new Parliament discards the U.S., the latter will have no problem going into Waziristan without permission while strengthening its ties with India.

So, Saddam didn't have WMDs by the time we invaded, hadn't had a hand in 9/11, and wasn't in cahoots with AQ. And still to this day, I feel like asking: "so?"

Speaking of AQ, its fingers are all over a plot against China. I'm sorry but, um, I'd like to hear how this is retaliation for Iraq or anything else the Chinese might have done to piss off the AQ overlords...anyone?

Oh, and all that clas warfare? Definitive bullf*ck. And, very quickly, EISA 2007.

War Games, Special Edition

Breaking the Bread

We all knew it had to come to this...link-o-rama!

Even with Penraker out of bandwidth, climate science is being exposed for the bureaucratic "ism" it really is. Rand Simberg spots us a guy named Miskolczi who's in big trouble with NASA management for updating an outdated theory. "That would be completely uprecedented in science," Rand notes sarcastically, adding that "climate researchers are always portrayed as objective, noble and selfless, unswayed by the need to maintain their grant funding stream from Big Climate Change."

Always a whistleblowing media watchdog, Michelle Malkin catches the Associated Press in the act of "sweeping claims about a DoD inspector general’s report purporting to tie Dick Cheney and KBR/Halliburton to water-borne illnesses." I tried to summarize it in my own terms. There's no way. Check the link for incredibly catchy details.

OK, so I guess the link-o-rama! will come a bit later, I think what we have in this post is enough of a shocka for some people. Adieu!

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Irreconcilable differences

Over at National Review's "Corner", Jim Manzi supposes that ideological differences between Conservatism and Libertarianism can be improved through a pragmatic fusing of sorts. There's a fundamental reason this is a terrible idea: Those who are to the left on political spectra generally are pragmatic in theory, ideological in practice. Their experiments, begun by Karl Marx and other thinkers, ended with the Holocaust, the Gulags, the Red Guards, etc. Those on the right are ideological in theory, pragmatic in practice. It is for this reason that conservatism, a foundation of thought that moves society ever rightward with net positive consequence, will last indefinitely. And I know I'm right, largely because Liberal Fascism, regardless of ones' opinions, has been flying off the shelves.

Losing A Good Man

Being a Republican is tough at my alma mater, which shares intellectual property with the UBIT-exempt Carter Center. It is because of this that many college-level Republicans have made the unfortunate transition to RINO status before they're ready for the real world. Such has been the fate of the ECR '07-'08 Attorney General. Reproduced below for your deepest sympathies is his blog post from Feb. 28:

Conservatives for Obama?

With the hot, passionate nights of the Republican primaries over, conservatives all across America are waking up the next morning and asking, “Oh God, what did I do?” First it was Ann Coulter who proclaimed on Hannity & Colmes that she would rather campaign for Hillary than vote for McCain. Libertarian-leaning Republican Andrew Sullivan has leant his unequivocal support to Obama and the anti-war conservative Justin Raimondo stopped just short of endorsing him in his own blog. Just the other day, a conservative Ohio radio host declared that he has “had it up to here” with John McCain and will never support him. And of course, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have been less than favorable.

Generally, there are two schools of thought here (three if you count the people, like Coulter, who just really, really hate McCain). The Sullivan/Raimondo camp believes, albeit hesitantly, that the Democratic Party will do a better job of promoting their ideals from now on than the Republicans can. Unfortunately for them, this camp could fit in one tent.
Okay, let's stop here for a second, and review. So, the Att'n Gen'l thinks we can let a few nuts and dolts speak for our party, when it's very likely he's never nominated these dudes before to such a stature? Geez, sounds like something right out of the politico (oh, wait...right!).

Others believe that what the Republican Party needs is a good trouncing if it wants to reclaim its principles. Just like the heartache of the Kerry campaign led Democrats to search for a truer liberal in 2008, a loss this year could inspire Republicans to get back to their Goldwater/Reagan/Gingrich roots in 2012. Of course, an electoral defeat and at least 4 years of an Obama administration are tough for most conservatives to accept. They may soon decide that a bad Republican is better than any Democrat..
And now, our friend AG echoes the sentiment (initially) that hey, maybe it's ok if the GOP loses the White House this election cycle! My old friend, courtesy Thomas Lifson...maybe not.

Only time will tell what the mood will be come November. Still, if liberals and independents are gravitating to Obama, and conservatives are pulling away from McCain, one has to ask: who will vote for McCain?
At long last, AG erases any pretense of GOPness - he's now converted to full-fledged RINOhood! He's succumbed to the mere suggestion that Obama has the full support of Dems and Inds and is capable of siphoning off parts of the GOP vote. This may not be true, but Dems have learned to repeat in true Hitlerian fashion any lies that might help them maintain their power indefinitely, at whatever the cost to the American people.

So, to my friend who was mercilessly defeated by the RINO inside him at such a tender age, I say...RIP, Kelse Moen.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Not Like It Used To Be

California's probably a lot different from when Reagan was the go-to guy. Most recently, after the disastrous Davis governorship and the failed 2005 special election, we've had the antiwar protesters vs. marines standoff in SanFran and an "independent" tax-hiking analyst who doesn't understand half of CA's economic meltdown.

Now, here's a little message to Alan Colmes, who yesterday invited Ed Morrissey on his radio show just to bash him in over suggesting nutcases in the antiwar movement would do just what similarly disturbed individuals in any other radical activist group would - that is, target specific individuals in random acts of violence. Umm guys, an antiwar lawyer keyed an active duty soldier's car a few months ago. It'll happen sooner than the leftist shmuck supposes. And don't forget the arson in Times Square. Nah, here's the thing...when a foster teen wants to enlist early for Marine sniper duty and a $10,000 signing bonus, you'd think a reason for turning him away would be legal, right? Well umm no, not when it comes to Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel, no in that case...wrong. This story flew though a few portals, including Fox News, before I picked it up off LGF Quick Links. The bitch turned him down for personal reasons...she didn't approve of the Iraq War, won't trust recruiters, and doesn't support our uniformed men and women. I'll let y'all soak that in...

In the meantime, here's a heartwarming tale of the Guvernator siding with the homeschooling family (the Lynwood Longs) that was ruled against in court. Pro: father does homeschooling to prevent his kids from learning about homosexuality until they are mature enough; Con: father is a creationist.

But I know one thing: all's well that ends well.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Average Propensity to Convolute

Okay. We've seen the recent media-driven smears of our troops suggesting drastically awful suicide, homicide, and paranoid rates as a result of the Iraq war. We've seen the circumstantial anecdotes and the scant evidence.

But oh, the corporate/mainstream/drive-by media's not quite done yet. Nuh-uh. They're just gettin' started! ABC is the first to blame the "puppy cliff" video on the Iraq war. Then NBC dishes out an underhanded attack on vets - and one vet in particular (think about which one; hint: John McCain). And The Atlantic makes a blanket statement that Manchu-stationed troops are rapists.

Is war ever perfect? No. But consider that in the past century, governments've had a higher recent kill count than have militaries. Peacetime is for losers.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Kivalina Hustle

Ace of Spades with hyperlinks:

The Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment is up to their old tricks once again, this time suing a slew of energy companies over the alleged damage their products have caused to the Earth Goddess Gaia (P.B.U.H.). The San Francisco based law firm, the Native American Rights Fund, plus six other law firms have joined the suit on behalf of the tiny Alaskan village of Kivalina against the region’s most evil oil, power and coal companies. The Plaintiffs claim that emissions from those power companies have contributed to global warming and that as a result of those effects, the village and its inhabitants must be moved 7.5 miles away.

In addition, the suit seeks damages for an alleged conspiracy by several of the defendants to "create a false scientific debate" regarding global warming and that they" formed and used front groups, fake citizen’s organizations and bogus scientific bodies ....” to further their evil, earth destroying plans.

This is likely the first of ten coastal villages that will claim that they are under the threat of global warming and therefore must be moved. That also means that this is likely the first of nine more lawsuits that will be brought by The Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment. The law firm has a rich history of litigiousness in the area having initiated several recent lawsuits against mining operations (who are also the region’s largest employers).

Kivalina is situated at the tip of an 8-mile barrier reef located on the Northern coast of Alaska. It is locked in ice and unnavigatable for the better part of 8 months per year. Its average winter low temperature is -15 degrees and its summer high temperature averages 57 degrees. The village gets almost five feet of snow per year.

The tiny village of Kivalina, population 383, has been suffering the effects of storm related ocean erosion damage for many decades. Since the early 1990’s various state and federal agencies have been funding studies on how and where to best relocate the village. This is not the first relocation of the village though. In 1900, Kivalina was forced to pull up stakes and move to its current imperiled location.

Kivalina is not the only village in the area forced to move because of erosion and flooding. The nearby village of Shungnak, founded in 1899 was forced to move during the 1920s because of erosion and flooding. In May 1973, a flood inundated the entire village. The village of Buckland has moved its location at least five times and the village of Noorvik’s name literally translates as "a place that is moved to".

Fifteen years ago, the National Park Service (NPS) and the Alaska State Historic
Preservation Office (SHPO) investigated the area to determine the feasibility of preserving an historically significant site from the danger of ocean erosion.
“The SHPO noted that placing fill on the coastal side of the site may act to preserve the site, but that the erosion problem was being caused by the dock interrupting sediment movement. The SHPO and NPS also expressed concerns about how the change to near shore sediment transport may adversely effect coastal sites southeast of the port”.

Erosion has been a major problem of the coastal villages of Alaska since they were settled. Their main defense has been the thick ice that forms during the cold months of the year that protects the villages from waves generated by winter storms. It is now claimed by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that man made global warming is preventing the protective ice from forming thus leaving the tiny villages defenseless. That may be a tough sell to a jury though. Many experts do not agree with the law firm’s climatological “expertise”. "A lot of these places were destined to have erosion problems from the day they were built," said Orson Smith, an Arctic engineering professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

The Obama Paradox

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline deftly sums up the central paradox of an Obama presidency:
There are two possibilities here. First, Obama might turn a deaf ear to key Arab leaders when they urge him to undercut Israeli interests. In that event, the summit almost certainly will be a failure, perhaps a spectacular one. Obama will come away with nothing. Our nation's standing...as an arrogant power unwilling to listen to others will be reinforced. The great agent of change will have changed nothing, except that, by enhancing the status of the dictators of Syria and Iran, he will have undermined the standing of the domestic opponents of those dictators.

The second possibility is that Obama’s interest in avoiding the above consequences, coupled with his inclination and that of his main advisers, will cause him to appease Israel’s opponents by tilting significantly away from Israel.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

And THAT About Says It All...

Lifted from a Yahoo Finance article:
The hardest hit state of all is California, where celebrated Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has $16 billion of red ink to address. Faced with steep deficits, state governors are proposing new and creative ways of coping with their budget crises. Republican Governor Don Carcieri plans to cut Rhode Island’s state work force by 1,000 in order to soften next year’s estimated $385 million shortfall. In Arizona, Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano wants to build schools and make counties accountable for some prison costs in an attempt to narrow an estimated $1.2 billion deficit.


Now, let's focus on California. The American Legislative Exchange Council's "Rich States Poor States" '03 report attributes half of CA's $14 billion deficit at that time to a fifth of the state's milionaires fleeing the state to avoid the special interest-imposed taxes and regulations, as pointed out at World Net Daily. In addition, in the next two years California managed to attain the second-biggest domestic population outflow of the 50 states, a humiliating label. California will lose - and in fact, has lost - jobs, which aren't really get back-able. Perhaps the legislative leaders in Sacramento forgot that states compete for jobs, and dangling taxes at potential landowners is not going to draw many serious business? Apparently the legislative analyst who the Governator bypassed to strike down taxes wants 'em cranked up by another $2.7 billion. Maybe she didn't get the jist about the memo on unions, special interests and high taxes being antithetical to the economic strength of a state. If other states take on California's recent performances as their own, it'll be little wonder that outsourcing from the United States continues indefinitely. Little Wonder.

Revelations on the Proper Usage of Stuff!

ANWAR, coal in Minnesota...forget it! Fragile nuclear power and useless wind? All the way!