Slapping Murtha upside the head

In a surprising and unexpected fashion, the Washington Post tears into John Murtha in a column,
Not the 'Real Vote': Or so Rep. John Murtha says of the House's Iraq resolution.

Mr. Murtha's cynicism is matched by an alarming ignorance about conditions in Iraq. He continues to insist that Iraq "would be more stable with us out of there," in spite of the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that early withdrawal would produce "massive civilian casualties." He says he wants to force the administration to "bulldoze" the Abu Ghraib prison, even though it was emptied of prisoners and turned over to the Iraqi government last year. He wants to "get our troops out of the Green Zone" because "they are living in Saddam Hussein's palace"; could he be unaware that the zone's primary occupants are the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy?

What's in store for Venezuela?

Daniel Drezner posts Things begin to fall apart in Venezuela citing a news report in the New York Times.

Similarly, three weeks ago, I posted a commentary noting:

1. Since 2004, the Venezuelan Central Bank has transferred about $22.5 billion to accounts abroad by the Chavez government, and about $12 billion of that remains unaccounted for.
2. Inflation is up to 17 percent and rapidly rising.
3. Venezuela is now down to 126 out of 130 nations in the 2006 Economic Freedom of the World the most rapid decline ever (in 1995 it was No. 75).

Keep in mind, this precipitous fall is transpiring during a time of an economic boom in its' oil industry. Chavez has learned well from his mentor, Fidel. And if it continues, this course will lead the Venezuelan people to the same fate as their Cuban counterparts.

The 'New' Baghdad

Mohammed Fadhil of IraqTheModel has a positive, but guarded, assessment of the new Baghdad security operation and says, “The Surge is showing signs of success. The progress made so far invites hope and optimism, but it’s still too early to celebrate.”

The lull is welcomed but could be just a short term drop in violence as the terrorists, perhaps lay low, and observe the new procedures so they can plan anew to counter these fresh security tactics.

Fadhil writes an article at Pajamas Media and gives, I think, a realistic appraisal of the current situation.

Glenn Reynolds tells us this sounds promising, but to stay tuned, and correctly points out: "Unfortunately, too many members of the U.S. political classes have now put themselves in a situation where success is politically more dangerous than failure."

Trial in Error

If You're Going to Charge Scooter, Then What About These Guys?

By Victoria Toensing
Washington Post
Sunday, February 18, 2007; B01

"Could someone please explain to me why Scooter Libby is the only person on trial in the Valerie Plame leak investigation?

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald charged Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff with perjury on the theory that Libby had a nefarious reason for lying to a grand jury about what he told reporters regarding CIA officer Plame: He was trying to cover up a White House conspiracy to retaliate against Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson had infuriated Vice President Cheney by accusing the Bush administration of lying about intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald apparently concluded that a purported cover-up was sufficient motive for Libby to trim his recollections in a criminal way. So when Libby's testimony differed from that of others, it was Libby who got indicted.

There's a reason why responsible prosecutors don't bring perjury cases on mere "he said, he said" evidence. Without an underlying crime or tangible evidence of obstruction (think Martha Stewart trying to destroy phone logs), the trial becomes a mishmash of faulty memories in which witnesses can seem as guilty as the defendant. Any prosecutor knows that memories differ, even vividly, and each party can be convinced that his or her version is the truthful one.

If we accept Fitzgerald's low threshold for bringing a criminal case, then why stop at Libby? This investigation has enough questionable motives and shadowy ...." Read on.

Sixties Deja Vu: Don't Consider America's Armed Forces 'Victims'

TimesDispatch.com
BY PAUL GALANTI
TIMES-DISPATCH GUEST COLUMNIST

Jan 28, 2007

"Since I was otherwise occupied as a POW in Hanoi and wasn't able to observe firsthand, I suppose it was a '60s thing -- when everybody who was anybody was or deeply aspired to be a victim. And, later, when the soldiers who'd fought valiantly in a war they actually won handily en route to defeating an entire evil empire demanded the same respect given every other element in society -- deserving or not -- they were accorded their own category of victimhood and enshrined in the most out-of-sight, obscure memorial in Washington, D.C. The re-writing of history to correct the many historical perversions has been very slow in coming." Read on....

Go read it. It's worthy of your time.

Analysis: Al Gore Ducks Northeast Blizzard

Analysis: Al Gore Ducks Northeast Blizzard: "As a blizzard of snow and ice pummels the Northeast after trouncing the Midwest, and waves of Arctic cold fronts drop much of America below sub freezing weather, the $64,000 question is, Where is Al Gore?

Gore claims that global warming is an immediate problem facing the United States and the world, and places like New York and Chicago could feel like Caribbean haunts.

If there is any doubt that God has a sense of humor, it has to be dispelled by a headline in Wednesday's Drudge Report: 'House hearing on 'warming of the planet' canceled after ice storm.'

He followed up with this: 'Save it for a sunny day: Maryville Univ. in St. Louis area canceling screening of Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' because of a snowstorm.'

What must have evoked the loudest laugh in heaven is the notion that if global warming is really occurring, puny mankind is going to overcome it by legislation and business regulation that would strangle the U.S. economy and be overseen by the super efficient United Nations." Read on... CLICK ON PICTURE TO MAGNIFY

MISC. HEADLINE NEWS

Jeb Bush Steers Advisers Toward Mitt Romney

Ralph Nader: Hillary's Just a 'Bad Version of Bill Clinton'

FCC: Violent Media Hurting Children

Russian General Hints at Scrapping Arms Control Pact With US

The Russian military is hinting at withdrawing from a Cold War-era arms control agreement, in an apparent response to Washington's plan to deploy missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe. General Yury Baluyevsky, head of the General Staff, suggested that Moscow may unilaterally scrap a 1987 agreement on intermediate and short-range missiles. Baluyevsky made the comments after reconciliatory remarks by Bush, who said during a White House press conference Wednesday "there's a lot we can work together on." The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in December 1987. The pact called for the elimination of nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles. Full Story

Military Officials: Sadr's Gone from Iraq

Military officials in Baghdad have confirmed that Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has indeed left Iraq, and they say his departure is a positive sign for the rule of law within the country. "Sadr is definitely not in Iraq," Maj. Gen. B.William Caldwell IV, senior Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman, told Cybercast News Service this week from Baghdad. "He is out of the country right now. All indications are that he is in fact in Iran, and we know that he's been out of the country since last month. We have acknowledged that we watch his movements pretty closely and we know what he's doing," he said. Full Story

US Doing Better Than its Kyoto Critics on CO2, Expert Says

"Contrary to the widely held view, the United States is not "going it alone" in resisting the Kyoto Protocol's "energy rationing scheme," according to an expert on global warming treaties. Washington's reticence is shared by policymakers in 150 other nations, representing a majority of the world's population, Christopher Horner, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said Thursday. Moreover, the same European critics who accuse the U.S. of unilateralism have failed to meet their own Kyoto targets, Horner told a meeting at the Heritage Foundation." Full Story

Murtha Touts New Way to Stop Troop ‘Surge’ in Iraq
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) plans to introduce legislation designed to halt the Bush administration’s troop “surge” in Iraq by restricting military deployments -– a move he says will “support” U.S. forces...

10,000 Saudi Students on US Campuses
Two years ago President Bush and Saudi Arabia’s then Crown Prince Abdullah jointly called for a greater exchange of students, but recent revelations of a terror plot and a history of lax screening have raised concerns about the nearly 10,000 Saudis in the United States on student visas...

Tapping Ahmadinejad's egg

Victor Davis Hanson

"We all know the Iranian M.O. — nuclear proliferation, Holocaust denial, threats to wipe out Israel, vicious anti-Western rhetoric, lavish sponsorship of terrorists at work attacking Israel and destabilizing Lebanon.

If that were not enough, we now learn that Iran has been sending agents into Iraq to destroy the fledgling democracy and supplying sophisticated roadside bombs to blow up Americans.

Lunatic state-run media keep boasting that Iran will kidnap American soldiers, shut down the Straits of Hormuz, send out global jihadists and raise the price of oil.

Most international observers agree on two things about this loony theocracy that promises to take the world down with it: We should not yet bomb Iran, and it should not get the bomb. Yet the former forbearance could well ensure the latter reality." More....

Here comes Newt

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

"Newt, consigned by many observers to Elizabeth Dole or Dan Quayle status in this GOP nominating process, appears to be moving up into contention, overtaking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and battling to be the conservative alternative to either former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Arizona Sen. John McCain." More.

Media Hype and Hypocrites

By Burt Prelutsky

"Those of us on the right side of the political spectrum are so very aware of media bias that we are always shocked when our friends and associates on the left fail to recognize or acknowledge it." Read on.

Russia steps back on the world stage

By Charles Krauthammer

"Vladimir Putin -- Russia's president, although the more accurate title would be godfather -- made headlines last week with a speech in Munich that set a new standard in anti-Americanism." Read on....

Barack Rodney King Obama

"Barack Obama's glib announcement in declaring his candidacy for the presidency provides clues about the man and reminds us, contrary to his stated message, of the great chasm that separates people of different political orientations.

Mr. Obama appears to have fallen prey to the wave of public adulation accompanying the media's hype about him -- to the point that he broke his recent promise not to seek the presidency at this early stage in his inexperienced political career." Read more of David Limbaugh.

Barack Obama and the Breakdown in Family

By Linda Chavez

"Barack Obama, the Illinois freshman senator who hopes to occupy the Oval Office, strikes me as a man uncomfortable in his own skin. I say that having just finished reading Obama's first book, 'Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,' written before he decided to enter the political world and was therefore less careful about revealing his own doubts, fears and confusion.

The book, a combination of strikingly lyrical prose interspersed with mundane liberal platitudes, describes Obama's search for identity.

Throughout the book, Obama is obsessed with race. But it is not the usual preoccupation with racial discrimination, though he occasionally invokes this as well. Instead, Obama imbues race with almost magical qualities. Race defines character, culture, history, even personal fortune.

But with all his endless fixation on race, Obama never fully comes to grips with the single fact that is responsible for his own confusion about who he is. Obama was abandoned: first by his father, a Kenyan undergraduate who met and married Obama's mother while on a scholarship at the University of Hawaii, and then by his mother, who remarried after Obama's father left, divorced again, and sent Obama to live with his grandparents. " Read more.

Liberal emotion vs. Conservative logic

By John Hawkins

"It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a conservative than it does to be a liberal. That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues."

Ouch! That's gotta smart!

"Going to war is mean, so we shouldn't do it. That person is poor and it would be nice to give him money, so the government should do it. Somebody wants to have an abortion, have a gay marriage, or wants to come into the U.S. illegally and it would be mean to say, 'no,' so we should let them. I am nice because I care about global warming! Those people want to kill us? But, don't they know we're nice? If they did, they would like us! Bill has more toys, money than Harry, so take half of Bill's money and give it to Harry."

Read more of John Hawkins' smackdown.

Giuliani: A candidate to consider

By Lorie Byrd

"One of the biggest problems we face in America today is the willingness of too many to accept defeat and to blame America for the world’s ills. On the subject of Iraq and the war on terror, this country is embroiled in a battle of wills and of philosophies unlike anything we have seen since The Cold War, and before that, the Vietnam War. Whether we decide to continue the fight or we decide to accept defeat will depend in large measure on whom we choose to lead for the next decade. The next presidential election will be incredibly pivotal.

There are a few traits the next president will need to possess to effectively lead. Rudy Giuliani has already exhibited many of them, having a proven track record, not only as the mayor of New York City, but also as a prosecutor.

We need an articulate leader."

Read more by Lorie Byrd here.

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." -- Benjamin Rush, 1773

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Curse of the Christian-Bashers
The spirit of the Edwards bloggers haunts Democrats.

BY MARY EBERSTADT
Opinion Journal

"Heavens, it's getting crowded in the pews these days--at least with Democratic presidential candidates. Here is Sen. Barack Obama in California's Saddleback pulpit at the invitation of mega-selling pastor Rick Warren. There is Sen. Hillary Clinton with downcast eyes in Newsweek, praying before the cameras in New York's Riverside Church. And there preaches John Edwards, also in Riverside Church, weaving his personal faith into everything from AIDS to the minimum wage. Clearly the push is on to show that, for now anyway, the Democratic hopefuls are just plain folks in the religion department.

..... what the [John Edwards] blogger tempest really illuminates is a fact that could come to haunt the Democrats as they vie for national office: namely, that their past few wilderness years have also been boom years for the church-loathing liberal/left punditry. As a result, anti-Christian invective now graces (or disgraces) many of the books, magazines, Web sites and blogs to which liberals, including the Democratic elite, habitually look for ideas. One motto of this cottage industry is that the most serious threat to the American republic can be found in, no, not those religious fundamentalists, the ones that first leap to mind after 9/11; but, incredibly, certain other believers--our nation's Christians." Read on.

Potomac Watch

Senate Consternation Process
Dianne Feinstein gets busy undercutting the war on terror at home.

BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
OpinionJournal

"The House spent this week debating an Iraq resolution that will damage U.S. efforts to fight terror overseas. Never to be outdone, the Senate got busy undercutting the war on terror here at home.

That's one way to view the fight Senate liberals are picking with President George W. Bush over the issue of Justice Department nominations--a battle that bubbled to the surface this week with regard to U.S. attorney appointments. California ringleader Dianne Feinstein is hoping to score a few political shots, as well as give the White House a taste of what's to come in future Senate confirmation brawls. If a little thing like national security gets in the way, so be it." More....

“When a pol prefaces an answer to a question with the emphatic assertion that he or she ‘wants to be very clear about this,’ you can put it down that you’ve wandered into a suburb of Obfuscation City.” —Wesley Pruden

“Public policy is all about trade-offs. Economists understand this better than politicians because voters want to have their cake and eat it too, and politicians think whatever is popular must also be true.” —Jonah Goldberg, National Review


“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” —Mark Twain

Do we want socialized medicine?

By Walter E. Williams

"Problems with our health care system are leading some to fall prey to proposals calling for a nationalized single-payer health care system like Canada's or Britain's. There are a few things that we might take into consideration before falling for these proposals.

London's Observer (3/3/02) carried a story saying that an 'unpublished report shows some patients are now having to wait more than eight months for treatment, during which time many of their cancers become incurable.' Another story said, 'According to a World Health Organisation report to be published later this year, around 10,000 British people die unnecessarily from cancer each year -- three times as many as are killed on our roads.' " Read on....

A New Animal Discovered? The Weasel Hawk

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A Skeptic's Take on Global Warming

By Bill Steigerwald

"Timothy Ball is no wishy-washy skeptic of global warming. The Canadian climatologist, who has a Ph.D. in climatology from the University of London and taught at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years, says that the widely propagated “fact” that humans are contributing to global warming is the “greatest deception in the history of science.”

Ball has made no friends among global warming alarmists by saying that global warming is caused by the sun, that global warming will be good for us and that the Kyoto Protocol “is a political solution to a nonexistent problem without scientific justification.'

Needless to say, Ball strongly disagrees with the findings of the latest report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which on Feb. 2 concluded that it is “very likely” that global warming is the result of human activity." Read on...

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Global Warming Is Our Friend

By R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

"Scientists who remain calm are intimidated, and those extreme skeptics who doubt the global warming orthodoxy are abominated. A distinguished American think tank that sought an open debate on climate change, the American Enterprise Institute, was slandered in the media as a tool of Big Oil. A leading British climate scientist, Mike Hulme of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, has adumbrated the extent of this anti-intellectual campaign, saying 'I have found myself increasingly chastised by climate change campaigners when my public statements and lectures on climate change have not satisfied their thirst for environmental drama and exaggerated rhetoric.'

Meanwhile I am sitting here in our nation's capital freezing. In California the citrus crop is near ruin. The plains states look like Antarctica, and from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast snow and ice are everywhere. The logical conclusion is that rather than debate the possibility of global warming, we should be applauding it and doing everything we can to usher it in." Read more at HUMAN EVENTS.

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The New Flat Earth Society

HUMAN EVENTS
by Doug Patton

After scoffing in my last column about the ridiculous Nobel Peace Prize nomination of former Vice President Chicken Little (aka Al Gore), I really had no intention of wasting any more time or thought on the issue of global warming for the foreseeable future. But then columnist Ellen Goodman weighed in with her arrogant opinion, and I just couldn't let it go.

Wrote Ms. Goodman:

'I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.'

Well, Ellen, I would like to say that you, Al Gore, and all your friends in the Global Warming Cult or 'GWC' for short are now on a par with the Flat Earth Society." Read on....

Gore's Bad Science

"Al Gore's grasp of Earth science was dreadful in college and has gotten steadily worse, according to the embarrassing facts exposed in the 'Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming,' a book that declares: 'Catastrophic Manmade global warming is not catastrophic, manmade, or global.' It reveals that Gore's college grades were not anything to write home about:

NATURAL SCIENCES 6 (MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE): D
NATURAL SCIENCES 118: C+

Gore's favorite crusade of recent months, that global warming caused Katrina, is summarily dismissed in the book by the nation's top hurricane expert. 'The degree to which you believe global warming is causing major hurricanes is inversely proportional to your knowledge about these storms,' said Dr. William Gray, the leading Hurricane expert in the U.S." Read more at HUMAN EVENTS.

The Real Al Franken

"Comedian Al Franken did his final radio show on Air America on Wednesday and announced that he's seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota.

Now that Franken has tossed his hat in the ring, reporters around the country can expect some juicy quotes from the candidate-to-be. Franken is known, among other things, for making outrageous remarks:

# Said Karl Rove and Lewis Libby should be 'executed'
# Said Rush Limbaugh was a 'big fat idiot'
# Stated that the founder of Air America was a 'crook'

Franken also threatened to sue author Peter Schweizer who wrote about Franken's hypocrisy on hiring minorities." More...

Canada: The Changing Shape of Energy Politics

"On Feb. 14, the lower house of the Canadian Parliament passed a resolution that calls for Canada to rededicate itself to environmental commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol. On the same day, al Qaeda's branch in Saudi Arabia issued a call for jihadists to attack energy industry assets in Canada because it is a key supplier of oil and natural gas to the United States.

Both events are important -- not because the calls of either Canadian lawmakers or Islamist militants are likely to bear significant fruit (they are not), but because of the way they intersect with public sentiment and policy prospects that are likely to impact the future of the country's energy industry." Read more here.

I'LL DO THE THINNIN' AROUND HERE, BUBBA BOY

“Most of us aren’t reading the science, or even a precis of the science. We’re just reading a constant din from the press that ‘the science is settled,’ and therefore we no longer need to think about it: The thinking has been done for us. Last week’s UN IPCC ‘report,’ for example, is not the report, but a political summary thereof.” —Mark Steyn

MOTORCADE MAMMA

“[I]t is significant that in [Hillary] Clinton’s case, for the past 30 years, from 1978 through 2007—which is to say throughout most, almost all, of her adulthood—her view of America, and of American life, came through the tinted window of a limousine. (Now the view is, mostly, through the tinted window of an SUV.)...[H]er life has been eased and cosseted by... aides, drivers, cooks, Secret Service, etc. Her life has been lived within a motorcade. And so she didn’t have to worry about crime, the cost of things, the culture. Status incubates.” —Peggy Noonan

DEM'S & OBSTRUCTIONISM

“You have to be amused by the Democrats’ antics—after all, these are the same people who made a career out of blocking up-or-down votes on the confirmation of hordes of constitutionalist nominees to the federal courts. And now they are back at it, blocking a full debate on the war and the vital issue of funding our troops in harm’s way and having the gall to say it’s the Republicans doing the blocking.” —Michael Reagan

EXACTLT RIGHT

“Critics of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq have long demanded that he admit his mistakes. But they have not admitted their own past mistakes, much less admit the potentially catastrophic mistake they will make in the future if they make it impossible to sustain military operations there.” —Thomas Sowell

“The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.” —Baruch Spinoza

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” —Aesop

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is the highest political end.” —Lord Acton

“A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.” —James Madison

The House Debates Iraq

Hillary and Barack should review the tape.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER

"It's not likely that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain or Rudy Giuliani took time this week from the rigors of presidential trajectory to watch the House floor debate on Iraq. Too bad. They would have learned something useful.

Whatever its gerrymandered imperfections, the Founders' 'house of the people' is born" -- OpinionJournal

Awaiting the Dishonor Roll

Congress 'supports the troops' while emboldening the enemy.

Congress has rarely been distinguished by its moral courage. But even grading on a curve, we can only describe this week's House debate on a vote of no-confidence in the mission in Iraq as one of the most shameful moments in the institution's history.

On present course, the Members will....." OpinionJournal

"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys." -- Thomas Jefferson

Mexico demanded U.S. prosecute sheriff, agents

According to a news story at WorldNetDaily, "Documents show role of consulate in cases of Gilmer Hernandez and Ramos-Compean."

This is just another example of, what appears to me, our government being more concerned about citizens of other countries, than it is about our own citizens or those who are entrusted to protect us.

In the Ramos-Compean case, the drug runner has been doing this kind of drug running activity for 15+ years. He was given immunity to testify and has since sued the U.S. Government (that's you and me folks). Not only was he given immunity for this particular illegal event, but has been given immunity and protection FROM FUTURE activities.

What the hell is going on here? This needs to be investigated thoroughly... from top to bottom... and heads should roll. I have defended President Bush on many issues; and the things he has been blamed for is hysterically ridiculous. But, this is another matter. This is serious. His stance and attitude on the border, it's openess, it's dangerous lack of enforcement, is dangeroulsy close to overlooking his constitutional obligation to protect the Constitution, the country, and it's citizens.

Please, Mr. Bush, what the hell are you thinking? Do you care about us and want to protect us? Or are you going to shirk your Constitutional duties and allow this country to go asunder?

U.S. to cut aid to Mideast states not critical to war on terror
WASHINGTON — The United States plans to reduce military aid to states in Middle East not involved in the war on terrorism. Officials said the Bush administration has submitted a budget designed to reduce military aid to what they termed non-critical allies in the Middle East and other regions.

U.S. warns of rising terror threat to Westerners throughout Turkey
WASHINGTON — The United States has warned Americans to be on guard against terror attacks by Islamist, and leftist terror groups in Turkey. A State Department report said the Islamic insurgency has been emerging throughout Turkey including in Istanbul, the largest city in the country. "Indigenous and international terrorist groups are operating in Turkey, including in the Istanbul area," a report, entitled "Turkey 2007 Crime & Safety Report: Istanbul

Reading the science and doing the math on global warming

Don't ruin economy over tiny temp rise
February 11, 2007
BY MARK STEYN Sun-Times Columnist"

Many key Dems dislike Clinton 'caution'

Many Democrats voting 'no' on Hillary coronation
BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist

Chavez announces May takeover of all Venezuela oil fields

Successful missile defense test: 'Israelis can sleep soundly'

Iran counting on Beijing and trade ties to dispel U.S. challenge

Just no damn cooperation at all!!

HOUSE HEARING ON 'WARMING OF THE PLANET' CANCELED AFTER ICE STORM HEARING NOTICE
Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 ET

The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled 'Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?' The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later.

DC WEATHER REPORT: Wednesday: Freezing rain in the morning. Total ice accumulation between one half to three quarters of an inch. Brisk with highs in the mid 30s. North winds 10 to 15 mph...increasing to northwest 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows around 18. Northwest winds around 20 mph."

Report: Nasrallah admits Iran supplies Hezbollah with arms

Liberalism is really about money and power

By David Strom

"I used to think that liberals were mistaken, but well-intentioned.

Now, I am not so sure.

Of course I still believe that most liberals I meet are genuinely good people, not nefarious plotters out to line their own pockets and accumulate as much power as humanly possible. But I can’t get past the idea that liberals in the public policy world, who are presumably smart and well-informed have ulterior motives.

Why? It’s pretty simple, really." Read on.

Global Hot Air

By Thomas Sowell

"The political left's favorite argument is that there is no argument. Their current crusade is to turn 'global warming' into one of those things that supposedly no honest and decent person can disagree about, as they have already done with 'diversity' and 'open space.'

The name of 'science' is invoked by the left today, as it has been for more than two centuries. After all, Karl Marx's ideology was called 'scientific socialism' in the 19th century. In the 18th century, Condorcet analogized his blueprint for a better society to engineering, and social engineering has been the agenda ever since." More....

Don't write off Giuliani's appeal to social conservatives.

BY BRENDAN MINITER

Iran helps to kill GIs with impunity.

COMMENTARY: McConnell Sets a New Tone for Senate Republicans

By Paul M. Weyrich

One of life’s little ironies played itself out in the United States Senate these past few days, where Republicans finally are showing a little backbone. McConnell is proving to be a tough leader, and this bodes well for the future. If he can keep it up and explain it well, voters might give Republicans another chance. Continue reading commentary.

No ‘Global Warming’ on List of Anticipated Threats
American adults asked to anticipate "major threats to the United States in the next five years" picked a variety of worrisome scenarios -- but "global warming" wasn’t among them...

Joe Kennedy Accused of ‘Shameless Support’ For Chavez

Dems Push Anti-War Resolution, Stall Alternatives

Fred Thompson: Libby Prosecution a 'Travesty'

"Former U.S. Senator and 'Law & Order” star Fred Thompson calls Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's prosecution of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby a 'travesty and injustice.'

While serving as chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee in the late 1990s, the Tennesee Republican led the effort to allow the Office of Independent Counsel to expire, and he remains wary of prosecutors with too much power.

'When you put too much power in the hands of unelected, unaccountable people who have every incentive to focus massive resources onto one particular person - who gets the plaudits in the media for doing so - it's a bad thing,” Thompson, who attended the Libby proceedings last week, said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. 'And many, many times an injustice can occur.”

Thompson believes it is appropriate for the U.S. Attorney General to appoint a special counsel only if a clear violation of the law has occurred, and said the Libby case does not meet that criterion." Continue...

Russia's Great-Power Strategy

"Most speeches at diplomatic gatherings aren't worth the time it takes to listen to them. On rare occasion, a speech is delivered that needs to be listened to carefully. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave such a speech over the weekend in Munich, at a meeting on international security. The speech did not break new ground; it repeated things that the Russians have been saying for quite a while. But the venue in which it was given and the confidence with which it was asserted signify a new point in Russian history. The Cold War has not returned, but Russia is now officially asserting itself as a great power, and behaving accordingly."

To read more of this assessment on Russia's Great-Power Strategy go here.

Iran on course for nuclear bomb, EU told

Too late to halt Iran's nuke bomb: Atomic program delayed only by tech limitations rather than diplomatic pressure.
-- Financial Times

Sen. Barack Obama Apologizes for Saying U.S. Troops 'Wasted'

“Before there can be much character and courage in Congress, there must be a great deal of it in the American people. We shall look in vain for these treasures in Washington if they are not scattered widely everywhere from Boston to San Diego... Our national character will determine whether our legislators will be courageous or cowardly, and our politics good or bad.” —Allan Nevins

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.” —Benjamin Franklin

"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave."
-- John Adams

'Scooter' Libby: NBC News Can Clear Me

"Attorneys for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby believe that NBC News holds a key to clearing him of perjury and obstruction charges in the CIA leak case."

Obama Draws Huge Crowd, Hillary Doesn't

"The Iowa caucuses won't take place until January 2008, but if the crowds that came out over the weekend for the leading Democratic presidential rivals are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama is outshining Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in star power." Read on.

It's interesting to see the polls show Hillary with a sizeable lead, but yet Obama with all the fanfare. Part of it may be that Hillary is old news. People know her. Know who she is. Obama is the 'new fresh face.' The rockstar. He will need to change this into votes, however. Hillary has no place to go but down when it come to polling numbers. And, votes. Obama might be able to ride the rockstar mania and climb in the polls, but his rockstar status could fade as well, as time goes on. It will be fun to watch.

Bottom line: I really don't care beyond the fact that I don't want either one as President. Nothin' else needs to be said.

Australian Leader: Al-Qaida Wants Obama

"Australia's conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after the first-term U.S. senator announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008.

Obama said Saturday at his campaign kickoff in Springfield, Ill., that one of the country's first priorities should be ending the war in Iraq. He has also introduced a bill in the Senate to prevent President Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch Bush ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East." Read on.

Of course they do. They want anyone that will cut and run. Someone whose plan is only to pull out would be a great victory for them. And a tragic mistake for us.

Witnesses against Compean, Ramos to be fired for changing testimonies

2 agents face dismissal, 1 resigns – all 3 given immunity despite altering accounts

"Three Border Patrol agents, who were given immunity to testify against fellow agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean in the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of a drug-smuggling suspect as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border, are no longer with the agency because they changed their accounts of the incident several times." Read more at WorldNetDaily.