Savage Republican

I came across this from The People’s Cube:

Hillary Employs Email Experts From Nigeria

========================================================

> FROM: MS H.R. CLINTON
> TO: UNDISCLOSED PROGRESSIVE RECIPIENT
> SUBJECT: CONFIDENTIAL DONATION PROPOSAL USD$38.5M
>
> Dear progressive! I solicit your confidence in this transaction, this is by virtue of its
> nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. I am Ms H.R. Clinton,
> a battered wife of an impeached president of a certain
> country sometimes referred to as Les Etats-Unis d’Amérique.
> I came to know of you via Daily Kos member list in my search for a reliable
> and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction which
> involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to my campaign fund
> requiring maximum confidence.
>
> Norman Hsu, an honorable businessman who is wanted by authorities for
> failing to do a three year prison stretch based upon a no contest plea to
> grand theft swindling charges, needs to donate to my presidential campaign
> quid pro quo so that I could pardon him in case I collect enough money to
> become the next president of the aforementioned country.
>
> But the amount that Hsu and I had agreed on in this transaction exceeds the limits
> on campaign contributions from individuals. The political climate and legal issues
> preclude us from receiving the entire amount from Mr. Hsu as a lump sum donation.
>
> In order to avert this negative development, myself and some of my trusted colleagues
> here at the campaign headquarters now seek for your permission to have you stand
> as a donor to my election campaign, so that the fund, USD$38.5M would be
> subsequently transferred and paid into your bank account. All documents,
> including a personal will making H.R. Clinton beneficiary and proves
> to enable you get this fund have been carefully worked out and we are
> assuring you a 100% risk free involvement as long as you stay away
> from Ft. Marcy Park or train tracks.
>
> Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one
> apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be
> well at the end of the day after
> I become president of Les Etats-Unis d’Amérique.
>
> For your assistance, your commission would be 15%. 10% has been set aside
> for expenses while the rest would be for myself and my colleagues for
> campaigning purposes in my country.
>
> If this proposal is OK. by you and you do not wish to take advantage of the trust
> we hope to bestow on you, then kindly get to me immediately via my e-mail
> furnishing me with your most confidential telephone, fax number ABA routing,
> account # and exclusive e-mail so that I can forward to you the relevant details
> of this transaction.
> Thank you in advance for your anticipated co-operation.
>
> Ms. H.R. Clinton
>
> Chappaqua

As I heard on Fox News, the MSM has told much, much more about gay sex public bathroom practices than we or anyone ever wanted to know. And they have comfortably, and quite predictably ignored a real scandal. Just as they did one Presidential administration ago. (I googled “Bill Clinton campaign contribution scandals” and got over 1,600,000 hits. And I had forgotten about about the tainted blood scandal where Slick Willy was at the center of close associates selling AIDS and Hepatitis C tainted blood from Arkansas prisoners).
Ah, yes. History past is history present.

I was traveling on Monday and heard part of the Mark Levin Show on KTLK (100.3). He referenced a report on poverty that was coming out Tuesday. In the report, statistics on the poor were highlighted. There were a few that caught my attention. The first was that the average number of hours worked in a year by a poor family was 800. That averages out to 16 hours a week (assuming a two week vacation from a part time job). The report states that if the family would be supported by 2,000 hours of work a year (the equivalent of one full time job), that would lift 75% of all children out of that “official” poverty. One adult working a full time job. One way out of poverty:Work. Who knew?
The second point was the high illegitimacy rate of poor families. In other words, absent fathers. If the mothers would marry the fathers of their children,again, nearly 3/4 of poor children would be out of official poverty. Another way out of poverty: Gonna have children? Get married. Wow. Another stunner!
The report also highlights the horrendous situation regarding immigrants (both legal and illegal). One quarter of the poor are either first generation immigrants or the children of first generation immigrants.
And the report goes on to point to the failed “War on Poverty”programs that have failed and failed miserably. And these programs have, in fact, increased poverty and misery. All the while taking money from working Americans who were then not able to fully provide for their own families with the money they rightfully earned.
Notice that both of the points (work and having children outside marriage) are decisions. Decisions that have bad consequences. The vast majority of the poor have made bad choices. Or they choose not to do what would eliminate their poverty and misery. And why should their bad choices give them a legal claim on my and your money, time, life? And then those claims on your money breed more (pun intended) of the same of what those programs were supposed to reduce or eliminate.
And then we have this from Pravda on the Mississippi “A Most Glum Report for State’s Families“. What the commies on the Strib’s editorial board fail to mention is that for the most part poverty is a consequence of real bad decisions. Their pronouncement:
“Ever since President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty in 1964, experts have debated the effectiveness of government antipoverty programs. But most analysts agree that a strong economy and a robust job market are the most powerful tools to cut poverty. Which is why it’s troubling that the Minnesota economy seems to be doing so poorly now for low- and middle-income residents.” No. It’s not troubling at all. Well, at least not to rational and logical thinkers. The poor keep doing the same things that put them in poverty to begin with. They don’t work enough and they keep having children out of wedlock. It’s right there in the report that Prairie Pravda cites. Oh, and there is no debate. The Great Society’s “War on Poverty” is a failure. A multi trillion dollar failure. End it.
But, once again, as I blogged before about the excuses lefties proffer as to the reason their programs fail:
1. Not enough money has been spent.
2. Not enough time has been allowed.
3. The right people haven’t been in charge.
4. The program needs to be modified (read expanded).
So, the three best choices to stay out of poverty?
1. Graduate from high school. Get a diploma.
2. Get a job. Any job. Establish a work history.
3. No children outside of marriage. Period.
All studies show that if these three points are kept, there is a better than 80% chance that you’ll escape poverty.
Oh, and by the way, the poor in America are the envy of the world.
And speaking of subsidizing bad decisions and choices: we go to the Feds and Katrina. Oi vay! Talk about high priced lunacy and subsidizing that lunacy.
The feds have put over $127,000,000,000 of your money into putting people right back into the same place that floods and gets hit with hurricanes. The annual GDP of Louisiana is $141,000,000,000. And people are still complaining that $127,000,000,000 extra dollars or the equivalent of nearly a full year’s GDP is not enough because THEY haven’t had enough money spent on THEM.
Yup. The Feds. This is Big Government on parade. This is exactly what to expect from government. The exact same results would be achieved no matter who’s in the White House or which party is in control of Congress. The bureaucrats march and regulate on…and on and on.
New Orleans is a sink hole. What did these people not know about a city that sits on the Gulf of Mexico, has hurricanes, is at sea level and has Lake Ponchartrain right next door to the north (use Google Earth and see where part of the storm surge goes)?
And the Feds use an obscene amount of your money to move people right back to neighborhoods that flood!?!? And at $127,000,000,000 of federal money (and this does not count all the private money and donations and volunteer work that has also gone into Sink Hole, Louisiana) there are still whole neighborhoods that are still the same as two years ago, only drier. And so,I’ll ask the same question again: why do these people in New Orleans have a legal claim on our money because of their bad decision to live in a flood prone area that is in hurricane territory? And remember, these are the same people who elected Ray “Chocolate City/School Bus” Nagin as mayor.
A little story. A friend of mine from church told me about his Dad. His Dad is a trucker. So, he and his fellow truckers, in a display of real (not fake like Social Justice) Christian charity, went to New Orleans, on their own dime, to help rebuild. They were directed to an ethnically non-diverse neighborhood. As these Minnesotans worked, the homeowners sat in lawn chairs and watched. The next day when my frie
nd’s father and his fellow truckers showed up, the lawn chair sitters asked for the workers’ lunches as the sitters didn’t have lunch. The workers immediately gathered up their tools and came back to Minnesota.
And this from Anti-Strib as far as what FEMA and the Feds should really be building in New Orleans (The Big Chocolate Easy):

The left and lunacy.
Evidence large and clear of Einstein’s pronouncement that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Or, in other words, if you keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.

It always does one good to see benevolence, generosity and nobleness of spirit on display from the elders and scions of the famous. And my close personal friend Sid Hartman is quick to remind us of just how that public, gallant and magnificent trait is embodied and displayed for all to emulate in the Pohlad family.
As the controversy over how much the land for the new Twins Stadium is worth, Uncle Sid is fast on the trigger to point out that those poor suffering Pohlads will bear most or all the extra costs of the land.
And in what can only be called the height of chutzpah, Sid (did I mention that Sid is my close personal friend?) also quoted Twins President Dave St. Peter-“There would be no ballpark had the Pohlad family not agreed to pay most of the difference between what Hennepin County had offered and what the condemnation group came up with“.Uh, Sid? Mr. St. Peter? No. That is certainly NOT the case.
There would be no stadium if Governor Pawlenty had not signed the bill that nullified the law that gave the citizens of Hennepin County the right to vote, via referendum, on the tax bill that funds the stadium. There is only a ballpark because my widowed mother is forced to pay a tax to make the Pohlads richer. And you people lobbied to make sure she had no voice!That the Pohlads may have to fork over an extra $10MM when the Twins value goes up over $250,000,000 because of people like my mother being forced to make the Pohlads richer galls me to no end. And then to have Sycophant Sid laud the Pohlads for it…
BTW, I’ve written an email to David St. Peter. I’ll let you know if and when he replies.

His name is Skipper. When Mom and Dad got him in 1990 at the age of six weeks, they (Dad) wanted to name him Spunky. Well a direct and animated campaign by we three kids and Mom and Dad saw the wisdom of not scarring a puppy with an inane moniker, and Spunky blessedly became Skipper. Dad wanted a toy fox terrier like the one he had at age ten (that terrier was named Jo-Jo). Well, Skipper was a fox terrier, not a toy fox terrier. Regardless, a terrier is a turbo-charged dog. A terrier puppy is turbo-charged on nitromethane. A seemingly inexhaustible supply of nitromethane. I became convinced that the root word for “terrorist” was “terrier”. And it occurred to me “I’m going to have to put this dog out of everybody’s misery”. Well, like grandparents with grandchildren, I could walk away. Good luck Dad!
I’ve always believed that dogs grow to be like two year olds…forever. When Skipper reached late adolescence/young adulthood, he had become a great dog. Dad died in 1993. And Skipper became Mom’s great friend and companion. He always followed Mom around. Was always where people were. Never underfoot. When my brother or I went to Mom’s house, Skipper became so excited to see us that he lost bladder control. My brother commented what a great feeling it was to have someone so happy to see you that he wet himself. I agreed.
Skipper was also a guard dog. He had two barks. The bark I heard when I came to visit and rang the doorbell four, five, six times quickly. And then there was that other bark. If it could be described as a bark. More like the soul chilling warning from a hell hound. I heard it a few times. When a stranger rang the doorbell. You would never believe that that bark came from a thirty pound fox terrier. It was a bark that sounded as if that dog you heard on the other side of the door was going to come through the front door and screen door to tear your throat out and spit it back in your face as you crumpled to the ground. And then for good measure kick dirt in your face as he walked away. Good dog, Skipper!
Just what Mom needed.
And Skipper was a face licker. The boy next door (who is now an adult) described Skipper as “lickety”. And he was.
I had many nicknames for Skipper: Skippy Flips, Skippum Flippums, Skippio Flippio, Nipwads… The one I landed on was Muttzoid (with an occasional Nipwads. I’m a sentimentalist after all). Don’t ask me why I settled on Muttzoid. Probably a consequence of playing rugby for twenty three years. Last Saturday my Aunt Karen was at Mom’s. I stopped by to do a couple things around the house. I came upstairs and said “Muttzoid!” and scratched Skipper’s chest. My aunt said to Mom “He calls him Muttzoid. Not Buttzoid.” I was crushed. Crushed! How could my Mom think that I could or would call Skipper “Buttzoid”? Yup. That sealed it. Now I know what I had always suspected: I’m adopted. The evidence is in.
When I stayed at Mom’s house (to take care of Skipper) when she needed to go to the hospital or went on a short vacation, Skipper was quite clear that he was always going to sleep with me. I called, he came a’ running and jumped on the bed and curled up behind my legs. Or jumped up and layed down beside me on the davenport.
But, we all grow old. So it was with Skipper. He started to lose his hearing a few years back, but not his playful spirit. He still ran around the house when I showed up. And we played with his rope toy. Then Mom noticed that he was slipping from time to time on the stairs going up. And then he fell backwards downstairs a few times. Mom had to help him upstairs last year. This winter we took him in for evaluation. The vet thought there may be some neurological failing. And I asked about a small lump on his shoulder. It was cancer (that was successfully removed). We took Skipper to get acupuncture from Dr. Rachel Stephensen at Plymouth Heights Pet Hospital. There was some remediation. But, we all knew that as Skipper’s weight fell and he became less and less mobile and that there was evidence he might very well be experiencing canine dementia, that the end for this wonderful dog was approaching.
I had brought the subject up twice, obliquely, very gently, with Mom. My brother and I were very clear, that when that decision needed to be made, only Mom would make it. My brother and I were now silent, and listened to what Mom had to say.
Skipper needed nearly constant care. He was not getting better, at all. He hadn’t been outside in two months. And Mom made the heavy, the unwanted decision last week. She called Dr. Stephensen and set the appointment for Thursday, yesterday.
We took Skipper on his last car trip and his last visit to Dr. Stephensen.
I asked what to expect. Dr. Stephensen said that she would administer an anesthetic overdose. That Skipper would go to sleep. And then his heart would stop and he’d stop breathing. I gently picked up Mom’s, my brother’s, my friend Skipper and put him on Mom’s lap. My brother sat close nearby. Mom held Skipper. I sat on the floor and stroked his nose and rubbed him between his eyes as he so quietly left us. And then our life began without this wonderful little dog. It is so hard. Dr. Stephensen cried. Dr. Stephensen was so kind, gentle, sensitive. Skipper touched so many lives. Even people who had never met him.
Skipper will be cremated and his ashes will be at Mom’s.
But, I now know why people who go through this say they will never get another dog.
Last night I could not get to sleep. I was so tired. I had dreams this last week about the coming Thursday, and now couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. I kept trying to find that cool spot on the sheets and that calm spot in a dark night. I kept replaying the scene at the vets. But, then I also found myself thinking of ringing the doorbell and hearing Skipper barking and Mom saying “Skipper-who is that? Who’s here?” Mom’s opening the door and Skipper pushing himself out , tail a’ wagging. Then running up the stairs to push his nose out between the wrought iron railing at Mom’s to lick my face. And running around and barking, wanting to play. Down on his elbows, haunches up, tail still a’ wagging. And I caught myself smiling at the thoughts. That Skipper hasn’t been there for about two years. But, young or old, playful or paralyzed, Skipper loved and was loved. By many. He was loyal to us. And we to him. All the way to the end.
We are the ones who love Skipper enough to put us through this emptiness of pain. We’re the ones who are left behind.
I’m reminded of a statement from the pastor who presided at my Grandma’s funeral a quarter century ago. I’ve repeated it’s essence and sentiment at all the funerals and memorials where I’ve spoken:”Your relationship with your mother, your grandmother, your friend didn’t end three days ago. It just changed.”
And so it is with Skipper. My, our relationship with Skipper didn’t end yesterday…it just changed.
I once heard it said that you don’t own a dog. He owns you. That statement is well supported by Skipper.
My Mom commented we’ve survived and lived, and lived well through losing others. And so it will also be with Skipper.
I’ve said over the past years that if anyone ever challenged me to name evidence of God’s love and wisdom, it would be Skipper. Dad, you thought you were buying Skipper for yourself. Nah. Not at all. Not even close Dad. God was guiding you to buy Skipper for Mom for when you left us.
Farewell Skipper.
You are the biggest little dog.

The reach of the disaster is far and long. A client of mine, with whom I have a great relationship and who lives in the Pacific Northwest called me Thursday and left a message “Call me when you get this message.” I did. I told him that I’d been using that bridge since it was dedicated. That I’d crossed it thousands of times, sometimes over ten times a day. The last time was, well, sometime within the week before it collapsed. For forty years, I’ve never given the bridge a thought. I always looked at the cityscape at night going south. I look at the four smokestacks at the NSP plant (or Excel or whatever their calling themselves now) just north of the bridge and think of my grandfather. But now come the harpies of the lack of logic loony and bile and vitriol consumed left.
I race sailboats. On Saturday as we gathered, one of the members of our group is a professional, registered engineer who also owns a nationally known and well respected engineering testing company. I asked him if he’d been contacted about the 35W bridge. Oh yes. To be an expert witness for plaintiffs and defendants. Our resident screaming radical lefty came up and asked him about his thoughts. My engineering friend said that it’s going to take a long time to find out what failed. He commented that it was more than likely a metal fatigue failure. But where, what and why will take time. And the lefty screamer? Who has an engineering undergraduate degree…but is also an attorney…he knew exactly why that bridge failed. He kept hammering at me three times “What did Pawlenty do with the gas tax increase??? What did Pawlenty do…” I finally responded “He vetoed it”. At which point Mr. Screamer screamed “MY POINT EXACTLY!!!” as he stormed off. As I screamed at his back side (where all his reasoning and discernment ability reside) “And in which direction did the sun rise that day? The EAST! MY POINT EXACTLY!!!” Made as much sense as did his diatribe. (Ever notice that lefties love two dia words and loathe one? They love diatribe and diarrhea of the mouth but loathe dialogue).
Lefties’ logic always seems to go from point A to point Q with no intervening connections at all. And/or, they present correlation as causation (as I sarcastically did with my where did the sun raise comment and all lefties do with global warming, crime, and many other of their wasted causes). So, the questions I’d ask The Screamer would be: Okay, fill me in on how the gas tax increase veto felled the bridge or how blame is attached-

1. Did the veto this year mean that we didn’t have money over the past decades or years to do inspections? Uh, no. Inspections went on as scheduled. The last one being in May 2007. No immediate concerns were raised. My engineering friend even commented about a test done in either 2000 or 2001 by the University of MN where the engineers put stress detectors on the bridge and ran fully loaded semis across the bridge. The result? No discernible concern about over stress on the bridge.)
2. Well, then, did the veto this year mean that we don’t and didn’t have the money to do the requested or suggested repairs and maintenance? Ah, again, no. All suggested repairs were done. As were any maintenance suggestions.
   
3. Well, then, were there engineers in the past that knew that there would be a Republican governor elected and re-elected and be serving in 2007, and so plotted…well, with the mindset of the lefties, who knows whether or not this could be considered true.
   

And will Mr. Screamer ever say that the money that went down the Ventura/Mondale Memorial Choo-choo sinkhole would have been better used for bridge maintenance/repair? Oh, no. He extols the virtue of the Choo-choo. The $1 billion dollars wasted this year on “transit” rather than used for highways, roads and bridges? Ha! Yah. And will the voters of Minnesota realize the huge mistake they made in voting a constitutional amendment where at least, at least 40% of all monies from vehicle sales tax would fund anything but bridges and roads. And the way the amendment is worded, 100% of vehicle taxes could go to “transit”, NOT motorized vehicle infrastructure, such as the 35W bridge.
But, to show how out of touch Mr. Screamer is, he commented that it would take years to clear the river. His support? “Why, have they even cleared Ground Zero?” (The World Trade Center site). My reply-“It took about 6-7 months. It’s been done for years.” (BTW, I remember a few years ago we were talking about some market function where the market was buying or doing something where Mr. Screamer stated with great conviction “Well, the market is WRONG!” Yup, millions of people making independent decisions on what was good for them were wrong. Only Mr. Screamer is right and the market should be controlled by his decisions. And he sees to it that government is in charge, not you and me.) He then went on to say it would take at least 5 years to complete a new bridge. If you get the government out of the way, I’d be willing to bet it could be done in under 2 years, easy, with months to spare. And it appears that that may be much closer to the truth than Mr. Screamers’ prognostications.
So, a highly repsected and regarded engineer doesn’t know why the bridge fell. But every brain dead lefty does: Iraq, Bush, Pawlenty, Carol Molnau, Grover Nordquist, David Strom.
But, as Jason Lewis commented last week, it’s never government. Only the Republicans.

I’ve written a number of times that I’m a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the guys who flew in WWII. This weekend we’ve brought in three of the surviving WWII bombers (owned by The Collings Foundation ) to Holman Field in St. Paul. Yesterday after they flew in the pilots let me do some minor work on the B-17. At the end of the day, the Chief Pilot Rob Collings put me on the last flight of the day on the B-17. It’s my second time flying on the Flying Fortress. I took pictures of my second time flying history.

The B-17 nose canopy with the chin turret and cheek guns

Throttles and flaps

The Norden bomb sight

The bomb bay

“Flying the ball”- the ball turret or belly turret.

The B-24 , nose on. There were more B-24’s produced than B-17’s. The B-17 received the bulk of the publicity as it preceded the B-24 as America’s first four engine heavy bomber. However, the B-24 flew faster and carried a heavier bomb load. Collings B-24 is the only fully operational B-24 flying.
Any how, come out to Holman Field Sunday and Monday. Walk around and see the planes. Talk to the men who flew them in combat. And for the ultimate, take a ride in history ($425 for a half hour flight). $10 and you can go through all three planes (The B-17 Flying Fortress. B-24 Liberator and B-25 Mitchell). You’ll be at about 1,500 feet and in a shirt sleeve environment; not 25,000 feet and -50 degrees, breathing through an oxygen mask and wearing a flak helmet and a flask vest… and, of course no one will be trying to kill you.
So, come on out. It is certainly worth the trip. And time very well spent.

So, this afternoon I played hooky. I surfed the internet with abandon. Well, with abandon with an eye to liberty. I spent time on Michael Yon’s website . He is a forty something former Green Beret who has taken it upon himself to cover the war at a distance from the Green Zone (I’ve written about this in my prior post). And at his own expense. One of his dispatches I read is titled “‘Hello Ameriki!'” from the Kurds”. Yon is up in Northern Iraq and is invited to a picnic outside a Kurdish village named Umar Bill. The general who has called the picnic asks Yon if he’d like to meet and talk to a man who has lived his entire life in Umar Bill. Yon says absolutely. And he is ushered into a world of gratitude, genuine gratitude, for America, for Americans that has not been reported here. The man’s name is Saamad. He is fifty-four. He tells of Saddam Hussein’s troops coming to attack the village. Saadam tells of the village’s resistance. And temporary victory. Until more troops return. And Saadam tells of what happens next.
Saadam also speaks of the coming of the Americans. He says of the Americans:”The Kurds are so happy to see you. The Americans are like the angels from God.” But his expression changed dramatically to one of hidden anger: “The Arabs accuse the Americans of being murderers and criminals,” he said with finality, “but when Americans came, they brought justice.“
Yon goes on to speak of the Kurds and their affection for Americans is definitely returned:”The Kurds are becoming stronger by the hour. But make no mistake about it: the Kurds are not getting stronger by the hour because the Americans like them. Americans like them because they are the kind of people who get stronger by the hour.“
It’s a very interesting read about the difference between the Kurdish north and the Arab (Sunni and Shia) south.
Go and read this dispatch on what is really happening in Iraq.
And shame on the MSM (including Fox News) for not reporting this type of news.
P.S.- On another dispatch, Yon relates about questions that he is asked. One of the questions is “Why didn’t you write about that?” Yon replies:”The answer is simple. Often I am asked to withhold information due to the immediate sensitivity. And so, I never release the slightest hint. But then somebody in Baghdad – three steps removed from the action here in Mosul – releases it to CNN and the rest of the world. What is seen on television and in the papers is practically always inaccurate, or is at least poorly framed. But I rarely waste a breath trying to correct the information. It’s too late. Life is busy here.” And so the war of bad information or disinformation runs like fast flowing sewage from the MSM.
My next blog “Radical patience” will be about how the MSM’s reporting is not just bad, but dangerous and treasonous.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m a WWII history buff. Thirty years ago I took the entire year long study of WWII history at the U of M through extension classes (night school) where there were a number of similar amateur historians. One of our course books was the two volume “History of the Second World War “. Though not exhaustive, it is complete and the best short history of the war. After the war, Liddell-Hart had an opportunity to interview the captured German generals and the High Command of the Wermacht. He titled his book “The Other Side of the Hill“. He took the title from a quote from Napoleon that what Napoleon wanted to do was to get into the mind of his opponent, that what he desired was to see on the “other side of the hill” as to how and what the enemy was thinking. This style of thinking is grossly, and dangerously lacking on the left. The left has no reason or logic, especially when it comes to war, economics, and well, reality. The reason I bring this up is two fold: Israel and Iraq (and by logical extension, the wider war on radical Islamic terrorism).
In America and Israel (because of incredible pressure from idiot American politicians, including GWB on this one), people and the politicians keep thinking there is hope for peace in the Mid-East. Sheer folly. What do the Islamists want: All Israelites and Jews dead. What do the Jews and Israelites want: not to die. OK, you brain trusts on the left and all the brains inside the Beltway, where’s the middle position that can be negotiated between those positions? Einstein’s definition of insanity seems to amply apply in spades in the Mid-East. Wait a minute… Nobel Peace Prize winner Little Jimmie Carter knows, I’m sure. (Since little Jimmie got his NPP, I’ve been buying Cracker Jack’s by the palette looking for another one. Probably no check though. Dang!)
Now, Iraq. Ask any lefty point blank if we (the West) are in a war against radical Islam. And up or down, yes or no. If no, ask about the bombings in Bali (in 2002, where a nightclub was attacked and 202 young Australians were killed, and again in 2005). And the London attacks last week where innocent club goers were targeted? I’m sure that they’ll slobber all over themselves trying to explain why these attacks don’t constitute a war on the West. BTW, if you’ve ever seen pictures of a nail shrapnel bomb, well…
So now, I’ll refer you to Michael Yon’s website. He is former Special Forces. He is a true imbed at his own expense (rather than hiding in the Green Zone and reporting from the hotel balcony while having cold drinks while keeping the thermostat at 70). He’s been involved in a firefight while out with the troop. There are so many, many things that he reports on that you never hear from any other source, including, to their great shame, Fox News. Reports such as this or this or this (that I blogged about here in my Memorial Day blogs last year).
The story about Farah and Major Beiger came rapidly to mind when I read the this dispatch from Michael Yon. Troops from a nearby FOB went into a village outside of Baqubah (where Operation Arrowhead Ripper is being fought). The village had been taken over by AQ and the FOB nearby was being constantly attacked from the village. As the troop entered the village, the question was “Where are the villagers?” The answer was pieced together as the troop proceeded further. The troop were leery of finding dead bodies as AQ was known to put bombs into bodies, especially the bodies of children, knowing that American soldiers, sailors and Marines have a real soft spot for children. The village was known to be small and the villagers peaceful farmers. So, again, where were the villagers? As Colonel Martin and his men entered the village in The Patriot, that question was asked, to which he replied as he looked at the embers that were all that was left of the church “They’re here.” The incredible stench from a palm grove answered the question where the villagers were. They were here. And so were their children. Beheaded children.
I’ve come across another blogger who takes a less direct approach to the evil that AQ represents. AQ attacks, tortures and beheads children. There was no report in the mainstream press when over fifty mass unmarked graves were located in Iraq a few months after we invaded. One grave had over 1,500 children in it. One thousand five hundred murdered children. Same with the children in this village. A murder bomber in Jerusalem was on his way to a synagogue when he saw a group of women with children in carriages. The bomber turned to kill them instead.
The left never speaks out on the death of children (why would they when they support the procedure of opening the skull of an unborn child and sucking their brains out). You never hear them speak out about the evils of Islam with anywhere near the bile and vein popping energy and screams that they reserve for American soldiers who place themselves in harms way to save these very same children that AQ butchers with abandon and clear consciences.
And so Michael Yon shows us “the other side of the hill” to show us how AQ operates and how radical Islam has operated ever since Yasser Arafat (hot enough for you yet Yasser buddy ?).
So, read and support Michael Yon.
We need at least another dozen like him.
P.S. Rep. Michelle Bachman reports exactly what I’ve just blogged, that the real story of the overwhelming successes that the soldiers, sailors and Marines have accomplished have been ignored (deliberately so IMHO) by the press. And that includes Fox News.

Norm is saying that he voted for cloture to see if they could get the good amendments added. (enforcement etc..)
B as in B
S as in S.

They do not need any new laws. The laws are already on the books just not being enforced.

This is the kind of RINO BS I have come to expect from Norm.

— Now that he finally voted against Cloture, some are saying we should reward Norm for doing the right thing.

I will believe he did the right things when he does the right thing.
When I see him doing something to build the fence (Second) and start enforcing the laws and going after the people hiring illegals (first) then I will believe he is doing the right thing.

Call me skeptical.

I hope the rumors are true and Joe runs against Norm.
All I know is that I will not pound one sign, will not make one call and will not walk in one parade that has anything to do with Norm Coleman.