'An alternative Democratic foreign policy'???

I agree with Thomas Sowell that Nancy Pelosi and the Dems are Playing with Fire:

... Until Nancy Pelosi came along, it was understood by all that we had only one president at a time and -- like him or not -- he alone had the Constitutional authority to speak for this country to foreign nations, especially in wartime.

All that Pelosi's trip can accomplish is to advertise American disunity to a terrorist-sponsoring nation in the Middle East while we are in a war there. That in turn can only embolden the Syrians to exploit the lack of unified resolve in Washington by stepping up their efforts to destabilize Iraq and the Middle East in general. ...

---

All that Pelosi's trip can accomplish
is to advertise American disunity

---

... Indeed, it is monkey business as usual, as Congressional Democrats revel in the power of their new and narrow election victory last year to drag people before committee hearings and posture for the television cameras.

It has been said that the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper. But who would have thought that it could end with political clowning in the shadow of a mushroom cloud?

Allahpundit covered the story a few days ago... more to come.

Update: From AllahPundit...Video: Bush criticizes Pelosi over meeting with Assad.

Update: A Delegation of House Republicans is even more annoying!

The war in Iraq has become a proxy war with Iran... (update)

The NY Sun has the story of Iran's Secret Plan for Mayhem:

Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.

The news that American forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was widely reported last month, but less well known is that the Iranians were carrying documents that offered Americans insight into Iranian activities in Iraq.

---

Iran is working closely
with both the Shiite militias
and Sunni Jihadist groups

---

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms "that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups." The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force — the arm of Iran's revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads — is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.

Victor Davis Hanson has two options for us in Iraq in A War of Endurance:

One, we can withdraw ground troops and return to punitive and conventional bombing — tit-for-tat retaliation for each attack in the future. That way, the United States stays distant and smacks the jihadists on their home bases below. Few Americans die; terrorists sometimes do. The bored media stay more concentrated on the terrorists' provocations, not on our standoff response from 30,000 feet in the clouds.

---

Prosperity, security and liberty
are the death knell to radical Islam.
It's that elemental.

---

Or American forces, at great danger, can continue to change the political and economic structure of the Middle East in hopes of fostering constitutional governments that might curb terrorism for generations. This current engagement demands our soldiers fight jihadists on their vicious turf, but by our humanitarian rules. For this, we must pay the ensuing human and materiel price — all broadcast live on the evening news.

He concludes:

Imagine this war as a sort of grotesque race. The jihadists and sectarians win if they can kill enough Americans to demoralize us enough that we flee before Iraqis and Afghans stabilize their newfound freedom. They lose if they can't. Prosperity, security and liberty are the death knell to radical Islam. It's that elemental.

That's as good an analysis as I can find.

Update: Glenn Beck discusses the gathering storm with Winston S. Churchill...

David Zucker takes on the Iraq Study Surrender Group and James Baker...

Zuckermania: (Hat tip Ian)


Should go without saying, but Baker is Chamberlain and Ahmadinejad is Hitler.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Glenn Beck: "We're screwed"...



Related from the Patriot Post:

In a sit-down interview with Congressional Quarterly earlier this week, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the five-term Texas Democrat and incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, flunked a pretty simple quiz.

When asked whether al-Qa’ida was Sunni or Shi’ite, Reyes answered, “They are probably both.” He then compounded his ignorance: “You’re talking about predominantly? Predominantly—probably Shi’ite.”

Wrong. Very wrong. In fact, al-Qa’ida’s raison d’etre is the purification of Sunni Islam, which Osama bin Laden considers tainted by the Saudi royal family’s personal corruption and alliance with the United States. Shi’ite Muslims, on the other hand, are heretics deserving of death for their perversion of the “one true religion.”

Then Reyes, who also sits on the House Armed Service Committee, was asked the same question with regard to Hizballah.

“Hizballah. Uh, Hizballah...” Laughing nervously and shifting in his seat, Reyes evaded. “Why do you ask me these questions at five o’clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?”

In the end, Reyes confessed that he didn’t know the answer, despite the fact that Hizballah has existed as a terrorist arm of Iran for more than two decades, from the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 of our servicemen, to the political assassinations, the attacks on Israel and the attempts to bring Lebanon under Hizballah control today. It’s equally worth noting that Hizballah, which means “Party of God,” is now helping train Iraqi Shi’ites to kill Iraqi Sunnis in that country’s internecine conflict.

“Know thy enemy” is perhaps the oldest maxim of warfare, yet Rep. Reyes’ ignorance appears to be the rule rather than the exception.

John Gibson chimes in on the war on terror - Democrat style:

'[A]cting on the Iranian nuclear program would not be adventurous but necessary'... (updated)

My friend KP says Netanyahu has the vision:

Drawing a direct analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world. There was "still time," however, to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.

"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this."

We must fight for good against evil... with committment, stamina, perseverence, strength, and a long-term vision to stay that course.

Peggy Noonan's latest:

What can you do in two years? The common wisdom says not much. But here's a governing attitude: First things first.

Do all you can to keep America as safe as possible as long as possible. Make sure she's able to take a bad blow, a bad series of them. Much flows from this first thing, many subsets. Here is only one: Strengthen and modernize our electrical grid. When the bad thing comes we will need to be able to make contact with each other to survive together. Congress has ignored this for years.

Make America in the world as safe as possible by tending to and building our friendships in the world, by causing no unnecessary friction, by adding whatever possible and necessary emollients. In your approach to foreign affairs, rewrite Teddy Roosevelt: Speak softly, walk softly, and carry a big stick.

Much flows from this, including Iraq. This involves a huge and so far unanswered question: How to leave and not make it all infinitely worse. America will never accept a long war whose successful end even its most passionate proponents cannot convincingly envision or articulate. And America will never allow a repeat of the pictures of 1975, with desperate people who'd thrown their lot with us clinging to the skids of helicopters fleeing the U.S. Embassy. We will never get over Vietnam. And it's to our credit that we won't.

Those to me are the two big things. Much follows them, and flows from them. But to make some progress on these two things in the next two years would be breathtaking.

Indeed.

Update: Suzanne Fields:

Just when you think no one can come up with a genuine modern analogy to Nazi Germany, someone does. Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the conservative Likud Party in Israel, offers a scary and wholly plausible comparison. "It's 1938 and Iran is Germany," he told the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities the other day in Los Angeles. "When someone tells you he is going to exterminate you, believe him -- and stop him."

Imagine all the people, living life in peace...

From the Patriot Post - Imagine:

...Then, Leftist vacillation over Vietnam and outcries over what was claimed to be the Republican owned-and-operated “culture of corruption” following Watergate easily gave Democrats a House supermajority in 1975, 291-144. Add to that their 60 seats in the Senate, and Democrats had a stranglehold on the legislative branch. When Georgia Democrat Jimmy Carter was elected president the following year, he completed the trifecta.

So, freed of quagmires and corruption, what did this Demo troika manage to deliver? Well, there was the “Metric Conversion Act of 1975.” Then, under Carter, entitlement spending began growing at a record pace, even as defense spending crumbled. This compounded economic pressures at a time when unemployment was rampant, and inflation and interest rates were soaring to record highs. The economic indicator known as the Misery Index thus came to epitomize the Carter presidency and economists were forced to invent a new term—“stagflation” —to describe the Carter economy. On the foreign-policy front, the Carter administration’s failure to support a key ally in the Middle East facilitated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the form of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, leading to the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Islamic students, and the ensuing 14-month captivity of 52 American hostages.

One again, leftist idealism paradoxically folded in on itself. It wasn’t quite what they had imagined.

A "New Direction for America"

'There is a difference: the Republicans are disappointing and the Democrats are dangerous'... (updated)

(pinned 'til election time unpinned due to election fatigue)

Update #19: Ok... this is getting unwieldy. Last update: Short... Sweet... HamNation and CoulterMania.

The Republicans have been punished. Conservatives have been - and are being - heard. We don't want higher taxes... we don't want liberal judges... we don't want to fold up and go home in the Middle East... we don't want impeachment hearings... federally-funded research on - or cloning of - human embryos... we don't want Socialism. Punish Republicans further in the next primaries... elect them now against the dangerous Democrats.

Update #18: Trying to keep the updates down to a minimum, but if you're following the Michael J. Fox stem cell ad (here's a response worth watching too) debate you must check out this from Scrappleface.

Rush is all over this too, and he's absolutely right and on the money. Listen here noon to 3:00pm EST. Read on Rush today: The Unconscionable Claims of Michael J. Fox. Fox News coverage here.

Rush's e-mail to Katie Couric.

Glenn Beck discusses here.

Update #17: Greg Tinti - VIDEO: Pelosi Pledges No Impeachment If Dems Take Control.

Pelosi is a bullshit salesperson handing out free samples... don't buy it. Turn it off.

Despite what the MSM says, your vote (still) counts.

Update #16: Negative Attacks Divide Conservatives...

For the cause of conservatism to prevail, in the near-term and the long-term, we must renew our commitment to the whole of the conservative agenda. And we must renew our commitment to the civility and mutual respect that the American people have come to expect from our leaders.

Mike Pence in '08.

Update #15: John O'Neill...

Dispirited conservatives and Republicans rightfully appalled at the Cunningham, Abramoff, and Foley scandals should remember history as they contemplate not voting in the 2006 elections because of disillusionment.

Don't Repeat Mistake of 1974

Update #14: Barrons isn't buying the MSM negativity...(h/t staclu)

JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years — and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don’t see it.

Our analysis — based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data — suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber’s 435. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party’s loss could be as large as 14 seats, leaving a one-seat majority. But that is still a far cry from the 20-seat loss some are predicting. In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with 52, down three.

The Republican Party isn't perfect by a loooooong shot, but putting the Dems in power will be devastating... higher taxes and impeachment hearings guaranteed. Punish Republicans? - punish yourself and your kids. We need another conservative on the Supreme Court too!!

Repugnicrats and Dumbicans...there is a difference.

Update #13: How's this for a thought... you go to war with the army party you have, not the army party you wish you had. Where did you come down when Rummy got skewered for those words? If he was right, then my changing the one word applies nicely, no?

Update #12: Victor Davis Hanson on Liberals Gone Wild!:

... The Democrats have not elected congressional majorities in 12 years, and they've occupied the White House in only eight of the last 26 years. The left's current unruliness seems a way of scapegoating others for a more elemental frustration - that they can't gain a national majority based on their core beliefs. More entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, gay marriage, de facto quotas in affirmative action, open borders, abortion on demand, and radical secularism - these liberal issues don't tend to resonate with most Americans. ...

Update #11: Courtesy of Rush... are you a cut and run conservative?

Update #10: In MD... you're either voting for Cardin against Bush (no, George isn't running), or you're going for Steele because Cardin's a liar and Steele is not an establishment guy. Steele is the man.

Update #9: Vote Republican... they suck less, and have at least a chance of not sucking in the foreseeable future.

Update #8: Glenn Beck - What media bias?

Update #7: Why vote Republican? Apparently Larry Elder helped put this together: (hat tip HotAir)



... as a follow-up to this classic:



Update #6: Charlie Rangel - “Future Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.” Please... just say no!

Update #5: Justice Scalia was awesome over the weekend at the ACLU. It was on C-span again last night. I've been looking for video, but C-span links don't seem to work. I found this snippet though:



Frustrated conservatives who are considering a protest non-vote or even a Dem vote should remember the the battle for the Supreme Court is still very much underway, and we won't get more like Scalia, Alito, Thomas and Roberts with the Dems in power. Vote against an "evolving constitution", and maintain/strengthen Republican control. These are consequential times.

A related find from FrontPage:

Former Supreme Court Justice Curtis warned in 1857 that the Constitution would be controlling only if judges interpret it as Scalia advocates. Curtis wrote:

“[W]hen a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have the power to declare what the Constitution is, according to their own views of what it ought to mean.”

Update #4: Doug Patton says...

... if you are a disgruntled conservative Republican who knows the issues and understands what is at stake in this election, I have one message for you in this crucial mid-term election: don’t you dare fail to vote next month!

We can still turn this around!!!

Update #3: Matt Lewis...

there is an effort to drive a wedge between conservatives and the GOP. Don't fall for it.

Update #2: I'm with Elizabeth Kantor: Staying the Course

(WARNING: This post will be an impatient rant against conservative impatience.)

Okay, guys. We need to stay the course - and I'm not talking about Iraq.

The conventional wisdom is that Republicans are going to lose the 2008 midterm election because of the Foley scandal. Social conservatives in particular, it's being said, will stay home on election day rather than go to the polls to support the Republicans who have allowed the House of Representatives to be tainted by a sordid sexual scandal - or even vote Democrat.

For any social conservative who's feeling this way, I have one question: Have you completely lost your marbles?

Look, it would be hard to get more socially conservative than I am. I'd be perfectly happy with laws against emailing sexual content to anyone you're not actually married to, let alone to teenaged boys who assist you in your job as a U.S. legislator. I'm in a practically perpetual snit about the mainstreaming of porn and the declining standards of morality in America.

But the voting booth is not the place to indulge your temper, or to idly and carelessly "send a message" that you're frustrated about everything in general, or one irrelevant thing in particular. Your vote is your chance to change the government, not to express yourself.

I myself am a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia. For Senator, I get to vote for George Allen, a man who irritates me in many ways. In particular, and in this very Senate race, he's annoyed me no end by attempting to scare voters off his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, by painting Webb as insufficiently enthusiastic about women in the military.

Now, you can't be sufficiently insufficiently enthusiastic about female soldiers for me. If I were in charge, I'd immediately purge all the military services of women--except maybe for a Florence Nightingale Navy Nurse's Corps, or some such. I think it's a warning sign of the death of Western civilization that we're sending the mothers of toddlers to fight in our wars.

But am I going to hesitate for one second to vote for George Allen? No, I am not.

Why? Because I know that while the Republican Party is infected with the rot that's destroying our society, the Democratic Party is the Societal Rot Fan Club.

Do we - to take just one very important example - really want a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe vs. Wade? After more than three decades of disappointments, we've finally got a President who will appoint that kind of Court, and a Senate that will confirm the justices he appoints. Let's not quit when we're in sight of the finish line.

Are we serious? Are we going to change the government, and the culture, and the country? Are we - this is the real question - going to act like citizens capable of self-government, or like disappointed children?

Update: Thinking protest vote or want to sit it out? Get ready to pay:

The GOP is swimming in a sewer: Foley, a floundering war, a spate of hit-books published to effect the election, a base that no longer trusts it on border security, spending and a few other things make this a nasty-looking mid-term election. But the Democrats have ridden to the rescue, putting tax increases back on the agenda.

Vote against Democrats... vote Republican, then let's work on the leadership.

I'm a frustrated conservative. Bush has been disappointing on the border, on amnesty, on spending, on tax reform, on government size, and overall for a complete and utter lack of productive communication. I'm frustrated, and as much as I want to teach a lesson to the existing Republican leadership, I'm even more afraid of the damage that a Democrat leadership will do to this country.

I listen and watch Glenn Beck. I listen to Rush, Savage and Sean. I read Thomas Sowell, Mac Johnson, Michelle Malkin, Brent Bozell, John Hawkins, Dennis Prager and Kevin McCollough religiously. I watch Brit Hume and Chris Wallace. I get news from blogs and online magazines. I manage this blog, and contribute to three others. I pay attention and am on top of what's going on in the world... pretty much anyway.

No one that I have seen, heard or read recently has had a better summary of why Conservatives should NOT stay home when it comes time to vote than Thomas Sowell in his recent four-parter "Frivolous Politics"

Part I:

... Even when serious issues are addressed, they can be addressed either seriously or frivolously. If you are content to see life and death issues of war and peace addressed with catch phrases like "chicken hawk" or to see a coalition of nations around the world fighting terrorism referred to as "unilateral" U.S. action because France does not go along, then you are content with frivolity.

You may deserve whatever you get if you vote frivolously in this year's election. But surely the next generation, which has no vote, deserves better.

Part II:

... On foreign policy, Democrats continue to argue as if talking with our enemies is the magic formula. We should keep talking with Iran while they keep building a nuclear bomb, just as the western democracies kept negotiating with Hitler while he kept building up his war machine in preparation for starting World War II.

Today, people ignorant of history - which includes graduates of our most prestigious universities - have no idea how close the western democracies came to losing that war and what an unending nightmare it would have been for the world if Hitler and his Japanese allies had won.

Nor do most of the liberal Democrats, which is to say, almost all Congressional Democrats, seem to have any sense of what an unending nightmare it will be for western nations if Iran and the international terrorists it sponsors have nuclear weapons.

Against that background, those disappointed Republican voters who plan to stay home on election day to protest their elected officials' failings are seeing politics as a way to vent their personal emotions. That is a frivolous self-indulgence in a deadly serious time for this nation.

Part III:

... When the American Civil Liberties Union and liberal judges are able to get criminals freed on flimsy grounds, or prevent hoodlums from being expelled from the public schools, the community most likely to be harmed is the black community.

How then can the Democrats consistently get the lion's share of black votes? And why can't the Republicans make any serious inroads?

Part IV:

... There was a time when we all understood that, whatever we might think of a President, we still had only one President at a time and that wholesale obstruction and undermining of him was obstruction and undermining of the United States in the face of its enemies.

Shrill obstructionist House minority leader Nancy Pelosi obviously does not share that view - and if Congressional Democrats win this election, she will become Speaker of the House.

If Democrats win the Senate as well, then they will have the power to not only impeach the President and Vice President, but also the power to remove them from office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would then become President Nancy Pelosi.

Please read all four parts of this article if you are considering a protest vote or not voting at all. We can't keep kicking the can down the road with the evil that's developing around us and within us. A Democratic leadership is too dangerous to risk in today's world... for any amount of time.

18 Ways to be a Good Liberal:

(From an e-mail making rounds...)

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iran or Chinese and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make "The Passion of the Christ" for financial gain only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

17. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag queens and transvestites should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

18. You have to believe that this message post is a part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.

Darkness in North Korea... (updated)

Daily Mail:

As the world grapples with how to rein in the "axis of evil" state which this week conducted a nuclear test, this spectacular satellite photo unveiled yesterday by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shows in stark detail the haves and have-nots of the Korean peninsula.

The regime in the north is so short of electricity that the whole country is switched off at 9 p.m. - apart from the capital of Pyongyang where dictator Kim Jong-il and his cohorts live in relative luxury. But even there, lighting is drastically reduced.

A great North Korea Update from Bryan at HotAir:

...The bottom line now is that the United Nations will probably prove to be useless in preventing crisis again. China and Russia will use their vetoes to water down any punishment, and the US will acquiesce rather than play hardball and get them to stop protecting North Korea. South Korea will duck. Japan will do what it has to do to survive, with our without help from anyone else including us. We’ll work with our allies and use the Proliferation Security Initiative as well as we can, but as long as China props North Korea up Kim will go on menacing the world. This won’t solve the North Korea problem, and will only kick it down the road until North Korea’s missiles and nuclear weapons actually work. The window for dealing with a mostly toothless North Korea will have passed. And when North Korea’s weapons work, so will Iran’s.

Unilateralism has its disadvantages, but in the current environment multilateralism may have even more. You can’t depend on despots to do anything other than protect their own narrow self-interests. Expecting them to do anything else is naive and foolish, and failing to leverage the political environment against them will probably lead to very serious problems and confrontations in a year or two. And the UN these days is dominated, or at least stymied, by despots in Beijing and Moscow. It’s unlikely to be very useful for the foreseeable future.

Reject the U.N.

Update: The Patriot Post chimes in:

Democrats at home and liberal softies abroad argue that President Bush is to blame for not having engaged North Korea directly. This is folly. First of all, bilateral talks don’t work with this rogue regime; the Clinton administration proved that. Second, if we sit down one-on-one with North Korea, we will again be rewarding them for their bad behavior, proving that we are in fact a paper tiger.

Even Gary Samore, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a former National Security Council staffer and a key negotiator of the Clinton administration’s failed 1994 Agreed Framework, rules out the possibility of disarming Pyongyang at this point. Rather, he concludes, the U.S. must rely on Chinese influence to contain North Korea’s existing nuclear capability.

The realism of such a strategy, however, is in serious question. Stratfor, the private analytic-intelligence provider, among others, has begun to call into question the breadth and depth of Chinese influence over their communist brethren on the Peninsula. “Beijing likes having North Korea as a dog on a leash, allowing it to bark and throwing it a bone if it barks a bit too much. But this time,” Stratfor analysts conclude, “the dog has apparently broken its chain.”

Kim has to be made to realize that the only solution is for him to stop his nuclear program unconditionally and allow full transparency and international inspections. This is non-negotiable. In the parlance of the day, anything else would be unacceptable.

Right on.

The Politics of Hypocrisy...

Here's part of a nice article from Jim Clonts:

... The modern liberal loves hypocrisy. It's just too easy and so politically correct. When faced with a diverse point of view, just raise the notion that your opponent is not worthy of taking a position. Some favorite fodder for liberals in our national history include slavery, our treatment of the American Indian, ignoring the Holocaust, US support for the Shah of Iran, the Iran-Contra fiasco, Viet Nam, and, of course, faulty intelligence about Iraqi WMDs. No matter the topic of discussion, you can bet the liberals will bring up one of these as proof we are we are not allowed to assume the moral high ground.

---

When faced with a diverse point of view,
just raise the notion that your opponent
is not worthy of taking a position.

---

Every now and then I watch Prime Minister's Questions on C-Span. This is where the Prime Minister of Great Britain stands before the House of Commons and answers their questions. The first time I saw this I was astounded. Here was Tony Blair of the Labor Party receiving questions from his Conservative rivals and actually responding on-topic to the question at hand. They actually addressed each other, made extremely persuasive arguments, and debated national topics. Unlike our Congress, where most speeches are political sound bites made to empty chambers, or our presidential debates, where the candidates are not allowed to address each other directly, these men and women actually called each other on the carpet. At the end of the evening, the average British citizen not only knows why Blair supports an issue, they know both sides of the issue and can form their own decision.

Although all politicians are capable of political-speak, I've never heard a liberal actually answer a question with a salient, on-topic answer. They constantly criticize the war in Iraq and our efforts to fight terror, but when asked what they would do differently, they spout something like, "George Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction and took us into this war under false pretenses. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with September 11th. We must change course. New leadership is required, a new vision, a new strategy." Did I miss something here? The President's stated strategy is to train the Iraqi security forces until they can handle the job themselves, then bring our forces home. This may or may not be a good strategy, but it is a strategy. If the Democrats have a better one, what is it? I'm not opposed to a better strategy. How about giving us one, please!

Maybe they have one and just won't admit it. The only pretense of a Democrat strategy I've heard so far is from Howard Dean, John Kerry and John Murtha. They say to pull our troops out immediately. This is not a popular strategy with the American people, so most Democrats won't adopt it. Staying the course, however, is not exactly popular either. At least the President has the guts to stand by his convictions. If leaving Iraq to the insurgents is really the right thing to do, then the Dems need to stand behind their convictions, popular or not, and let the American people decide their fate in November.

---

Modern liberals have either forgotten
how to debate or have decided
it does not serve them well to try.

---

Modern liberals have either forgotten how to debate or have decided it does not serve them well to try. They just attack, typically with very effective one-liners completely out of the context of the debate. One-liners are great sound bite fodder for the media. Comprehensive and complex arguments are too long for a news update between My Name is Earl and The Office, or for the moving ticker-tape at the bottom of the screen on cable news networks. ...

Very nice Jim!

A cartoon can be worth a thousand words...

... not that the words aren't worth anything.

Cox & Forkum tie Robert Tracinski's latest: "The Democratic Party Adds Nothing to the National Debate" to this cartoon.

There's no shortage of commentary that would go well with this image though. I'll go with Dennis Prager discussing how the left cheapens evil to suit their needs:

... One more example will have to suffice: The left regularly charges America's conservative Christians with wanting to make America a "theocracy," being "fascists" and/or being "anti-Semites." They are none of those things, and as a result, the battle against real theocrats (Muslim fundamentalists), real fascists and real anti-Semites is compromised.

The tragedy of all this is that when evils are defined down, good people are left verbally unarmed when the real evils present themselves. It is yet another way in which the left, intentionally or not, undermines the battle against evil.

Quin Hillyer too:

It's hard to trust the defense of the United States to a party that so openly indulges people who don't think the Unites States is worth defending.

More:
Bin Laden Adopts Democrat Talking Points
Did Democratswrite Chavez' speech?
Democrat Talking Points Killing U.S. Soldiers
Iran Says U.S. Departure Would Calm Iraq
Ahmed for the DNC in 2008!
Al Qaeda number two man mimics Democrat talking points
The Democrats Finally Find Someone Who Buys Their Spin

Everything you need to know about Chavez's Citgo...

Courtesy of the always-fantastic Mac Johnson - Chavez's Citgo Is No Friend of America:
(Click here to listen)

What was once a respected “American” corporation, which happened to be owned by and partnered with the National Oil Co. of Venezuela, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), is now the American directorate of Chavez’s anti-American revolution.

Formerly, following the takeover of Citgo by PDVSA in 1990, the top positions at Citgo were all unofficially reserved for American executives, so that Citgo could function in the American business landscape as a competent and independent enterprise, removed from the politics of Venezuela. ...

... Today, the American leadership is gone, replaced by Chavez agents who have moved the company, at a cost of $69 million, from Tulsa to an extravagant new headquarters in Houston—a headquarters perhaps unique in the industry, since it includes a bulletproof citadel near the offices of the top executives. Rivero described it merely as “a crisis room to protect top management.” Perhaps Rivero’s personal past has given him a too literal interpretation of what American corporate leaders mean when they refer to a “hostile takeover.”

Given Chavez’s declared aim of destroying America’s power in the world, it seems relevant to assess just how total is Chavez’s takeover of Citgo. To address this, and developments since the 2005 Times article, I contacted Gustavo Coronel, a founding member of the board of directors of PDVSA, a former temporary member of the Harvard faculty, and once an elected representative in the House of Deputies of the Venezuelan state of Carabobo. He now resides in the United States, where he writes prolifically about the Chavista captivity of his nation. ...

... Chavez has also used the program in an attempt to tap into racial politics in America as a source of support. Jesse Jackson and Danny Glover are leading trumpeters of the program, which is targeted especially at African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods and Indian reservations. Chavez draws heavy support in Venezuela from Indian and other minority groups, which he has declared historical victims under his benevolent protection. To further his dream of an anti-American world revolution, he seemingly hopes to exploit America’s race issues so as to philosophically co-opt a portion of the divided population.

Lastly, Chavez hopes (in my opinion) to directly influence congressional policy and interfere in American elections with the program, which was engineered in concert with Rep. Bill Delahunt (D.-Mass.) and is administered (in part) through Citizens Energy, a non-profit co-operative founded and run by former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II.

By doling out Chavez’s stolen oil at a 40% discount in liberal congressional districts and allowing the incumbent representatives to take credit for it, I believe Chavez seeks to alter the makeup of Congress and indebt Delahunt and other compromised congressmen to him. He has, essentially, turned pork-barrel politics into oil barrel politics and is buying votes for his sympathizers with a new brand of imported pork. SUV drivers are not the only ones with a costly addiction to foreign oil. Certain congressmen, having gotten the first hit for free, are now paying a price for the “free” oil with which they have bribed their constituencies. ...

---

Today, Citgo is — quite simply —
an unregistered agent
of a foreign government

---

...Today, Citgo is — quite simply — an unregistered agent of a foreign government, propagandizing for and subsidizing the Chavez regime in its neo-Marxist crusade against America’s alleged empire. Yet it is still treated as any other American business. The Citgo sign towers proudly over Kenmore Square in Boston and millions of Americans who were concerned to learn that Chavez seeks an alliance with Iran and North Korea, or who were incensed when Chavez called our President “the devil” at the United Nations last week, continue to mindlessly fill up at Citgo, giving Chavez not only profits from Venezuela’s oil (which is unavoidable) but profits from the retail sales of gasoline and diesel fuel (which is easily avoidable).

It has become clear that Chavez’s Citgo is no friend of America, what is less clear is just why America is still so friendly toward Citgo.

Please consider boycotting Citgo.

Update: 7-11 drops Citgo... good move!

Update #2: Glenn Beck is on-subject:

The United Nations is Broken...

(Cross-posted from Reject the UN)

I agree with Frank Salvato:

If the world is to survive this crisis of despotism the United States needs to call for the disbanding of the UN in favor of a world body consisting of functioning democracies, not those bought with the ill-gotten and oily gains of terrorism and tyranny, and not one that would seat the likes of Syria, Cuba and China on its human rights council.

The choice is clear. Either we stand pat with the United Nations, an organization that can’t even produce a definition for terrorism as it teeters on voting Venezuela a seat on the Security Council, or we move forward creating a new world body consisting of functioning democracies that embrace a common definition of right and wrong, good and evil. The question now is whether or not we have the guts to do it.

It seems so obvious that it's time for the U.S. to move on and the U.N. to move out, but I'm not holding my breath... especially if we can't even get Bolton confirmed.

The discussion is getting louder though.

Vote here.


And a nice catch from Oliver North:

Perhaps the strangest comment in the midst of all this came from outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan who said, in what one may hope is one of his final appearances, "Moreover, just as some who benefit from globalization may feel threatened by it, so, many who are statistically safer from conflict do not feel safe. For that, we have terrorism to thank. It kills or maims relatively few people, compared to other forms of violence." Perhaps that explains why defeating terrorism has never been a priority for the United Nations.

Good riddance.

'Only by running from who we are will we win a popularity contest at the U.N. It is a competition we shouldn’t have entered'... (updated)

Anne Bayefsky is on target with her comments on a not-so-typical Opening Day at the U.N.

... The real surprise of the day, however, was President George W. Bush. Last year at this time the president issued a list of reforms he expected from the U.N. in the near future: a new human-rights body which didn’t count abusers among its members, a comprehensive treaty against terrorism, meaningful institutional reforms in the area of oversight, accountability, efficiency. Not one of those demands has been met, but instead of issuing a failing grade, the president said nothing at all about U.N. reform. On Iran, the most he could muster was “Iran must abandon its nuclear-weapons ambitions.” No talk of sanctions. No mention of consequences for Iran’s obvious refusal to abandon those ambitions. On Hamas he said “the world is waiting to see whether the Hamas government will…pursue an extremist agenda.” Waiting to see? Just how many rocket attacks, kidnappings, speeches inciting racial hatred and violence, or murders does it take be an extremist? And on the Palestinian-Israeli front he said “the Palestinian people have suffered from…the daily humiliation of occupation” — the exact language of…yes, Kofi Annan.

---

Not one of those demands has been met,
but instead of issuing a failing grade,
the president said nothing
at all about U.N. reform.

---

No doubt, given the hostility of the U.N. forum toward America, nothing but obsequious babble from an American president would be well-received. Which is exactly the real and present danger of the U.N. — only by running from who we are will we win a popularity contest at the U.N. It is a competition we shouldn’t have entered.

The U.N. is corrupt, anti-America/Israel, pro-Communist, feckless, seemingly un-reformable, dictator-driven, and made up of members and administrators that are only interested in maintaining their individual power and status-quo. The U.N . is not about right and wrong... it's a bought and sold failure, and should be identified as such.

Previous: Good riddance Kofi

Update: It's time for America to leave the UN:

... Yes, we're stuck in Iraq and we can't abandon our troops. But when we've finally reached the point that a room full of international freeloaders are applauding wildly as our president is called the Devil and our demise is predicted, then it's time to seriously reassess whom we want to deal with, in what manner and in what international forum.

Be assured that after this week's antics in New York, more and more Americans will come to believe that expensive, do-nothing diplomatic assemblies such as the United Nations are something we can live without.

Especially as we're now giving the UN $5B+ a year!!!

Update #2: Who and What Does the UN Represent?

The bottom line is that until the UN changes its mandate, from being a forum of the least common denominator to an organization with a rudimentary sense of right and wrong, its agencies will reflect the depravity of the organization. UN agencies like UNIFIL will not prevent future conflict and will actually instigate it unless it is clear that they must to stop terrorists from attacking Israel and unless they are given the means to prevent provocations. Otherwise, any premature ceasefire which will allow Hezbollah to survive with much of its arsenal intact will invite a replay of recent events only with greater human suffering.

Peace in our time.

Hugo unhinged at the UN...

Straight-talkin': Bush is "the Devil", and acts like "he owns the world".

Stick with AP for the story... video soon.

For now, from CNSNews:

The United Nations building still stinks of sulphur, after the "devil" - President George W. Bush - addressed the General Assembly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the world on Wednesday.

Chavez' speech to the General Assembly - a personal attack on President Bush -- was greeted with sustained applause from the United Nations' member states.

Chavez, after calling Bush a devil, said he thinks Bush needs a psychiatrist.

The Bush-hatred spewing from Chavez sounded familiar, given the fact that some Americans espouse the same beliefs, as their free-speech rights entitle them to do.

Personal attacks on Bush are daily fare on various liberal blogs and Air America talk radio, where Bush is routinely blasted as stupid, incompetent, power-hungry, crazy, and extremist.

Chavez accused Bush the "dictator" of trying to consolidate his grip on world domination. He said Bush wants to impose "the false democracy of elites" on the world. And he accused Bush of racism, saying that he paints people of color -- such as the new Bolivian president - as extremists.

The imperialists see extremists everywhere, Chavez said. "It's not that we are extremists," he added - it's that the world is "waking up - and rising up against the empire, against the model of domination."

Chavez made it clear that he was talking about Bush the "imperialist," not the American people.

As Cybercast News Service has previously reported, Chavez - who is friendly with some of America's worst foes (Iran, North Korea and Cuba) - is lobbying for a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Yankee Imperialists! Our U.S. Empire Will Soon Fall.

FoxNews video.

All praise to AllahPundit for this...



Plus, Bill Clinton reacts... carefully: "I wish he (Chavez) hadn't done it". Powerful! (not)

Update: Hugo in Harlem!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad feeds a pile of crap to the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly...

Greg Tinti was live-blogging:

"Today humanity passionately craves commitment to the truth, devotion to God, the quest for justice, and respect for dignity of human beings."

OK. Ahmadinejad lost me right out of the gate... my BS meter just exploded.

Whatever President Nutjob is on must be some good sh*t. Does he think he's the Messiah?

From AllahPundit:



Let's jump to part of closing:

"I am emphatically declare that today's world more than ever before longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity, and above all longs for the perfect, righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet. [The Twelfth Imam] Oh Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirst for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers among those who strive for his return and his cause."

President Nutjob is coming after YOU!

Michelle Malkin has something from President Nutjob last month that's more typical. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
(aired on the Iranian News Channel (IRINN) on August 2, 2006.)

I hereby declare that this sinister regime [Israel] is the banner of Satan. It is the banner of the Great Satan. All it does is to implement the orders of the criminal America and England. They think that the peoples are the same as they were 100 years ago. They are not aware that things have changed in the world. Today, all the peoples have awoken. The Iranian people is the standard-bearer of this awakening for all the peoples. As we can see, from the southernmost point in South America to the easternmost point in Asia, all the people are shouting a single cry. With placards in their hands and clenched fists, they shout: Death to Israel...

"

Death to America!"

Want some more from Dr. Evil? How's this:

"Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom... Islam will conquor all the mountain tops of the world"

I wish he would be more direct and straight-forward so more people would understand. BTW, this is what a real Martyr looks like.

Most of Europe is screwed. It may be up to us... up to our children, to prevent Worldistan. Australia looks, at this point and heroically, to be the last politically incorrect country standing.

Lightening up a bitlot, TPC imagines Mulsim leaders wondering "why they hate us". Good therapy.

Previous: Bush did great.

Bush is funny poking at reporters...

Just a quickie... you need to check out the two video clips from Bush's press conference in the Rose Garden yesterday courtesy of Tim Graham over at NewsBusters.

David Gregory is... David Gregory, and the NY Times is a "friendly" paper. Good stuff.

Enough is enough...

I'm with Anne Bayefsky on this one: "Enough of the U.N.!"
(photoshop courtesy of Sanctuary)

The U.N. is no longer useful for anything other than aid delivery... and even then?

... Why have our best efforts to enlist the U.N. in the battle against intolerance and extremism failed? Who are these opponents, wrapped in the U.N. flag, who inculcate the view that American unilateralism and non-cooperation is the root cause of the world's ills?

Opponents of such reform include U.N. staffers like the secretary-general and his deputy, who claim they are hapless functionaries operating at the mercy of member states — notwithstanding self-motivated trips to Iran, handshakes with Hezbollah, "doing business" with Saddam Hussein, and blaming middle American ignorance for the credibility gap. They are the 45 "Not Free" nations — to use Freedom House labels — who pass judgment on others in the General Assembly. These are the state sponsors of terrorism. The ones who don't let women vote or drive, or who kill them in the name of "honor." The ones who raise their children to die while murdering as many others of a different faith as possible. The ones who shoot mothers and babies from behind. The ones who claim that authoring a cartoon, a movie, or a book can justify a death sentence.

---

They are the 45 "Not Free" nations...
who pass judgment on others
in the General Assembly. These are
the state sponsors of terrorism.

---

They are also the 58 "Partly-Free" countries. Some of these are cronies, others are just cowards. Some are like-minded with their more notorious neighbors, others are very dependent.

Together, these nations represent the majority of the 132 developing states and the majority of 192 U.N. members. They are unified not by a desire to democratize, or even to develop, since many are quite content with kingdoms and with servitude in their own backyards. They are a team because they are adroit at U.N. politics, and they have learned that the cartel is good for business. This holds true particularly for the largest single bloc amongst them — the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference.

---

They are unified not by a desire to democratize...
They are a team because they
are adroit at U.N. politics,
and they have learned that
the cartel is good for business.

---

The one loose-knit collective that has miserably failed at coordination within U.N. is the Community of Democracies — the pretense of a democratic caucus that counts Nepal, Qatar, and Russia among its members.

The remaining 89 "Free" countries are not only outnumbered at the UN, they are pitted against each other. The plethora of non-democratic regimes in the U.N. framework creates an incentive for a second-string player like France to take on the role of the power-broker and middleman. The possibility of using their influence with dictatorships to offset American power is too tempting for many EU nations. The halfway point between America and the state sponsors of terrorism, however, is not where any democracy ought to be. The U.N. system, though, does not merely divide and conquers democracies — it makes the loser pay for the experience. Just eight developed democracies contribute three-quarters of the entire U.N. regular budget.

---

The plethora of non-democratic regimes
in the U.N. framework creates an incentive
for a second-string player like France
to take on the role of
the power-broker and middleman.

---

There is an alternative, an antidote to the self-doubt and moral relativism planted in our midst by Turtle Bay. Senator Frist calls it a "council of democracies outside of the U.N. system … [that would] truly monitor, examine and expose human rights abuses around the globe." Such a gathering is an idea whose time has come: the United Democratic Nations — an international organization of democracies, by democracies, and for democracies. It is time to say enough.

(This is drawn from Ms. Bayefsky's remarks yesterday at a Hudson Institute conference. Ms. Bayefsky is founder of EYEontheUN.org.)

What do I know... but I couldn't agree more.

9/11 is all about diversity and understanding, right?

A number of summary words come to mind... ignorance, wishful thinking, denial, you've got to be kidding, guilt complex, naive...

If only we could get Ahmadinejad and his 10M+ followers to read this site in detail:



See Michelle for commentary.

Your grandchild: 'what did you do in the great World War III to defeat Islamist fascism?'

What will you say?

... Iran and its minions want America and all non-Muslims dead. They are our mortal enemies. We must defeat them and al Qaeda totally. This reality must be our core cultural mission for the foreseeable future. To this end, the current Democratic Party of Michael Moore, George Soros and Howard Dean can never be allowed to dictate national security. Therefore, the Democrats cannot gain control of Congress this November – no matter how angry we may be with Republicans regarding other issues. Furthermore, those in the so-called mainstream media who consistently malign the American war effort must be shunned.

This is the legacy of September 11th, 2001. So, let us remember and act. Otherwise America and humanity will be condemned to Islamist genocide, torture and tyranny. Twenty years from now we must be able to say to our grandchildren that we understood the danger that Islamist fascism posed and acted with resolve to defeat its legions and protect them and humanity from oblivion.

These are the good old days.