A Melange of Today's Politics!

Mitt Romney made an address at Yeshiva University in New York on Thursday and everyone should read it - yes that includes you Dem's - and note the level of specificity he shares with us on the policies he hopes to set in place. An approach you don't see at all from the Dem's, and too little from any other Republican!

Steve Chapman takes the subject leapt on by the Dem presidential candidates this week after a report on the inequity of pay between the genders. His column - "The Truth About the Pay Gap" - clearly explains why this "straw man" - so popular with the left - is only marginally true, if true at all. Amazing what unbiased ANALYSIS will do to the thought process (see Mitt Romney above)!

Jeff Jacoby a shot at "What Drives the Democrats?" who are so wedded to defeat in Iraq. His last sentence:

• "Democrats, all smiles, prefer to lose the war and win the campaign [presidential race]. They're not alone. In Iraq, Al Qaeda is smiling, too."

All thought provoking looks at our current politicians. Read Mitt Romney if you only have time for one!

Harry Reid - Al Queda's best friend

Hugh Hewitt explains why the title of this entry may be correct. It is a sad commentary on Mr. Reid and the Democratic strategy.

Since moveon.org is setting this strategy, perhaps they should advise Mr. Reid of the speed with which comments circle the globe!

A Silver Lining from Blacksburg?

Daniel Henninger, in his weekly "Wonderland" column in the WSJ, quotes Joe Lieberman from a Homeland Security Committee hearing this week:

• "We want to respect the privacy of the individual, yet ultimately I think we have a greater responsibility to protect the safety of the community."

Some common sense from an ex-Democrat who was forced to be an Independent and should become a Republican, which is where he really fits!

A Melange of Today's Politics!

A literal gold mine of thought provoking columns!

"Harry's War", todays WSJ editorial, explains how the Dems should be careful or they may get what they wish for!

Tony Blankley explains the real division in todays world: "Rather, the great divide is between those, such as me, who believe that the rise of radical Islam poses an existential threat to Western civilization; and those who believe it is a nuisance, if, episodically, a very dangerous nuisance." Read the whole thing here, paying particular attention to his last paragraph.

In "Environmental Alarmists Have It Backwards" John Stossel explains how adding 1) human ingenuity and 2) time to the environmental equation your conclusions can be quite different than the environmental alarmists. His final paragraph: "If we care about human life, we should celebrate Economic Progress Day." Not Earth Day!

I'm interested in your comments on all three, particular the Stossel column!

Who is the enemy?

Dean Barnett discusses a Barack Obama speech and other politicians to date politically correct talk of our enemies. He closes with the following:

• "Terrorism isn’t the enemy. Terrorism is just a tactic. Al Qaeda is merely one group that uses that tactic. Declaring war against terrorism and Al Qaeda has all along never made sense. It has always been the logical equivalent of declaring war against U-Boats. And U-Boat captains.
• The enemy is radical Islam. And it is a larger and more dangerous enemy than virtually any domestic politician has yet given it credit for being. "

Read the entire post here.

"Let's be realistic about reality"

Mark Steyn gets it right, as usual, about the "..."gun free zone" fraud' imposed on the Virginia Tech population.

"Fetal Attraction": why embryos are cooler than kids.

Humorist Julia Gorin (www.JuliaGorin.com) has an interesting take on abortion. Humorous and interesting! Read it here.

NOTE: Sorry for the wrong link, now corrected!

Wish I Had Thought of That!

"Ribbit Pest Control" - sign on a truck I saw on the road yesterday!

Party Agenda Driven Politics

Victor Davis Hanson explains the irrationality of the Democratic and MSM's constant attacks! An interesting thought.

52.6% of Americans receive significant income from government programs?

FROM GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS?? How about from their fellow Americans? Words are important, and the governments and MSM have a way of obscuring facts with them. "Government Programs" is code for "Income Transfer." We should all remember that!
Read the whole thing from the CSM here.

My question is how can we as a society continue to transfer this amount of wealth and still grow? It is projected to be 60% by 2040. Why should 60% of the population get "SIGNIFICANT" income from their fellow Americans???

A Melange of Today's Politics!

I'm playing catchup on a few valuable columns from end of last week:

George Will puts global warming in perspective in "Fuzzy Climate Math".

Liz Cheney puts San Fran Nans trip to Syria in perspective in "The Truth about Syria".

Jason Whitlock puts Imus and the attacking hoards into perspective in "Imus isn't the real bad guy" - the firat sentence of which summarizes his feelings: "Thank you, Don Imus. You've given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem."

Thank God they avoid political correctness!

Correction (4/21/2007): it was pointed out to me that Liz Cheney is in fact the daughter of the Vice President and the WaPo chose not to point that out. Sorry for the confusion as I had earlier stated she was not related to the Vice President.

"America's Pimp 'n' Ho Culture Gets Real"

Kathleen Parker at the Orlando Sentinel summarizes the situation with Imus and the conclusion of the Duke lacrosse players scandal, putting blame where it belongs and concluding with this penultimate paragraph which gives us some hope:

• "Those who have performed most honorably throughout this disgraceful season of sexual spin and racial one-upmanship are the athletes from both teams. Mature and dignified during their respective news conferences, they've put the grown-ups to shame and offer reason to hope that the rising generation of young Americans will put this corrupt house in order."

Let's hope she is right!

The Buena Vista Sisters Club

The London Times-On-Line remembers an all-girl orchestra in Cuba from the 1930's: Anacaona.

Being a fan of the Buena Vista Social Club, a more recent group which played the finest Cuban music for several decades and I believe still exists today, the article caught my eye and when I saw you could download 6 of their songs (#5 is in an odd format which I cannot play with Windows Media Player) I listened and was impressed!

Go listen to their great music!

Note: if you like exceptional music I would recommend you watch the Times-On-Line. Last time we were in London, I bought a Sunday London Times - at normal price - and included was a great Johnny Cash CD that I listen to regularly. And it was free!

Why would anyone watch or believe CBS?

Katie Couric participates in another CBS disaster - this time plagiarism, not faking documents. Read about it here. And she's going to help the ratings?

Madison

The other half of our grandchildren (see "James", April 6) with their companion "Buddy"! Any question why we are proud?

MEDIA BIAS: HOW IT WORKS

I was perusing Power Line Blog this evening and noticed that John Hinderaker had a post analyzing an AP story on a respected scientist who knows there is global warming but does not believe it is causing an increase in hurricanes. Same subject as my last post.

Read his analysis of the "words" the AP uses to discredit this scientist and promote Reverand Al! As my last post indicated, I believe this purposeful misleading with loaded words should be noted by all to calibrate the sources!

Do you still want to deny the NYT bias?

James Taranto in his April 6, 2007, "Best of the Web Today", documents a blatant example of the left bias at the NYT:

"On June 5, 1999, the New York Times published an editorial praising the president for using a recess appointment to install James Hormel, a gay-rights activist, as ambassador to Luxembourg:

""President Clinton took an appropriate stand against bigotry yesterday by giving James Hormel a recess appointment as the nation's Ambassador to Luxembourg. Mr. Hormel's nomination had been blocked for 20 months by a handful of Senate Republicans disturbed by his sexual orientation.

The credentials of Mr. Hormel, heir to a meat-packing fortune and a former dean at the University of Chicago Law School who has been active in civic, educational and political causes, were not the sticking point. There were sufficient Senate votes to confirm him had Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, allowed a vote. . . .

Under the constitutional provision that allows Presidents to bypass the confirmation process when Congress is in recess, Mr. Hormel can remain as Ambassador until late next year. His shameful treatment by Mr. Lott and his G.O.P. colleagues will be remembered long beyond that.""

The New York Times editorial board, however, seems to have conveniently forgotten the Hormel incident. Today the paper weighs in on another president's recess appointment of an ambassador to a Low Country:

"President Bush resorted to an old political trick this week, using recess appointments to evade Senate confirmation votes that he was sure to lose. . . .

The most bitterly resented but least important appointment sent Sam Fox, a major Republican donor, to Belgium as ambassador. Mr. Fox contributed $50,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group whose vicious ads during the 2004 campaign lied about Senator John Kerry's war record and helped win President Bush a second term. It is common for administrations to reward big donors with ambassadorships. But this appointment is a deliberate thumb in the eye of Senator Kerry and fellow Democrats who were poised to reject the nominee. . . .

With nominees of such dubious merit, it is no wonder that Mr. Bush resorted to an end run around the Senate. The American public will almost certainly pay the price." [my emphasis]

The assertion that Fox "was sure to lose" a confirmation vote in the Senate is either mistaken or dishonest. As we noted yesterday, Sens. Claire McCaskill and Joe Lieberman had both announced they would support Fox, which would give him 51 votes assuming no Republican defections. The Democrats planned to block Fox's confirmation by bottling the nomination up in committee, just as the Republicans did to Hormel.

Also as in the case of Hormel, Fox's credentials are not in question--or at least the Times does not question them. The only objection it offers to his nomination is that it hurts John Kerry's feelings.

Given the Times's worldview, which is that any opposition to gay rights is invidious, we can understand why the paper found the Republicans' blocking of Hormel worse than the Democrats' blocking of Fox. But no one can dispute that the latter is exceedingly petty. And the Times looks even more risibly partisan than usual in calling recess appointments "an end run around the Senate" when a Republican uses them and a "constitutional provision" when a Democrat does.""

Mr. Taranto critiqued the content of the editorial. I critiqued the language, in my opinion the real source of bias at the NYT - not only on their editorial page, where perhaps it could be excused, but in its day to day reporting, also.

Beautiful!

You can read about this here.

Romney gets it!

This quote is the most concise and accurate summary of what we need in our next President:

• "Washington is broken. Americans know it. And the reason I am running is to fix Washington and to get America on track so that we can defeat the jihadists, we can be competitive with Asia, we can fix our schools, we can get health care for all our citizens that's private, market-based health care, we can solve our immigration problems." ( my emphasis)

Watch Mr. Romney. He "talks the talk"; we need to decide whether he will "walk the walk."!

HT: Hugh Hewitt (4/6/2007 - quote from the Des Moines Register)

"Britain's Humiliation -- and Europe's"

Charles Krauthammer explains the latest Iranian hostage situation. Where were the EU - whose citizens had been seized from the high seas - and the UN - who is chartered to maintain international order?

Answer: they are "faux" transnational institutions, whose "sovereign" members have their own interests and therefore will not cooperate when needed. The money quote:

• "The capture and release of the 15 British hostages illustrate once again the fatuousness of the "international community" and its great institutions. You want your people back? Go to the EU and get stiffed. Go to the Security Council and get a statement that refuses even to "deplore" this act of piracy. (You settle for a humiliating expression of "grave concern"). Then turn to the despised Americans. They"ll deal some cards and bail you out."

Read the whole thing - it is one of the clearest explanations of the problem with "transnational institutions" - the solution that our left leaning population wants to depend on rather than our own sovereignty and power - and why such dependence would be the end of us!

James

My 4 month old grandson. His sister Madison and he make my wife and I very proud!

A Melange of Today's Politics!

Ruben Navarrette documents the collapse of the case against Alberto Gonzales.

The Washington Post, much to their credit, accurately critiques San Fran Nan's "...foolish shuttle diplomacy."

The NY Daily News analyzes the attitude of the 15 British hostages and makes an interesting, and in my opinion accurate, assessment of the event.

Interesting set of news items. What do they tell us?

Reverand Al and the Inquisition!

William F. Buckley in his column "Naturalism" defines Al Gore's global warming pronouncements as a type of religious inquisition. The two key paragraphs:

• "The whole business is eerily religious in feel. Back in the 15th century, the question was: do you believe in Christ? It was required in Spain by the Inquisition that the answer should be affirmative, leaving to one side subsidiary specifications.
• It is required today to believe that carbon-dioxide emissions threaten the basic ecological balance. The assumption then is that inasmuch as a large proportion of the damage is man-made, man-made solutions are necessary. But it is easy to see, right away, that there is a problem in devising appropriate solutions, and in allocating responsiblity for them."

Mark Steyn uses the British Hostage situation with Iran to explain the West's Suicide!

A must read by Mark Steyn, explaining the self-delusion of the West - yes that includes W - and where it is leading. The last three paragraphs summarize the situation:

• "So we live today in a world of one-way sovereignty: American, British and Iraqi forces in Iraq respect the Syrian and Iranian borders; the Syrians and Iranians do not respect the Iraqi border. Patrolling the Shatt al-Arab at a time of war, the Royal Navy operates under rules of engagement designed by distant fainthearts with an eye to the polite fictions of "international law": If you're in a ''warship,'' you can't wage war. If you're in a ''destroyer,'' don't destroy anything. If you're in a "frigate," you're frigging done for.
• 
  On Sept. 11, a New York skyscraper was brought down by the Egyptian leader of a German cell of an Afghan terror group led by a Saudi. Islamism is only the first of many globalized ideological viruses that will seep undetected across national frontiers in the years ahead. Meanwhile, we put our faith in meetings of foreign ministers.
• 
  "It is better to be making the news than taking it," wrote Winston Churchill in 1898. But his successors have gotten used to taking it, and the men who make the news well understand that."

Read the whole thing, it is worth the few minutes it takes. TheWest has to get leaders to respect the rules of engagement that have made us and kept us leaders of the free world, or we will no longer be free! Taking hostages in international waters in unacceptable, and Iran must be made to understand that fact, or it will only lead to more hostages! It is not brain surgery!