carnival of political punditry - August 12, 2007

Welcome to the August 12, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry.

Troy Stouffer presents Expert Analysis Or Egomania? posted at I'm A Pundit Too, saying, "Each and every time you turn on the local, network, or cable news the “experts” are pontificating over their particular area of expertise. They make predictions about everything under the sun from global warming and the current political campaigns, to the economy and the stock market. The amusing aspect of this nightly “expert” analysis is that a few months or years down the road, the experts are all shocked at the outcome. The shocking aspect is that the same news producers continue to trot out the same shocked experts to provide the “expert” analysis on the topic of the day."




Sammy Benoit presents YID With LID: Democrats Suck up To Daily Kos Hate Site posted at YID With LID.




Chris Moreau presents The Politics Hour posted at ChrisMoreau.com, saying, "I've had it with the left and the right..."

I personally enjoy reading people's gripes about Republicans and Democrats.
If you are sick of it all, this is a good one for you. I don't condone everything Moreau says, but he has a point.




Charles H. Green presents We've All Caught the Detroit Disease posted at Trust Matters, saying, "As the US car industry continues its inexorable decline it's worth looking at why and asking if the rest of the country is also exhibiting the symptoms of the "Detroit Disease"."

This is a good one if you enjoy discussing economics as much as I do. If you don't enjoy it, read this anyways, you may learn something.




Alvaro Fernandez presents Training the Aging Workforce posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, "In the debate about social security and health care, we are often forgetting this important demographic trend and how to turn it in our favor."




Jack Le Moine presents Another Nutty Lawsuit posted at Jack Le Moine's Blog




Jack Le Moine presents Yet ANOTHER Big Bucks Lawsuit posted at Jack Le Moine's Blog




Madeleine Begun Kane presents Bush Growls; Dems Kowtow (Limerick and Poll) posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

I think I'm going to have a chat about this one in the discussion forum this week.




Jeremy Hitchcock presents Fruit of the War Crimes posted at WTTF: Welcome to the Future, saying, "A nation united... against underpants."

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carnival of political punditry - July 22, 2007

Welcome to the July 22, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry.

Wenchypoo presents Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

Wenchypoo presents Invasion of the Pod People, Round 2 (L-O-N-G) posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, saying, ""I see Pod People...they're EVERYWHERE...and they don't even know they're being used!""

Sammy Benoit presents There Was Never a Terrorist Threat, The Check is in the Mail, John Edwards is right about bumper stickers and other great lies. posted at YID With LID.

Sammy Benoit presents Democrats Want a Don't Ask-Don't Tell Terror Policy posted at YID With LID.

Tracee Sioux presents Unrealistic Expectations of Perfection posted at So Sioux Me, saying, "Why can't people apply the same "good enough" role model standards to the female candidate as they do the male candidate? Is it the unrealistic expectations of perfection that keep Conservative women from being on Hillary's team?"

Troy Stouffer presents Equal Opportunity Politics? posted at I'm A Pundit Too, saying, "Race, religion, ethnicity, and gender are all factors that are being put in play by the myriad of presidential candidates. The particular candidates are betting that their gender, or race, or religion, or ethnic background is the ‘X’ factor that will push their candidacy over the top. The majority of the Democratic candidates basically have the same set of core beliefs or positions. The same is true for the Republican candidates. Each campaign is looking for the one thing that sets them apart from the other candidates. Do these “classifications” really matter? Should they?"

Cade Krueger presents Building Your Home Business In A Difficult Political Climate posted at Write To Right.

Ashok presents Rethink.: Greatness and Individualism in Tocqueville posted at Rethink., saying, "Reflection on where the problem with our emphasis on individualism lies: does it make us too proud in some cases? Or is it prone to a fear so deep we don't even realize we are fearful?"

Adam Pieniazek presents Best Political Candidate Ever: None of the Above posted at Adam Pieniazek, saying, "A post about an initiative in Massachusetts to list "None of the Above" as an option on election ballots. If NOTA wins, a new election is triggered with new candidates."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Yet Another Filibuster Song Parody (The Full-a-Bluster Song) posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

DWSUWF presents Fixing Fairness - A modest technology solution. posted at Divided We Stand United We Fall, saying, "Certainly there is a fairness problem with broadcasters, but if we look at this problem objectively, we see it cannot be solved by dealing with the broadcasters alone. The bigger problem resides in the listeners, watchers, and readers"

Jack Yoest presents The Dreamer Goes To Peru...Without Her Mao Bag. posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, "I asked the woman why she wanted to work for us.

"The Terrorists are trying to kill me."

I knew this was not to be an ordinary job interview.

Charmaine and I were hiring..."

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carnival of political punditry - July 8, 2007

Welcome to the July 8, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry.

When you get a moment, please check out my new home page: http://thenewpundit.com/

Jack Yoest presents Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell Reports: How Liberals Think in War posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, "The only time a manager should shout or bark out an order demanding instant obedience is if the building is on fire: an emergency. Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell had a few minutes to make a decision and decided to take a vote. It wasn't an emergency, just yet.

"It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life," Luttrell writes. "I must have been out of my mind. I had actually cast a vote which I knew could sign our death warrant. I'd turned into a (expletive) liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jack rabbit.

Marcus Luttrell tells his story in Lone Survivor and is reported in A war hero from Huntsville rues a decision made in Afghanistan

Sammy Benoit presents Homeland Insecurity posted at YID With LID. A Democrat House Committee secretly ordered the removal of all references to the "Global War On Terror," nonchalantly claiming it wasn't political. Who are they fooling? The Military Times reported that Erin Conaton, a staffer on Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton's House Armed Services Committee, banished the term "Global War On Terror" from the 2008 defense bill, in a Mar. 27 memo to Democrats.

Ashok presents Is Democracy Feasible? (Reflections on the Gettysburg Address) posted at Rethink.Democracy is feasible, but it requires beatitude. Otherwise, it is worse than worthless: it is merely prelude to anarchy. It is truly tragic that awareness of the need for beatitude should come at the expense of so much blood.

Lucynda Riley presents This is why my son is Homeschooled posted at Quietly Into the Night.

Charles Modiano presents History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine posted at CLEAN OUR HOUSE! - Killing the Bigotry in all of US. Thomas Paine was ahead of his time, and this fact gives us iconic options that few know exist. If saddled with the choice of “men of their times” versus “men of our times”, shouldn’t it be a no-brainer who gets the historical love? Shouldn’t our history books make it self-evident that all white men in white wigs were not created equal? Unfortunately, I never did learn anything about Thomas Paine “the abolitionist” or “women’s rights activist” in school.

Wenchypoo presents Who Needs Universal Health Care? posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket. People like Michael Moore, that's who! Did you know he was a third-generation unemployed union auto worker, not to mention a heart attack waiting to happen (have you seen him lately?).

Kathryn Lang presents Division Will Destroy the United States posted at The Peculiar Club. I am all for compassion. I am all for understanding. I am all for celebrating uniqueness. The counterbalance must be that first and foremost we stand united. “United we stand.” Diversity is great – division will destroy.

D presents 43 Famous people who should run for President posted at The Hiller Report, saying, "An amusing list of famous people and things who should run for President in '08. Includes 43 pictures."

Anna - On The Ponderosa presents LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL posted at On The Ponderosa.

Don presents Ron Paul - Who Is Ron Paul And What Is He Smoking? : DirtFromTexas.Com posted at DirtFromTexas.Com, saying, "While others who think they know this Texas Congressman run to jump on his bandwagon, I show people some of the things that Ron Paul does, not says. I happen to live in the district next to his and I get a first hand view of the double talking "see what I say, not what I do" actions."

Kilroy_60 presents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney Are A National Disgrace For America posted at Fear And Loathing - The Gonzo Papers.

Steven Silvers presents WakeUpWalMart defections might mean union-backed activist groups have done all they can do. posted at Scatterbox at stevensilvers.com, saying, "Departing leaders of a prominent political-style anti-Wal-Mart group perhaps think they’ll accomplish more through a well-coiffed multimillionaire populist presidential candidate."

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carnival of political punditry - July 1, 2007

Welcome to the July 1, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry. I am incredibly tired at the moment, but I promised myself that I would comment on some of the submissions this week.

Hakim Abdullah presents An Islamic View of Suicide Bombing posted at Hakim Abdullah.

Hakim has contributed to this carnival in the past. I read this article and two thoughts come up: We need more Muslims to share this view. We need those who do share this view to be more vocal.

Tracee Sioux presents Who Doesn’t Have a Crush on Barack Obama? posted at Blog Fabulous, saying, "The Latin sex-pot with the dity about having a crush on Barack Obama certainly isn't going to hurt his campaign."

I can honestly say that I do not have a crush on Obama. This brings up an intersting point. Bill Clinton was seen as hot by a lot of women. In 2004, John Edwards was the hot Vice President candidate. And now we have Obama. I wonder how democrats make their decisions.

Tracee Sioux presents Global Gag Rule is Anti-Girl posted at So Sioux Me, saying, "The Global Gag Rule and limitations on the distribution of contraception is blatantly anti-girl and anti-woman."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Suffering From Bloomberg-Envy ... Or Just an Idiotic Egomaniac? posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

Ashok presents Question: Should Political Science Exist? Why? posted at Rethink..

An interesting piece on why we feel the need for debate.

Matt presents Two federal agencies on power grab - why Republicans are like sneaky little kids posted at The Displaced Republican, saying, "I used to think the Republican Party stood for small government. I recently figured it out that when it comes to the big/small government debate, they're actually worse than the Dems...they're like sneaky little kids."

Matt gives one of many good examples for this argument. Republicans need to start acting like Conservatives again.

Wenchypoo presents In Honor of High Milk Prices posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, saying, "There's nothing more political than farm subsidies that are no longer working thanks to ethanol!"

Big Government at its best. Subsidies for bad ideas.

Sammy Benoit presents Jumping off the Bush Bandwagon? No Bush Jumped off Mine posted at YID With LID.

Did George Bush forget who voted for him in 2004?

Mark25 presents Management vs. Politics posted at HotStrategies.com.

Kyle presents Cheney Inspires Me posted at Nascent Notions, saying, "Cheney Invents his own Branch of government and I follow suite"

Kyle presents Immigration: The Devil's Name is Amnesty posted at Nascent Notions.

Why debate an issue when you can accuse someone of being a racist instead?

Hell's Handmaiden presents More Firepower? Less Crime? hell's handmaiden posted at Hell's Handmaiden.

I don't think the Handmaiden likes guns. This argument will go on forever I think.

Jack Yoest presents Lurita Alexis Doan, GSA Chief: Capitalism Meets Politics posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, "When a person of note is covered by the media in Your Nation's Capital, three questions are asked by the victim:
1) Is there a picture?
2) Is it above the fold?
3) Is the story running on the weekend?"

It's pretty simple. If Representative Waxman is accusing someone of something, there is a witchhunt in progress.

Charles H. Green presents Trust, Politics and US Health Care Policy posted at Trust Matters, saying, "A Harvard Business School prof uses the standard tools of business analysis to indict US health care - a system that serves neither business nor the public, yet seems impossible to fix so it works for either."

Charles discusses the book "Who Killed Health Care?"

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Quote of the Day and Some Thoughts About Shamnesty

"At this point, the people supporting this bill might as well be supporting putting crack in elementary school vending machines because quite frankly, it probably couldn't do much more damage to their political careers than this bill." John Hawkins -- rightwingnews.com

John lists a group of polls on his site this morning once again demonstrating a vile hatred of the Senate's Immigration Bill. But it is not only by Hawkins, nor just by conservatives, but also by liberals.

A Democracy Corps poll shows that democrats are evenly split over the issue. Voters said that they were more likely to support the bill if it tightened border security and stopped illegal aliens from getting government benefits. SFGate.com has info on that poll. Rasmussen polls show that only 20% of American voters support the bill, while almost 70% want an approach that focuses "exclusively on securing the border and reducing illegal immigration."

This has got to be the strangest paradox in political history. If you look at most polls, you will find that the splits are partisan. Example, look at a poll regarding George Bush and the economy. About 40% of voters give him high marks on the economy. If you break in down by party, 77% of Republicans give him high marks while only 10% of Democrats agree. On this issue those who would normally support a Republican president praise him, while those who would not support a Republican president do not.

Immigration is a different animal. This bill, and the president who is pushing it, is opposed by the left and the right. On this issue, the President gets high marks from 24% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats.

But despite this uniform opposition from the left and the right, the Senate and the President are on television daily explaining to us that they are pushing this reform because that's what American voters want them to do. And there was much confusion in the land.

Look, I'm not one to trust polls because I know that they can be skewed by biased pollsters. I also know that 90% of the people responding to these polls have done not one bit of research into the subject matter. But this is more overwhelming than most. There is no support for Immigration Reform, but we have morons in DC who swear to us that it has vast support and that it is absolutely necessary. How is this even possible? Have Bush and Cheney stopped watching Fox News?

Completely left out of the debate in DC is the fact that there is no support for this bill. Completely left out of why there is no support for this bill is the fact that Congress was not given permission to create new laws in an effort to cover up the fact that it refused to enforce laws that have been on the books for decades.

Take a look at what Hawkins has to say. If I keep typing, I'm going to get angry and punch my monitor.

carnival of political punditry - June 24, 2007

Welcome to the June 24, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry.

J.C. Wilmore presents The legacy of "Macaca" is alive and well posted at The Richmond Democrat.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents An Arresting Affair posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

Sammy Benoit presents Jimmy Carter's Legacy -Islamic Iran posted at YID With LID.

Tracee Sioux presents Shut Up John Mayer, Stop Waiting On the World to Change posted at So Sioux Me, saying, "Voting for Hillary because she is a woman is a valid and legitimate reason. An argument advocating voting down the genderlines in 2008 to open the potential for all girls in America."

Michael presents Congress Approval All Time Low and Third Parties posted at The Common Virtue.

Hakim Abdullah presents Is Islam Compatible with Democracy? posted at Hakim Abdullah.

Avant News presents Sam Brownback Pregnancy May Put Squeeze On Presidential Bid posted at Avant News.

Lucynda Riley presents And our governemnt wonders why we don't trust them posted at Quietly Into the Night.

Sammy Benoit presents Why We Fight -->A Message for the Democrats posted at YID With LID.

Jon Swift presents Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Ann Althouse* posted at Jon Swift, saying, "Let's subject Ann Althouse's blog to Freudian analysis, since it seems only fair after she put Hillary's new campaign video on the couch."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents The GOP's In For A Rudy Awakening posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

vjack presents Ideology Over Competence Revisited: Bush's Nominee for Surgeon General posted at Atheist Revolution.

Lucynda Riley presents This is shocking!!! posted at Quietly Into the Night.

nishant presents North Korea gets 25 million bucks, and a meeting with US envoy posted at OMG Teh World!, saying, "A post with speculation on the whole North Korea dispute."

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carnival of political punditry - June 17, 2007

Welcome to the June 17, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry.

This is an interesting carnival. We begin with some jabs at the President and the GOP in general with few articles about the Iraq war in the mix. We then move on to some opinions about the current economy. Staying on course with current events, we move on to the Immigration debate. One blogger gives his feelings on JFK. In a bit of contrast, one blogger tells us why we need laws, while another tells that laws do nothing but destroy. In a strong finish, we try to figure out how our planet survives with so many physical poisons, and with so many social poisons, then we end up with some Mitt Romney humor.

Only Three Notes presents How to become an American President? posted at Only Three Notes, saying, "This is Arnab, the antichrist again. This would be my second post in this blog. I have found quite a few followers but looking for more. I am specifically looking for an american president to be my follower. This post of mine is going to outline how to become an American president."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents GOP Piety Song Parody (Sing to Billy Joel?s Honesty) posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

DWSUWF presents End Game: The face of "Victory in Iraq" posted at Divided We Stand United We Fall, saying, "The good news is that we have entered the "End Game" of our military involvement in Iraq. The bad news is that the man making the smart moves on the chessboard is Moqtada al-Sadr, likely future leader of Iraq, and the face of "Victory in Iraq" as defined by United States policy."

Hell's Handmaiden presents Churchill had "Never Surrender" hell's handmaiden posted at Hell's Handmaiden.

Wenchypoo presents Recession or Depression? Either Way, the Sky is Falling on Someone Unprepared posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

David Hayes presents Misguided Reform: The Problem of the Guest Worker posted at Frozen Toothpaste.

Tim Abbott presents Don't Fence Me In posted at Walking the Berkshires.

David Mills presents John F. Kennedy speaks posted at Undercover Black Man, saying, "A neat little dose of aural history..."

Mike Netherland presents Rule of Law posted at Mike's Nether Land, saying, "A recent post regarding one aspect of the illegal immigration issue. Thanks for hosting!"

zenofeller presents The Real Deal. posted at zenofeller.com.

Wenchypoo presents If Only There Were Fewer People… posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

Rick Sincere presents The Outing of Tyler Whitney posted at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts.

E.P. Wintergreen presents Romney Secures Key Endorsement from the Mentally Ill posted at Absolutely Serious, saying, "this is satirical in nature."

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carnival of political punditry - June 10, 2007

Welcome to the June 10, 2007 edition of carnival of political punditry. I don't hide the fact that my blog is a conservative blog. I write conservative opinions and so does the other writer, Troy.

I decided to do a wide open blog carnival, allowing opinions from the left and the write. After a good look, I almost feel like I need to put in a "Opinions do not reflect" disclaimer.

The submissions are all here, I didn't turn away anything that was submitted. I will be doing this each week and I will continue to post so long as the submissions do not push too far. There is one that is off topic, and this is the only time it will be allowed.

Some of this is funny, some of it is cause for concern, and some of it is very informative. I don't agree with it all, but here it is.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Bloody Hell, It?ll Be Bloody! posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

Wenchypoo presents Rattling the Political Chain of Command posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

Avant News presents George W. Bush to Replace Will Shortz as NYT Crossword Puzzle Editor posted at Avant News.

Sammy Benoit presents Democratic Party Political Correctness Will Get US Killed posted at YID With LID.

Michael Boldin presents Understanding the Constitution and War Powers: Can the Congress end War? posted at Populist Party of America.

Grey Swan presents Iran, Nuclear Weapons, and how to prevent it. posted at Grey Swan, saying, "Brief Blog about the importance of being able threaten your enemies."

Steve Faber presents - The Latest Government Proposal to Waste Your Money, Cost You Money, Invade Your Privacy, and (sadly) More posted at DebtBlog.

Jon Swift presents Scooter Libby's Halloween posted at Jon Swift, saying, "It is an image I will not soon forget: Scooter Libby in a remote military installation scaring children."

vjack presents Democratic Candidates Trade Rationality for Votes posted at Atheist Revolution.

Phantom Pulpit presents - Phantom Daily Blog - Dr. Death goes free posted at Phantom Pulpit.

CapeTownDissentator presents Bill O'Reilly: Ecce Homo, an SOB Who Thinks He's a BFD posted at The Dissentators.

Jack Yoest presents Lurita Alexis Doan: Good Management Meets Bad Politics posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, "A good female manager leading the GSA is bringing out the worst in Congressman Henry Waxman.

Waxman is conducting hearings investigating the General Services Agency head, Lurita Alexis Doan. The Democratic Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is accusing Doan of sweetheart deals (that never happened), of lack of competence (voiced by ‘reassigned’ personnel), and of violations of the Hatch Act. The accusation of Hatch Act violations is the most serious."

Charles H. Green presents How Marketing Can Destroy Sales Trust posted at Trust Matters, saying, "It was Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, who gave Republicans this advice for dealing with the press: "Never answer the question they ask; only answer the question you want to talk about." If politicians want people to start trusting them, they have to get past this Vietnam-era Republican talking points mindset."

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They Never Rest; More Crazy Propaganda from the Huffington Post

by The New Pundit

I should go to that site to get all of my material. It has been less than a week since I discussed the propaganda that was written about the JFK plot. Well, not only is there more of it straight from the Huff herself, but there are no less than two articles in support of Saddam Hussein. Yes, I said Saddam Hussein. It seems that they are not aware of the fact that the man is dead. Two articles at the Post are making a bad attempt at smearing Mitt Romney, while showing support for the former terrorist regime of Hussein. They are in addition to an article from Arianna explaining to us that the JFK plotters were not an actual threat because they did not have the financing or the weapons. Arianna, they didn't get the financing or the weapons because they were arrested before they could get these things accomplished. Just so you know, it is a bit more difficult to get this accomplished because of the fact that the NSA intercepts telephone communications from known terrorist organizations overseas. And their plan to blow up the pipeline could have been greatly improved upon once they made contact with monetary resources. While searching for the resources, they could have easily run across people who would have had more knowledge on the science needed to take out the entire pipeline. But we don’t expect someone like yourself to actually thank the authorities for preventing this disaster.

But I made enough mention of the JFK plot in another post. Today I want to talk about the Saddam supporters. Apparently Mitt made some crazy remark about Saddam kicking out UN weapons inspectors, and that it was this action that led to the war. Now I know what you are thinking, you are thinking that Saddam did in fact kick weapons inspectors out of Iraq multiple times from 1997 to 2002. Well, according to Larry Beinhart and Paul Begaga, you are absolutely wrong. You are living in a mad, mad world and stepping in shit.

Now I'm sure that if they were called out, they would try to clarify by stating that they were mostly referring to the fact that Saddam did in fact let inspectors back into the country in 2002. But they would need a lot of clarification because they both intentionally try to get around exactly what happened. They fail to mention how many times in 2002 Iraq rejected UN resolutions regarding inspections. They fail to mention how the inspectors were treated when they were allowed into the country. They fail to mention that Saddam and his thugs did everything possible to keep the inspectors at bay. They pay no attention to the timeline leading up to the liberation of Iraq from a terrorist regime led by Saddam and his two child raping brats. Well, ok, only one of his brats was constantly raping children.

In March 2002, Iraqi officials met with UN officials for the first time since 1998. This is done only after President Bush talks about Iraq in his 2002 SOTU address. UN officials fail to win the return of inspectors at this meeting or the two meeting that occur in May and July. It is not until September of 2002 that Saddam sends a letter to the UN allowing inspections, and even then he does not agree to the rules until October.

In January 2003 Hans Blix filed an update with the UN. In it he describes a lack of cooperation from the Iraqi government that includes actual harassment of the inspectors by Iraqi government officials. He mentions that he is not being given access to interview 3,100 different scientists to fill in gaps from missing records. He mentions the fact that numerous weapons and chemical agents remain unaccounted for. This list includes 1,000 tons of chemical agents from the Iraq-Iran war, 6,500 chemical rockets, 8,500 liters of anthrax, and 650kg of bacterial growth. He finds that Iraq possesses thiodiglycol, a precursor of mustard gas. Iraq had been developing missiles that went beyond the range allowed by sanctions. And to finish things off, they found that 380 rocket engines were smuggled into Iraq the previous month with chemicals used for missile propellants and control systems. This means that as late as December 2002, Iraq was creating and smuggling the very weapons they were not allowed to possess. For those keeping score, this is in fact the part of the justification for the war.

There is something here that is very important, and I don’t want anyone to miss it. Bush stepped up pressure on Iraq in January of 2002. This was after many years of a massive run-around effort by Iraq. Iraq finally decides to 'comply' with the UN in September 2002, and even then still has to be forced to give the small amount of cooperation that it gave. Iraq only makes this announcement after meeting with UN officials in March, May and July. Iraq is aware by this time that Bush is not going to tolerate further noncompliance after 9-11. Iraq knows that Bush is going to attack. Yet with this knowledge, they still drag their feet. What happened in those months?

According to former Iraqi General Georges Sada, Saddam had refitted commercial jets transport WMDs from Iraq to Syria in June 2002. These jets were pretending to fly aid to Syrian flood victims. Let me make sure this is loud and clear. Iraq sent aid to Syria. Iraq had been in a humanitarian crisis since the invasion of Kuwait. UN sanctions prevented other countries from providing food and medicine to the poor. I'm sure you all remember the big stink that was made for so many years about how the evil U.S. was killing Iraqi children by not allowing this food and medicine. But Iraq somehow has the ability to send aid to Syria? This flood killed about 20 people and took out a small amount of farmland. Saddam, being the humanitarian we all know, sent aid to this country despite the fact that he could not take care of his own people. Yeah, I buy that. The general talks about this in his book Saddam's Secrets.
The reason Saddam had kicked out inspectors so many times over the years was because he was in fact trying to re-arm his country. Inspectors had a 4 year long absence from 1998 to 2002 which allowed Saddam to build that list that I mentioned earlier. He also used this time to shoot at jets that were inspecting the no fly zones. He used oil money to fund Palestinian suicide bombers and line the pockets of UN officials. After realizing that George Bush was no Bill Clinton, he then stalled just long enough to hide his weapons in Syria in an attempt to make it appear that he was complying. He assumed that this would buy him enough influence to avert an invasion. Hindsight tells us that he assumed wrong.

Hindsight has also told us about Saddam's plans. It has told us that he was using the oil-for-food scandal to buy influence with the UN. After all of the information we now have regarding this scandal, can we safely say that he was not using his cash to influence the inspectors who were there in early 2003? Hindsight tells us that he was building alliances with Palestinian thugs and the terrorist regime of Syria and using funds from smuggled oil to do so. It tells us that he gave safe haven to terrorists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian national who had ties to Al-Qaeda long before the invasion. While I’m at it, I will also mention that hindsight tells us that the AP reported no less than two separate attacks on our troops that included IEDs created from looted chemical weapons in 2003. Hindsight tells us quite a bit about Saddam's regime, maybe the writers for the Huff should subscribe to the History Channel.

So before you accuse Mitt Romney of stepping in shit or living in a mad, make-believe world, you should try this little thing known as research. You should take a look at the timeline. You should take a look at Saddam’s intentions. Failure to do so makes it appear that you support people like Saddam, former terrorist thug.

Hillary Announces Her Intent To Turn America Into A Communist Nation

Not only did Hillary Clinton announce that she plans on turning our capitalist system into a communist system, she lied her backside off while doing so.

I’ll go over the highlights. She claimed that family incomes have decreased $1,300 in the past 6 years. New jobs pay on average 21% less than the jobs that have been lost. There has been a 4% increase in the percentage of workers falling below the poverty line. She claims that all of this is due to tax cuts for the rich and other bad economic policies.

The reality is that wages across the board have gone up. It isn’t that her math is wrong, it is that she is manipulating it. The left is making a deal over the rich/poor gap. The top earners have increased their pay at a higher rate than the lower earners. They use this to claim that lower wages have gone down. This isn’t true. All wages have gone up. And private business ownership has also gone up also, 3.7% a year since 2000 compared to about 2.3% from 1991 - 1999. Guess what Hillary, these business owners have caused that gap to increase.

She brought up Social Security and health care. “That's why they want to privatize Social Security and let individuals bear the risks. It's why their answer to the health care crisis is limited to creating health savings account, which allows the healthiest people to get the best deal, with little concern if the sickest get worse.”

This is the woman who applauded the fact that Congress prevented Bush from implementing the Social Security plan that Bill Clinton suggested in 1998, interesting. Although if you really think about it, she applauded the fact that the democrats prevented reform, and the fact that they actually refused to offer any alternatives, but that is a long story that would take a few pages itself. Claiming that the health care answer is limited to health savings accounts makes me wonder if Hillary pays attention when she votes down a measure to allow small business owners to join together in an effort to get group discounts on employee health insurance.

She hammered Bush for his “unfair” corporate tax breaks. “First, I'm going to work to level the playing field and reduce the special breaks for big corporations.”
And let’s see what she said about shipping jobs overseas. “Second, let's once and for all get rid of the incentives for American companies to ship jobs and profits overseas. It is one thing for the marketplace to encourage overseas investment. It's another for our own tax code to do so.”

What this lawyer who apparently never took an economics class failed to mention is the opinion of many economists regarding the best way to bring most of those jobs back to the USA. That would be the elimination of all corporate taxes. Corporations spend hundreds of billions each year not only paying taxes, but paying people to pay those taxes. If you cut them out of the picture, you reduce costs. Those costs get invested back into the corporations in the way of higher wages, increased employment, and lower costs for the good and services they provide. In other words, pay increases and your grocery bill decreases. Then all you need to do to help save the U.S. automobile industry is get rid of corrupt unions.

She hammered Bush for budget deficits. She failed to mention that the deficit is under the 40 year average compared to GDP, which is the way economists measure it. She also failed to mention that much of that money is going to fight wars against terrorist regimes that her husband refused to fight himself. Oh yeah, she also didn’t mention how much is going to increase her favorite liberal causes like Medicare.

“It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few and for the few, time to reject the idea of an ‘on your own’ society and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity. I prefer a ‘we're all in it together’ society.
Now, there is no greater force for economic growth than free markets, but markets work best with rules that promote our values, protect our workers and give all people a chance to succeed.”

I’m sure that is exactly what Chavez said just before he sent those tanks to the television stations.

“We need to open up CEO compensation to public scrutiny and public challenge and ensure that boards of directors are independent when determining CEO pay. And we need to update our regulations to confront the emerging problems in our sub-prime and private equity markets.”

Sounds like Chavez again, maybe before he took over the oil companies and chased out most of the people in his country who have college degrees.

Free markets need to be free, not bogged down by government controls. What our economy needs is less intrusion by lawyers who get elected. Doesn’t it frighten anyone besides myself that we have so many lawyers in Washington, and so few economists? I’m tired of lawyers making economic policies and trying so hard to tell companies how much they need to pay their people.

Now I would take a moment to look up the transcript for Obama’s recent speeches, but that man is so blatantly stupid that reading them makes me cry. So I’ll leave you all to go find them yourselves. But please, try to get past the hype.

Ken Calvert and the War Against Earmarks

There is a difference between the shady land deals of Harry Reid and the shady land deals of Ken Calvert. The difference is that conservatives are fighting Calvert. Erick Erickson, editor in chief of redstate.com is calling upon conservatives to have Calvert removed from the Appropriations Committee.
"The House Republican Leadership just does not get it and they will not take us seriously until we flex our muscle against them. We must fight the House GOP and we must fight today. Today, I declare war on the Republican Leadership of the United States House of Representatives. We must scalp one member. That member's name is Ken Calvert," Erick declares on his redstate blog. Michelle Malkin has done a good job of covering this story.

Erick is encouraging members of his blog to flood their lawmakers with phone calls every day compiling a list of those who vote for Calvert. He is currently claiming that many Republicans on the Hill support his efforts.

By now you are wondering what this is all about. Well, remember that wide spread story that was front page news for all those months about Harry Reid buying land, and then selling it years later for a massive profit AFTER securing federal earmarks that may have helped the property value? You remember that don't you? Cunningham is in prison for pretty much the same thing. It was all over, no wait; it actually wasn't all over the place. No one really heard much about it. Oh well. The point is that it happened and nothing was done about it. The other point is that this is what Calvert is being accused of doing, and it really looks as though he is guilty. I don't know that what he did was technically wrong, but it doesn't look good and it brings up a bigger point that I will get to in a minute.

In September 2006, Calvert was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He was given this award for his use of earmarks for personal gain. Calvert claims that the earmarks were all used for his district, but the land deals he has engaged in have all been in or near his district. This looks suspicious whether he is guilty or not. A list of his deals can be found at answers.com.

I don't know if he has done anything illegal or technically unethical. But I don't like the way it looks and I don't like the answers he has given. I think that Erickson is doing all Republicans a favor by bringing this out in the open and I hope that Calvert is replaced in the next election. Now if Calvert were a democrat who was caught with a hundred grand in his freezer and the FBI had people admitting to bribing him, that would be one thing. But the republicans are getting tired of their representatives taking advantage of tax dollars.

And that brings us to the root cause of this evil – earmarks. In the last SOTU address, President Bush spoke out against earmarks, calling on Congress to cut them in half. "In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to over 13,000 and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over 90 percent of the earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and the Senate; they're dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk.
You didn't vote them into law. I didn't sign them into law. Yet they are treated as if they have the force of law. The time has come to end this practice.
So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session."

Does anyone see a problem with federal tax dollars being spent in this manner? Earmarks are treated as law, yet there is no vote. And this is what Calvert has done. He dropped millions of your dollars into land in his district. He then made personal profits selling the land.

If earmarks receive no vote whatsoever, how are we to trust Congress to use them wisely? Short answer, we can't trust them. Earmarks are the face of much corruption in D.C. The lobbyist drops ten grand into the politician’s campaign; the politician returns the favor with earmarks that benefit the lobbyist. Can you say Jack Abramoff? And beyond lobbyists, we see that politicians are using earmarks to raise the value of their own properties.

The President was almost right to ask for earmarks to be cut in half. He was almost right to have the OMB set up a database of all earmarks for us to see. He would have been completely right to tell Congress to cut earmarks off all together. The absolute best we can expect from them is the constant appearance of impropriety.

This is one more thing that gives Congress too much power, corrupting power. And to use Erickson's line, we must flex our muscle against them. "If they refuse to hear that change is needed, we will wipe them out and replace them with new blood that recognizes that a corrupt party rejected by the voters will not be embraced again by the voters until the corruption is purged."

Illegal Immigration And Terrorism

On Monday, six men were arrested by Federal officers for plotting to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey and slaughter as many soldiers as possible. Law enforcement was tipped off in January of last year when the men took a videotape of themselves in training for a Jihadist attack to a local Circuit City to have it transferred onto a DVD. The store employee notified the police who in turn notified the FBI. The men were then put under surveillance and watched until the arrest early this week.

Three of the six men were in the United States illegally. Two of the men had permanent residency status, and the final man was a citizen. Agron Abdullahu was brought to the U.S. as a refugee from Kosovo in 1999. In just 8 years Abdullahu has gone from refugee that was saved from certain death in his homeland, to Jihad seeking terrorist.

What should be a wake up call to all members of Congress, and the administration, is that three of these terrorists have no record of legal entry into our country. The illegal immigration debate has taken a new turn and can no longer be ignored. Yes, there are millions of illegal immigrants in our country that have come here to work and live peaceful lives. There are others that have come to wreak havoc and kill as many of us as they possibly can.

There are an increasing number of “sanctuary” cities throughout our country, where illegal immigrants are not reported by law enforcement for traffic violations and other minor offenses. In some states the Governors and legislatures have passed or are considering laws that allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal drivers licenses. Maryland has even gone as far to grant illegal immigrants residency status for university admission. These “safe havens” for illegal immigrants do not just attract the peaceful, hard working people; they undoubtedly attract those like the six arrested Monday.

I find it appalling that “well-intentioned” politicians overlook the overwhelming threat against our country in order to placate to a voting block of people. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is a homeland security issue. Both Republicans and Democrats have their fair share of the blame on this issue. Both sides love the rhetoric of protecting the masses from the terrorists, but neither side has done nearly enough on illegal immigration.

Will this be a wakeup call for Congress and the administration to do more to protect our borders? Will the proponents of open borders continue to preach to us tolerance and multiculturalism? We have laws concerning immigration and they need to be enforced. We need to force our local and state governments to enforce immigration laws. We need to hold our Congressman and the administration responsible for not protecting our borders properly. The administration needs to know that the American people want the illegal immigration criminals punished instead of t