All posts by Ross

Politics, War On Terror

Iraqi Court Says Saddam Guilty, Faces Execution

It’s good for the Iraqi people to see the rule of law in action, instead of the rules of torture, rape, and murder under Saddam Hussein. It can’t hurt Bush either in the sense that the Iraqi people would not have witnessed what they did today when Saddam got the noose thrown at him, were it not for the vision of George W. Bush.

The majority of Iraqis were dancing in the streets today in celebration of the verdict.

All except some Sunni Arabs that is. They protested Saddam’s conviction in the streets. The Sunnis, a minority of the overall population in the country, enjoyed privileged status during Saddam’s 30 years ruling Iraq. It takes a sorry lot of people to think that they are somehow better and entitled to privileged status over all others. Sort of like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean and Harry Reid, but worse.

How long will it take before somebody starts calling for a retrial in an international court?

News of Saddam’s verdict has been tempered in the press. Some ‘fear’ that the news would be good for Bush. To which I say, to the victor goes the spoils. We have been hearing for years that Iraq is ‘Bush’s war,’ both he and the Iraqi people deserve some credit. One thing is certain, Democrats can’t take credit for prosecuting this war because they’ve been consumed with fighting to defeat Bush because of the war. I think I’ve said this before, but it bares repeating. If it’s good for America, it’s bad for the Democrats.

Politics

Top Dems Acknowledge Saddam’s Nuclear Program

… you remember, that’s the program that Harry Reid, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., John D. Rockefeller IV, and Carl Levin have said Saddam didn’t have.  They acknowledge it now by complaining that the declassification of some of the captured documents, so the public can see what was happening there, may be dangerous.  These are documents recovered in Baghdad when US forces first went in.  Making them available does tend to verify and validate the fact that, on this subject, Bush was right, and they were wrong.  And don’t expect to hear them admit that they were wrong and Bush was right either. 

The play is to forget about what was in the documents, and to make an issue over making them public, ignoring the obvious facts contained therein.

They are good at deflection and use it often.  This  deflection is reminiscent of the Kennedy judicial obstruction memo that was read from a shared file on a computer network.  A network that was shared by republicans and democrats in the Senate.  Amazingly, Kennedy (with the help of the media by ignoring the content of the memos) was able to make the issue an issue of ‘how did republicans get his memos,’ instead of what was actually IN those memos.  What was IN those memos was their plan to politicize the Judiciary committee’s work in the handling of Bush’s judicial nominees.

ref: Byron York, Feb, 2004

Politics

No Trailer Park Comment From Republicans

Sooner or later something will happen that highlights the differences of Democrats and Republicans. The Jim Gibbons episode is one of these events. Ask Jennifer Flowers what Clinton officials/advisers said about her, and how the N.O.W. gang ignored her and her complaint (which Clinton settled out of court over).

When a democrat runs afoul, you see other dems having a pep rally on the capitol steps or (when Clinton was impeached) on the  White House lawn, all lined up in support of their accused politician. And they also denigrate the accuser. I remember James Carville likening Jennifer Flowers as someone who will jump at a dollar bill if you drag it through the trailer park.

Shoe on the other foot. When a republican runs afoul, like Foley, Livingston, and others, the party expects them to pay the price. They don’t get behind the accused, and they don’t bad-mouth the accuser. You don’t hear anyone saying that Gibbons’ accuser, waitress Chrissy Mazzeo, is a gold digger or trailer park trash. And his republican colleagues, while disappointed with the news, say that if the accusations are true then he should go. But there is no pre-judgement of the matter. No pep-rally.

How these parties react to situations like this really does illuminate the character of both.

Politics, Uncategorized

What About Fake Journalism Katherine Shaver?

“He has been called a faker by conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh” writes Katherine (Katie) Shaver.  Below is all I have to say about the FOX-Limbaugh brew ha-ha.  It’s a ‘comment’ I sent to Katie about her article.

Katie, Are you a little embarrassed by your premise? You should be. Apparently you have been listening to everyone but Rush. Is that what journalists do? Listen to critics instead of the source? Especially when the source is so easily accessible?

Rush’s reaction to Fox’s jittery-looking commercial was, exactly, that Fox was either acting or was off his medication. Fox IS an actor, and he does take meds for his condition. Comprende? That was just a normal reaction to what was seen. It was an aside, if you will, from Rush’s point, which was that the bill was disguised by its name as a stem-cell research bill when it was actually a cloning bill. It attempts to codify cloning by explicitly using the scientific term for the procedure in the State’s constitution. That was the point, which you missed.

You, Katie, are faking the truth. The truth, if you’re interested, like a journalist should be interested, can be found in the radio show’s transcripts. Now, if YOU want to say that all actors are fakers, that’s fine. Many in your profession are fake journalists. But to say Rush said something that he didn’t say, is just a lie that suits a purpose instead of a ‘journalistic’ piece.

Have a great liberal day.  Enjoy your anger towards conservatives. You deserve it.


He has been called a faker by conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, and he withstands the gazes of hundreds of people as his lips tremble, a hand shakes or a foot jerks in a wild spasm.

Politics, Race Relations, Uncategorized

Going Down In French

Until being caught ‘on the take’ in Saddam’s oil-for-food program, there didn’t seem to be any media coverage of the goings-on in French society. My perception was that things must be fine in France. Fine wine and french fries. It was all good. Since then, however, the French have been seen as double-crossers by myself and others who show their displeasure by not buying their wine, and french fries became freedom fries. In real life, there are consequences for one’s actions and France is no exception.

How they react to a well-deserved shunning is, well, rather French. The French press declares Halloween dead, as “a cultural reaction linked to the rise of anti-Americanism.” A shop owner said “Our Halloween sales have been falling by half every year since 2002.” Their media sees this as some sort of victory for France. OK, I see it as somewhat of a loss for French kids to have some fun one day a year.

Halloween losing favor in France is small potatoes compared to what’s happening in their streets and ghettos. They are in the process of losing their identity and sovereignty to people who want France and don’t want to be French. There is a reluctance in Europe and the UK to admit what is really going on, and it’s all about ‘immigration’ and migration. It’s not simply “youths” challenging authority, they are challenging France. And they’re not just youths, they are the radical Islamists, Muslims, who have an affinity for burning buses, attacking police and other symbols of French society.

France has bigger problems than Halloween and freedom fries. Their cradle-to-grave socialist government has forced them to open their borders to people who don’t want to assimilate, but rather dominate. From here it seems like they haven’t a prayer or the political will to stop it.

Politics, Uncategorized

Kerry, Rove’s October Surprise

This Kerry remark, disgraceful as it is, was not an accident by a long shot.  U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, speaks in support of California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at a rally held at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo/Ann Johansson) (Ann Johansson - APAnd the way he continues to stand behind that remark is proof enough that it was no accident.  This is John Kerry, Vietnam veteran, jumping out in front of his potential competitors for the 2008 presidential election.  This is good.  The liberal left is right out there for everyone to see.   Karl Rove couldn’t have done it better.  John Kerry became Karl Rove’s October Surprise.

video

Politics, Uncategorized

With Liberty And Justice For Most

In Scooter Libby’s case, there was no crime until the investigation began.  Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is standing by his prosecution of the ‘who leaked Valerie Plame Wilson’s name’ case by insisting that he needn’t have explain why no-one was charged for the leak, even now when everyone knows who the leaker is. It was Colin Powell’s State Dept deputy Richard Armitage who has publicly admitted as much.

What’s up with that?

Uncategorized

France’s Vandals & Youths, Are Also Muslims

One more statistic on the Muslim rioting in France.  In addition to the more than 2500 police officers that have been injured in the first 6 months of 2006 . . .

In the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burned out and 2,882 attacks on police, fire and ambulance services were recorded.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s solution is to “stiffen punishments for vandals after youths torched a bus in the southern city of Marseille, leaving a badly burnt woman fighting for her life.”

CNN International

Politics, Race Relations, Uncategorized

FLASH, Student Success Is Income Independent

This north Philadelphia school was among the lowest performing in the city, qualifying for the No Child Left Behind program, three years in a row, beginning 2002.  Now, they are among the best, winning a national award for their success.  They don’t accept the soft bigotry of low expectations from their students nowadays.  Their secret?  “It’s all about challenging people to move to the next level,” Principal Barbara Adderly said.

Politics, Uncategorized, War On Terror

Saddam Verdict Due November 5, May Be Delayed?

1 Comment

The Iraqi court is scheduled November 5 to deliver a verdict for Saddam Hussein over the killing of 148 Shi’ite Muslims in the village of Dujail, two days before mid-term elections in this country.  If he is found guilty, Saddam could go to the gallows.  So why would the court change its agenda based on the mid-term elections in the United States?  According to Mariam Karouny in Baghdad, “A guilty verdict could reflect positively on Bush as a vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam in 2003.”  I’d like to think that Saddam’s conviction would be no small victory for the people of Iraq.  And being witnesses to how a functioning democratically-elected government of Iraq will administer justice, I just don’t see them delaying the announcement of the verdict one minute. 

We have been hearing for years that Iraq is ‘Bush’s war,’ so I say to the victor goes the spoils.  They can’t take credit for prosecuting this war because they’ve been consumed with fighting to defeat Bush because of the war.  I think I’ve said this before, but it bares repeating.  If it’s good for Bush, it’s bad for the democrats. 

A guilty verdict would be a correct verdict.  And it wouldn’t hurt Bush if it came down on Nov. 5.  Although Bush isn’t running for anything, the democrats’ anthem has been all anti-Iraq war, anti-war-on-terror, anti-Bush, all the time. 

Regardless of when the verdict is announced, the American people already understand which party is tough on terror, and which party wants to confer constitutional rights to enemy combatants.  That Saddam will be found guilty is, IMHO, a forgone conclusion. 

We’ve seen how events external to an election can flip the outcome, as in Spain.  So what kind of message does this send to the people of Iraq, trying to get things together over there, to find out that the other political party in the US wants to get out of Iraq at any cost, and leave them to the terrorists and death squads, and rape rooms, and torture rooms?   With friends like that, who needs enemies?  It makes being an ally of the US a risky venture at best.  Another message that is sent around the world.

It will be instructive to see the democrat leadership’s reaction to a guilty verdict, after years of defending him.  It’ll go something like this,  but you ‘haven’t got Osama yet, where’s Osama?’

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A court trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity could delay its verdict by a few days, the chief prosecutor said on Sunday, in a move that would shift the announcement until after U.S. midterm elections. Read on 

related update