Category Archives: Politics

Broad Support For Homeland Security Bill, Without Big Labor

With the House voting 371 to 40 and the Senate 85 to 8, Congress approves the Homeland Security Bill. It is good that Congress actually passed something worthwhile, and all in one day. The reason it passed is for what was taken out of it. The unionizing of federal airport screeners.

At the threat of a veto from Bush, a provision by Democrats that would have extended union protection to 45,000 federal airport screeners was taken out. Whether or not airport screeners are union is of no concern to our security. It is just Democrats doing quid pro quo for their largest donor, big labor. Pretty much just politicizing an important bill.

Open Letter To Sam Hall

Sorry to hear that you have become THE news item of the day. And even longer. No doubt the traffic on the blog has increased a bit. 🙂

If you’re like me, you don’t worry about things that you have no control over, so for me to say “don’t let it worry you” would not be necessary. You are on the right side of this issue from where I sit.

The whole brew ha ha in the media, with the parade of city managers, people with titles, subordinates of the city manager, does nothing if not justify your position and that of the good people in District 2. It is a win win. It’s a win from your position in the first place because you were honestly representing your constituents. And, it is validated by the fact that your opponents in this ‘mountain out of a molehill’ story seem to focus all their efforts attacking you while ignoring the problem. This sounds familiar.

To atone, I’d like to see a second parade of these same officials back in front of the camera for the sole purpose of addressing the concerns of the citizens with not a word about you. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for that to happen.
Best regards,
Ross Calloway

City Manager Shoots The Messenger

Here’s some local humor that has the shorts of Pensacola City Manager Tom Bonfield and some of his employees in a bunch. Bonfield says city councilman Sam Hall is uninformed. By all means, inform us.

Question: “What is white, shaded and sleeps three?”

Answer: “A city truck.”

Bonfield is perfectly entitled to disagree with Hall or anyone else on anything. Whining about it to the mayor and city council reveals a lot about him.

Pensacola News Journal link | Sam Hall, Government-by-Complaint | RicksBlog

My expanded comments from Sam’s blog below. . .

Continue reading City Manager Shoots The Messenger

Al-Qaeda Having Problems In Iraq

Eh, it’s just evidence of progress in the war directly related to the ‘surge’ strategy. The Iraqis helping al-Qaeda are now turning on them in the face of the surge and their barbarity.

“They are turning. We are talking to people who we believe have worked for al-Qaeda in Iraq and want to reconcile and have peace,” said Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which oversees the area.

he reporter on the ground in Doura, Iraq, characterizes it as a rebellion in the ranks. It’s a good thing. It is the kind of progress that leads to security, that leads to the kind of political solutions we’re all looking for.

It’s all good news for the country, Democrats excepted. It’s not good news for them, which is the reason they declared the surge a failure two weeks ago and just two weeks into the mission. They don’t want to even give it a chance to succeed. In this war, the Democrats are invested in defeat. Don’t hold your breath expecting to see this on your network news or major newspapers.  Does not fit the template.  And worse, it will contradict what the left is saying.

More Evidence Of Progress In Iraq

But you’d never know it if you depend on CBS, ABS, NBS, MSNBS, and CNNBS. H/T GOP Bloggers.

If you haven’t started questioning the media’s coverage of Iraq, you have to start seriously questioning them now. I’ll bet you didn’t read that reconciliation talks were held in Taji in the NY Times lately.

Sunni and Shia tribal sheiks from the Iraqi villages of Aqar Qaf, Bassam, Salamiyat and Fira Shia moved closer to reconciliation July 16 here during a meeting facilitated by the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment.

La Raza’s Wave Of Hate

A ‘wave of hate‘ is how La Raza, an Hispanic advocacy group, characterized the will of the American people when they said NO to the “comprehensive immigration bill” that was ultimately defeated in Congress. Concerning the response of legal Americans to the under-the-table trick called an immigration bill, Cecilia Munoz, of the National Council of La Raza said this . . .

“That had an extraordinary impact in the Senate, and as a nation, I don’t think we should be comfortable with the fact that the United States Senate responded to what was largely a wave of hate.”

It is obvious who the hate mongers are here, it is Cecilia Munoz and her La Raza group. To call people who want a secure border and legal immigration as hateful is just . . . hateful. It’s hard to blame La Raza alone for that attitude because they’re saying the same things that proponents of that awful bill have said about Americans too! Pandering to special interest groups, like the open borders crowd and the illegal alien invasion has blurred the picture of national security and legal immigration.

NCLR’s convention continues today with addresses by the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. With Hispanics already considered a key swing voting group, both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are trying to win those voters for themselves in the primaries and for Democrats in the general election.

Just one question left to be answered. Where’s the fence?

related: Show your support of legal immigration by wearing a hat like this one.

Democrat Leaders Indifferent To Life, Freedom

For the party that claims the human rights mantle, and are just consumed with concern over what the world thinks of us, “Our reputation around the world” has become the preamble to stump speeches by Democrats. So in that context it is astonishing how little concern these same Democrats in Washington have for the Iraqi people who hear them talk about leaving Iraq on a daily basis.

The millions of Iraqis that were glad to be rid of Saddam and voted for the first time to govern themselves and live in freedom, are still living in a war zone. Their army and security forces are not yet able to protect themselves against Iran and al-Qaeda. The Iraqi people are seeing their hopes and dreams for freedom be doused by impatient politicians in Washington. So the Americans (if you listen to the Dems) are now willing to leave them for al-Qaeda to deal with.

What kind of human being will go in to a country (remember ‘you go in there and you own it’?) and tear it apart, tell the people there that we’re going to help you get setup as a free people, and then leave before fulfilling that promise?

Is this what they mean when they say that Bush has hurt the reputation of the United States around the world? Do they really believe that leaving Iraq to become a terrorist haven while setting up its population for slaughter will improve our image?

All allies who want to join us in our next military challenge, please raise your hands.

When Shortsightedness Shines

One almost has to characterize people like Hillary Clinton of being totally short-sighted when talking about the war in Iraq on or off the campaign trail. I say short-sighted, giving her the benefit of the doubt (undeservedly so) because the alternative is simply stupid or treasonous. There are numerous examples of Democrats providing propaganda material for our sworn enemy. The most recent example being the sleepover in the Senate last week.

After Sen. Hillary Clinton, Mrs. Bill Clinton if you prefer, again spoke publicly about strategy and tactics, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman spoke up about Hillary Clinton’s actions like this . .

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Edelman wrote. He added that “such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.”

Hillary’s response is just too predictable. She says, and the media listens, accusing the Pentagon of impugning her patriotism like this . . .

Clinton said she and Kerry were “shocked by the timeworn tactic of once again impugning the patriotism of any of us who raise serious questions” about the Iraq war. Kerry accused the Bush administration of making “planning a dirty word and an alien concept.”

This is the same lie these two used in the last election, and the media did its best to support it. Never questioning not only the absence of the word but ignoring the gazillion explanations of “no it’s your judgment, not your patriotism,” idiot. The media stuck with the template. But I digress, patriotism, or her alleged patriotism, was not mentioned by Edelman or the Pentagon. The words were exactly this “premature and public discussion,” emphasis added for the mainstream media.

The Democrats, both running for office and in leadership positions in Washington, are laying themselves out there now for all to see just how they support our troops and the objectives of our involvement in Iraq. They despise the mission, could care less of the welfare of the Iraqi people, and dismiss the troops and their families purely for political gain. And last but not least, they show us what lousy a Commander in Chief they or she would make in front of a microphone and camera. In a Hillary Clinton administration there would have to be a draft (another of their goals) because no one would sign up to fight for someone who lives and breathes by polls and special interest (wacko left) organizations.

Whether it blows up in their face depends on how well the mainstream media can gloss over the fact that they are helping the enemy.

related: Overnighter Not A Total Loss

Pelosi Makes Video Available

As an update to last week’s post about Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Ca) one-minute speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, where she castigates the Iraqi legislature for not being able to pass significant legislation, the political benchmarks. It was something you had to see to appreciate, and now I have the video.

The transcript does not capture her reaction to what she said when she said this, “Legislation to make the Iraqi political process more inclusive is stalled in the Iraqi legislature.”

It was one of those “priceless” moments. The video does capture it however, and I’m so happy to have found it. I found two versions. One from the speaker and another with the super secret speech decoder turned on from Ft. Hard Knox. The line begins at 1 min 55 sec. into the 6 min. 43 second speech. That’s roughly a minute.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlXu55FFSaQ[/youtube]

Video 1, Video 2, related

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.