Who is going to tell Ron Paul? And, will he believe it?
The quantity of Iranian bomb-making components being found in Iraq is increasing despite a fall in attacks and 20 Iranian-trained agents are still operating south of Baghdad, a top U.S. general said on Sunday.
Reuters link
Here’s the good news that you didn’t see on the nightly or morning news networks.
Just six months ago, this mostly Sunni neighborhood was one of the centers of al-Qaida in Iraq operations. The district in western Baghdad was hit by more than a dozen bombings and shootings some days. Few people dared to venture onto the streets.
On Tuesday, women shopped and men drank tea in sidewalk cafes. Occasionally, U.S. soldiers walking the streets were greeted with salaams and smiles.
What is happening here reflects similar trends across Baghdad and parts of Iraq, where civilian and U.S. military casualties have dropped sharply in the past two months. But the speed of the turnaround in places such as Amariyah has taken almost everyone – including U.S. military forces in the area – by surprise.
AP link
Waterboarding is waterboarding.
Torture looks like this, and this .
And it often ends up like this.
For a look at what torture is like, just look at the torture manual used by our enemy.
Waterboarding is a method of interrogation that appeals to the most basic of animal or human instinct, survival. It works. It is the only interrogation technique that a subject can walk to and walk away from with not so much as a mark on their body. The interrogatee can go on to a good nights sleep. Unlike the pictures of what constitutes real torture.
I knew the Soros wing of the Democrat party would be ticked off over the Senate Judiciary Committee taking steps Thursday to send his name out of committee and to the Senate floor for a vote, where he will most likely be confirmed as Attorney General, replacing Alberto Gonzalez. The left’s reaction is a Donor Strike.
In 2006, the voters of America elected Democratic majorities to the Senate and House in order to end the occupation of Iraq and restore the Constitution of the United States. We, the Netroots, helped elect Democratic majorities with large contributions of money, time, and passion.
Unfortunately Congressional Democrats have surrendered to George Bush and Dick Cheney on all of the issues we care about most: Iraq, Iran, warrantless wiretapping, torture, and habeas corpus.
We recognize that “Bush Democrats” are primarily to blame for Democratic failures, and we will do whatever we can to change their minds – or replace them with true Democrats in 2008. But we cannot wait until then to fix the urgent problems we face.
We will therefore begin a donor strike against the official fundraising committees for Senate Democrats (DSCC) and House Democrats (DCCC) until our core demands are met.
We will instead contribute only to individual candidates who firmly support the values of the Democratic Party and the American people, as certified by BlueAmerica and Progressive Challenge 2008.
Two things should be obvious about their reaction. That they believe, as they said themselves after the 2004 election, that they have bought and paid for the Democrat party with their campaign contributions, and that they expect the Democrats in Washington to obey. The other thing that is obvious is just how effective their money was in influencing the Democrats in Washington. Or to put it another way, just how easily Democrats in Washington can be influenced by money. Like, having no belief system of their own, they adopt the one from their donors. They echo their sentiments and believe that they had a mandate from the American people. How many times have we heard that from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? In reality, it was only a mandate from them, a well financed and well organized group of about 400,000 activists.
They are making plans to send what they call the ‘Bush Democrats’ packing. Their arrogance is off the charts.
Hillary may have had a turning point last Tuesday, but the Democrat Party itself may be having one of its own. The netroots, or nutroots, will now only be giving money to individual politicians who pass their litmus test on the issues that they care about. How these Democrats react will be their own litmus test.
links: Democratic Donor Strike Against DSCC and DCCC | Code Pink
The Clinton Campaign lost its footing just a bit with Hillary’s performance at Tuesday’s debate. She fell off her script when Tim Russert asked her whether she supports NY Governor Elliot Spitzer’s plan to issue drivers licenses to people in this country illegally. There are about a million of them in New York State according to Hillary. Hillary’s handlers all feel that Tim Russert was out to get her for some reason. One of them suggesting that he should be shot. I’m assuming that was hyperbole, but it shows how much they hate to be pressed for an answer that might give a clue as to what she really believes. Her campaign came out the next day to further explain her response to that Yes/No question.
Classic Clinton. They want to shoot the messenger. In this case, Tim Russert. That’s what they do. The fact that her campaign has their thongs all twisted up over being asked a most relevant question for a New York Senator about a New York governor is just hilarious.
“Clinton was unfairly targeted” and “The other candidates were asked questions like, ‘Is there life in outer space?’ â€
And, unfortunately for Hillary, none of the other presidential wannabes’ constituencies are in the State of New York, which explains why Russert asked her first and not the others. It’s a perfectly valid question to ask her and he would have been negligent if he or Williams had not asked it.
Pressing her on that question didn’t make Russert a bully. How else can the American People learn what she believes? As she has found out, dodging a question during a debate made her look pretty inadequate.
Now that her Chinese connection has apparently dried up, and in the course of 24 hours, they feel they need a lot of money, fast.
Mark Penn, Clinton’s senior strategist and pollster, and Jonathan Mantz, the campaign’s finance director, told the supporters on the call, which The Hill listened to in its entirety, that they expect attacks from Clinton’s rivals to continue, and she will need the financial resources to deflect their attacks.
Hardly anyone saw it. It was on MSNBC. While the Clinton Campaign and the far-left blogosphere whine over Tim Russert as being too tough on her, they should be thanking their lucky stars that it wasn’t worse.
Tim Russert’s play last night was not only nakedly sexist, but showed his immaturity and lack of respect for any woman standing up to be commander-in-chief.
Sexist? Hillary? No way.
A person wanting to be Commander in Chief should be able to answer any question from anyone. Even Brit Hume and Chris Wallace.
Both Tim Russert and Brian Williams deserve the “Chris Matthews Award” for avoiding to ask any of the presidential wannabes about Iran supplying 107 mm rockets and super-penetrating IED’s to the terrorists in Iraq that are killing Iraqis and our soldiers. I know the Clinton Campaign would disagree but the moderators didn’t go far enough. I think they did the best they could to make it more like “Softball.”
Tonight’s Democrat Primary Debate started off with Iraq and Iran and spent a lot of time on that subject. Some thought calling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (aka Quds Force) a terrorist organization was provocative and some, like Hillary, thought it was correct, as was the resolution that stated such. Again, some signed that, some didn’t. That says a lot right there. None of them spoke about winning. All of them spoke about just getting out of Iraq.
The most astounding thing about this so-called debate was that the moderators allowed all the time on Iraq and Iran to go by without once asking any of the candidates about the 107 mm Iranian made rockets that are landing in and around Baghdad. Not a word about the Iranian made super penetrating IED’s. What I saw was the candidates tripping over each other to say how negotiations and diplomacy is the way they would handle Iran. Most of them wanted Congress to make some kind of resolution to declare that there will be no military action on Iran without Bush coming to Congress for permission, and some wanted to just take that option off the table. It was that dual reality again. Their “reality” was as if Iranian made rockets and IED’s had never happened, but which continue on an almost daily basis. They are all clearly in denial regarding Iran. And the moderators let the Commander in Chief wannabes get away with that.
What is NBC going to do with three Chris Matthews? Lets see, they have the original Chris Matthews, they have Brian Williams and Tim Russert. For letting Iran’s active involvement in Iraq to pass without one question earns them “Chris Matthews” status in my book.
related links: Iranian rockets in Iraq
While Democrats and Republicans debate just how to deal with Iran over Iraq; diplomacy, sanctions, or military force, Iran has made up their mind on how they choose to handle it. Iran prefers to use the 107 mm missile style of ‘diplomacy’.
Iran uses diplomacy as a way to buy time to help insurgents in Iraq by supplying more weaponry and military training to kill Iraqis and coalition forces. It’s the same rope-a-dope they employ over their nuclear program with the United Nations. The debate in the US should be what kind of military force should be used to fight back.
link:U.S. Military: Iranian-Made Rockets Hit Base Near Baghdad
Not making news lately is the fact that things are going well in some places. That should be news but it isn’t. Anyway, US forces have handed control of the mainly Shia province of Karbala in central Iraq today to the Iraqi government. That makes 8 out of 18. That’s good news.
At the ceremony, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the country had been slow to rebuild its security forces this way . . .
Allow me to say that we are late, very late, to reconstruct, to rebuild our forces for reasons that I do not want to mention here.
That’s an understatement, but honest nonetheless. The BBC reporter has him saying this year would be the year of Iraqi security while next year the focus would turn more towards reconstruction. al-Maliki also said that he expects the country’s southernmost province, Basra, to be handed over in December 2007.
FOX reports al-Maliki also said this. . .
This is the proof of the strong will and resolve of the good citizens of this nation… The reconstruction of Iraq does not hinge on security alone, but security is the key to everything.
Violence levels falling is the subtitle in the story. And after 12 full paragraphs of attack-related news, the story ends with this line . . .
But our correspondent says levels of violence have generally been falling since a US troop surge began in February.
What, you mean you haven’t seen the surge reported this way before? Neither have I.
Shahid Malik, an “international development minister” in Great Britain
says he is “deeply disappointed” that he was detained by airport security officials at Dulles International Airport, near Washington D.C.. The BBC apparently thinks it’s a Muslim thing, based on this question they pose at the end of the article.
Are you a Muslim who has been detained in an American airport? Did you think it was justified? Send us your comments using the form below
Needless to say, I sent them a comment. Continue reading Shahid Malik’s Flying Adventure
Until the illegal border crossings are stopped, and some form of policy is enacted to deal with the 12 to 20 million illegals who have already illegally crossed, some politicians seem to be on a mission to grant people who are not legal citizens to obtain a drivers license. From Jeb Bush (former Gov. of Florida) to Elliot Spitzer (current governor of New York) to the latino activist group La Raza, there seems to be a willingness to solve a problem while creating another more perilous one.
The common justification to granting DL’s to illegals is that it will make the streets safer. That is arguable but it is at least a valid point. So on that basis alone I find myself in agreement with Jeb, Elliot, and La Raza to insure that they know how to drive a car and read traffic signs and are aware of the laws regarding driving a motor vehicle. But that is where my agreement ends.
The problem that is created is the potential for abuse that a DL affords an illegal alien. With a drivers license, an illegal alien can purchase an airline ticket and open bank accounts which, you will recall, is a major enabler for terrorists. Neither of which any citizen could or should support. For legal citizens, the drivers license will get you access to federal and state government services as well. And in New York State, it allows one to register to vote. Left as is, giving a drivers license to an illegal alien is merely a step towards back-door amnesty without calling it amnesty, and facilitating voter fraud, and that’s not a good thing.
The only way I would support drivers licenses for people who are not here legally is for the license to read “Drivers License for Non-Citizen” or “Non-Citizen Drivers License,” or even “Illegal Alien Drivers License.” The license should also contain a line stating “This drivers license is for purposes of driving a motor vehicle only and is not a valid identification for voting or any other government or private service.” There is a way to effectively deal with the millions of illegals who are already here, and this is but one step in dealing with it.
related: This Will Make Voter Fraud Easier