Text of the Petraeus Report...

...can be found here.

A copy of the slides he utilized can be found here.

Not that any of the dem leadership will bother to read it.

After all, one should be careful not to confuse them with the facts.

Never Forget!! (Updated)

An eyewitness account, as it happened:



ht Chicagoray

And the last moments of Kevin Cosgrove, who with thousands of other innocents were obliterated at the hands of Islamic savages...



h/t AAA.

BTW--Andy has many more links to footage, etc., of the events of September 11th.

The media would like for all of us to forget what happened on that fateful day.

We can't forget. We must use this to stoke our anger; to give our nation the collective will to vanquish these bastards once and for all.

We need our anger; our outrage, for our very survival.

Turning the Corner on the "Short Shrift" episode.

I've blogged here and here about how Minnesota's Red Bulls, after serving a 22-month tour of combat duty in Iraq, got short-shrifted a day (yes, 24 hours), thus excluding them from full G.I benefits.

Well, I just received a call today from a staffer at Senator Norm Coleman's office, stating that the Red Bulls' orders should be amended by the end of this week! Although no guarantees were given, the staffer stated that it was "looking good" that the orders would be adjusted so that Doug and the rest of his Red Bull brothers- and sisters-in-arms would get full GI benefits. Also, I received assurances that those who have already or would apply for the lesser National Guard benefits would indeed be able to switch to Montgomery Chapter 30 benefits as soon as they are officially approved for same!

My thanks go out to the Minnesota Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Minneapolis office of the Federal Department of Veterans' affairs, Senator Norm Coleman, Minnesota Representative Bob Dettmer, U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and U.S. Congressman Collin Peterson who all played a role in hopefully reversing this godawful injustice; and of course a huge thank you to those who took the time to contact their elected representatives after reading my posts.

Regarding the Petraeus Report

I haven't thus far commented on the Petraeus Report, since there were many minds greater than mine doing thusly.

For a great compendium of my sentiments, please check out Colonel Joe Repya's assessment over at True North.

It at once amazes and depresses me that elected officials of the United States of America, sworn to protect America and its Constitution, would, along with their political party of choice, so go out of their way to attempt to engineer the surrender of our nation during a time of war. Even so far out of their way as to label General David Petraeus, a man who has invariably served his nation with honor, a traitor.

Said Harry Reid,

"Before the report arrives in Congress, it will pass through the White House spin machine, where facts are often ignored or twisted, and intelligence is cherry-picked," said Reid.

Reid even had the audacity to call Petraeus a liar!:

"He has made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual," Reid said.

Talk about a fucking pot calling the kettle black! Never, in my born days, would I expect such traitorous--YES I SAID IT--TRAITOROUS behavior coming from elected public officials supposedly sworn to protect and defend the United States!

And yes, I WILL continue to question their patriotism, and so should any American who has the courage to look at their rhetoric and actions in an honest light.

The time for BDS and selling out our nation is passed. I call on every American to proclaim loudly and clearly to the leadership of the democrat party: YOU ARE TRAITORS!

Perhaps Congress in 1798 had a good idea when they passed the Alien & Sedition Acts.

To go out of their way as they do to undermine our mission during a time of war tells me unequivocally that there are those in the democrat party who must clearly hate this country. So much, in fact, that they are willing to hate it clean out of existence.

Here we go...***UPDATED***

From Ian Marsh:

"The Governor is holding a press conference at 3:00 pm today to announce a Special Session for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 11th at 3:00 pm. Details to follow."

That's two minutes from the time of this post. Fasten your seatbelts, folks.. it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

***UPDATE****

Again, from Ian Marsh:

The Governor is holding a press conference at 3:00 pm today to announce a Special Session for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 11th at 5:00 pm.
Details to follow.

And now, for the official press release:

GOVERNOR PAWLENTY CALLS SPECIAL SESSION TO DEAL WITH FLOOD RELIEF

~ Governor sets Special Session for Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. ~

Saint Paul - Governor Tim Pawlenty announced this afternoon that he is convening a Special Session of the legislature tomorrow to pass additional flood relief assistance for southeastern Minnesota.

The Governor's proclamation sets the opening of the Special Session for 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 11. He said he expects that legislators will be able to complete their work in one day.

"The recovery and rebuilding effort in southeastern Minnesota requires us to come together as a state to help our neighbors," Governor Pawlenty said. "We've gotten a head start by advancing LGA funding and redirecting existing resources, but we need a strong flood relief package from the legislature to complete the important job before us."

Special Sessions to deal with similar disasters in 1997 and 2002 took place three or four months after the flooding. This Special Session will be held more quickly. In April-May 1997, the Red River of the North flooded, causing major damage in Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba. A one-day special session was held on August 19, 1997. From June 9-11, 2002, heavy rains caused flooding in Roseau and the northwestern part of the state. A one-day special session was held on September 19, 2002.

Since the August 18-19 flooding in the region, a little more than three weeks ago, Governor Pawlenty has directed state assistance to help those impacted by the flood:

* On Friday, Governor Pawlenty directed state agencies to provide $31.8 million of state aid for the rebuilding effort. The money includes assistance for homeowners, businesses, and additional help for local governments to repair their infrastructure. The largest portion of the funds is $16 million from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to be used for loans to rehabilitate damaged homes and apartments, new construction, and for mortgage down payment assistance.

* Government aid payments to cities and counties in southeastern Minnesota have been accelerated to help communities address the costs associated with rescue, recovery and rebuilding. Local government aid payments are regularly sent to cities and counties twice a year, onJuly 20 and December 26. Under the Governor's order, December payments for cities and counties in the presidentially declared disaster area have been expedited. The payments total $25.1 million - $18.2 million to 58 cities and $6.9 million to seven counties.

* Southeastern Minnesota flood victims will receive Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) from the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development. The DUA program provides temporary income assistance to workers and self-employed individuals whose work has been lost or interrupted as a direct result of recent flooding.

* Governor Pawlenty also ordered the state to waive electrical inspection permit fees for residents of southeast Minnesota who are rebuilding their homes following the devastating flash floods earlier this month. Homeowners will not have to pay the $35 to $135 state fees if they are eligible for repairs or reconstruction of their homes under the current FEMA Individual and Household grant program. The fees will be waived for permit applications received by the Department of Labor and Industry within one year of the date of the presidential disaster declaration.

* A new "Minnesota Recovers" Web site is operational and features information for individuals, businesses and others affected by flooding in southeastern Minnesota at www.minnesotarecovers.org


* Governor Pawlenty directed the Department of Revenue to temporarily waive the tax paid for hauling construction debris generated in the presidentially declared disaster area (Minnesota Statute 297H.06; subd. 3). The tax is paid by waste haulers and passed along to residential and business customers. To qualify, debris must have resulted from flood-caused demolition and repair and be hauled to a facility designated by the Pollution Control Agency.

According to estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, severe flooding on August 18-19 resulted in approximately $67 million in damage to private property and public infrastructure in southeastern Minnesota. About 1,500 homes in the area sustained some damage and approximately 300 were destroyed.

Following an expedited request by Governor Pawlenty, the presidential disaster declaration made funds available from a number of federal programs in seven counties - Fillmore, Winona, Houston, Steele, Olmstead, Dodge and Wabasha. FEMA disaster assistance includes aid to individuals and households, aid to public and certain private non-profitentities for emergency services and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged public facilities, ad funding for measures designed to reduce future losses to public and private property.

Per federal policy, FEMA reimburses 75 percent of eligible costs associated with public infrastructure damage caused by the disaster. The state and local communities are responsible for the remaining 25 percent. Individual assistance from FEMA is capped at $28,200, though other loans and grants may be available from the Small Business Administration and the State of Minnesota.

The chips will indeed fall where they may. Now will be the time to test the democrat mettle, to see if they will stay within the agreed-upon parameters, or if they will throw caution to the wind and try to lasso the moon.

It is still the opinion of this blogger that Governor Pawlenty trusts the DFL too much. But then again, I wouldn't trust Larry Pogemiller, Margaret Kelliher or Tarryl Clark as far as I could throw them if I was in a comatose state.

But that's just me.

Of Cabbages and King.

Keeping up with a blog isn't always an easy thing to do. Having the discipline to update one's blog day after day reminds me of the old adage, "I hate writing, but love having written."

One of the blogosphere's premiere center-right economics gurus is fellow St. Cloudian King Banaian, who today is celebrating five years in the blogging biz.

Congratulations are truly in order, not only for one of Central Minnesota's premiere bloggers, but for a stand-up human being.

Cheers, King.

Here's to many more years of edifying the public on what is good economics.

*****UPDATE*****

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that another premiere St. Cloud Political blogger, Gary Gross from Let Freedom Ring, whose site meter has just turned over the 100,000 mark!

Gary is a celebrity of sorts, having scored Insta-lanches no less than three times. In the blogosphere, that's the equivalent of getting three holes in one, or bowling three "300" games!

Congrats, Gary--to a well-deserved milestone!

Babies and lizards--a warning!

And there was much rejoicing!

From here:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a persistent Republican critic of the Iraq war, intends to announce on Monday he will not seek a third term, according to Republican officials.

The officials also said Hagel does not plan to run for the White House in 2008, despite earlier flirting with a candidacy.

And don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, k?

The evolving leftist nomenclature...

Ever notice how the left hijacks words, and twists their meanings around until they "sound good," sort of like a euphemistic dressing up of a piece of shit?

The whole "political correctness" movement, started in the mid 1980s, was based on the hijacking of language, as a means of pressuring others to utilize a common vernacular when broaching subjects. If one was so "crass" as to use nomenclature other than the neo-socialist lexicon, it was then fair game to brand the speaker a "racist-sexist- homophobe" --you get the idea.

After all, if neo-socialists could control language, they could control thought.

A whole dictionary of codespeak was developed over the years.

For example, "gay" for homosexual, "contributi0ns" for taxes; or "reproductive health" for abortions.

There are some occasions, however, in which evidence and logic simply overpowers the power of the term du jour. Take "global warming" for instance.

The neo-socialists have been utilizing the "global warming" term as a hammer for over a decade as a means to beat government, corporations, and ordinary citizens into submitting to their "bataan death march" toward their brave new world of a neo-socialist paradise.

But something has recently happened that started to spoil their heretofore jolly march toward their Huxlian Utopia. Many of those who had been beaten by the "global warming" hammer had begun to realize that there were a few cracks in the handle. Many began to question global warming as a concept, and still many more were beginning to question whether, like the liberal orthodoxy demanded, humans were indeed the cause of it. And they started doing research, and coming up with scientific proof that belied the liberals' latest "lies of convenience."

People began to recognize the fact that with regard to the case of global warming, the liberal thought emperors had no clothes (admittedly, not a pretty sight in many cases).

The Church of Global Warming fought back, of course, even going so far as to demonize and compare those who disagreed with their orthodoxy with those who deny that the holocaust happened. A battle that still goes on today.

Yet, something significant has happened as of late; something new in the zeitgeist of political discourse. Specifically, within the space of the last few months, the term, "global warming" has quietly, and without fanfare, been conspicuously absent from the liberal lexicon and from recent stories from their faithful in the mainstream media.

Could it be that the liberals have finally come to terms with the futility and thus declining power of the term, "global warming?" And having come to terms with its imminent demise, have they finally withdrawn it as their hammer of choice?

Perhaps so.

"The phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are changes in addition to rising temperatures."

A stroke of genius, no?

A new "hedge your bet" hammer that the neo-socialists can utilize to smack down the proletariat, no matter which direction the thermometer goes!

While they may have hit a speed bump in their upward march downward spiral toward their Huxlian utopia with the demise of one term, the "Emperors of Thought" have barely skipped a beat in coming up with a new hammer.

You gotta admire their persistence, if nothing else.


****UPDATE****

Welcome Dr. Sanity Readers. Click here for the main page and make yourself comfortable :)

Striking Photos of the I-35W Bridge...

Can be found over at Roosh Five.

Check it out.

OBL: Embrace Islam or Die?

As Jim Lynch puts it,

"There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out," bin Laden said.

"The second solution is from your side," he said. "I invite you to embrace Islam."

In other words, convert or we will kill you. If either of those alternatives are acceptable then we should leave Iraq, Afghanistan, and let the jihadist have America as well. If those alternatives are not acceptable, we stay and fight.

Embrace Islam or die?

Actually, I believe we have a third choice, along with our own message to OBL and his pig-screwing Jihadist buddies:

Leave US the fuck alone, or die, bastards

There. Have I made myself clear?

More Proof... of absolutely nothing.

For you global warming alarmists, I submit this:

The following is a itemized list of 90 plus days... for every year in
Saint Cloud since 1893.

... Saint Cloud climate data... 90 degree days or higher... per year...

count years
least 0 1915
1 1902 1903 1962 1993
2 1904 1907 1954
3 1897 1899 1919 1958 1979 1981 1985 1994
4 1895 1924 1942 1944 1967 1990 1992 1997 2004
5 1896 1927 1952 1965 1986 1996
6 1905 1918 1951 1957 1972 1973
7 1928 1946 1956 1977 1982
8 1984 1998
9 1898 1917 1938 1945 1950 1963 1971 1991 2000 2002
10 1923 1939 1960 1968
11 1894 1912 1974 1989
12 1969 1980 1999 2005
13 1920 1926 1978 1987 2003
14 1906 1929 1953
15 1909 1914 1961 1966 1970 1995
16 1908 1932 1975 1983
17 1941 1943 1949 2001 2007
18 1925
19 1940 1948 1955
20 1922 1976 2006
21 1916 1959
22 1911 1947
23 1964
24 1935
25 1930
26 1937
27 1913
28 1901 1933
29 1910 1934
31 1921 1931
33 1988 (that was a hellish year..lots of 100 degree readings, too--ed)
34 1900

The year with the most days over 90 degrees was 1936 (36 days). If you will notice, relatively few of the past 50 odd years have made it into categories of 15 or more 90 degree days; most of those occurring in the first part of the 20th century.

So even if we are entering into yet another warming trend, so what?

Anthroprogenic global warming?

Feh.

Am I detecting a pattern here?

Yet another Clinton, Inc toadie has conveniently gone missing. It seems that Norman Hsu is nowhere to be found.






By the way, Does anyone know where Charlie Trie is?







Does anyone know where James Ryadi or John Huang are?











Has anyone checked Fort Marcy Park, lately?









If nothing else, if I were Norman Hsu (and I'm not), I'd be extra careful when getting on an airplane.





Or, at the very least, I'd wear a kevlar helmet.













In other words, I guess, if I were Norman Hsu (and I'm not), I'd be shittin' in my pants right now.











That is, if peristalsis is still a possibility for the guy.









I actually feel sorry for the guy...so sorry that I believe I'll break out in song...

Ed, Vince & Hsu
(Music opens in a new window--to the tune of Abraham, Martin & John)
(in the voice of Bill Clinton)

Has anybody here
Seen my old friend Ed Willey?
Can you tell me
Where he has gone
'Cos his wife was pretty hot
But it seems the good die young
I just turned around (bang)
And he was gone

Has anybody here
Seen my old friend Calvin
Can you tell me
Where he has gone
'Cos he was givin' Jocelyn trouble
But boy the good die young,
I just looked around
And he was gone (bang)

Has anybody here
Seen my old friend Norman Hsu
Can you tell me
Where he has gone
'Cos He gave us a lot of cash
From people who had none...
I just looked around
And he was gone
(swimmin' with the fishies?)
And now he's gone...

Fred's (real) Announcement Video..

From the Fred.08 website



Now, conservatives... tell me he's not everything you look for in a candidate!

A "Short Shrift" Update.

The other day I wrote a piece outlining the injustice done to our Minnesota National Guard Red Bulls with regard to their benefits rightfully due them resultant of their service in Iraq. Specifically, despite serving a full 22-month combat-related tour in Iraq, they were deliberately shorted a few hours so as to avoid paying them full benefits.

I have done some caterwalling to legislators and have done some investigating regarding the matter, and at the very least, appeared to have ruffled a few feathers.

I did have a chance to speak with Representative Bob Dettmer, who informed me that he will be travelling to D.C. within a week, and that the subject will be high on his agenda as he communicates with federal lawmakers. He was very cordial, and being in the Reserves himself and having a son who just got back from Iraq a couple of weeks ago, understood what an injustice this was. Representative Dettmer directed me to contact the Minnesota Department of Veteran's Affairs, who then gave me the number of Col. Eric Ahlmess, who heads the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs here in Minnesota.

Colonel Ahlmess stated that he was aware of the situation, and was trying everything in his power to rectify it. He characterized the difficulty as resting with the upper eschelons at the Pentagon, and that to rectify anything with them is an uphill battle, at best. At the very least, he was able to relate that there was a good chance that he would obtain a ruling, hopefully by the end of this week, that would make it indeed possible for soldiers to later switch to the Mongomery GI bill, if they chose the lesser "National Guard" benefits package earlier. This would be a huge step in the right direction, as this option would not be possible under current conditions.

As a representative of the Minnesota State Vetarans Affairs office stated, it was indeed a travesty that these brave men and women would be left with a lesser level of benefits via "clever accounting" that would short them of these benefits by matter of only 24 hours.

Rest assured that this issue is far from over. I will continue to update you here and at True North as this story develops.