Putting Words in People's Mouths...

by the left and their media shills to drive an agenda.

Examples here and here.

Who'd a thunk it??

Prayers would be appreciated...

For my nephew-in-law (and his comrades), who just left Minnesota to go fight a fire here.

Thanks!

What hath the "New Tone" wrought?

While I've admired President Bush for many reasons, what I could never understand was the President's reluctance to answer the many unfounded, over-the-top criticisms and out-and-out attacks that were foisted upon him by the left of this nation.

Paul Kengor addresses this in a must-read piece at the American Thinker. For all of the Bush Administration's successes, most notably his success via perseverance of his Iraq war policy, President Bush's "new tone" policy set the stage for the relentless, unanswered barrages of assaults by the leftists of this nation and around the world.

The "feel-good" language espoused by many democrats regarding "getting along" and their supposed pining to end the "politics of personal destruction," in the end, of course, was so much political puffery. On the other hand, George Bush's "new tone" was not only a buzzword, but S.O.P. for his administration. As with nearly every aspect of his administration (and what those on the left could never fathom nor abide), Bush actually meant what he said and said what he meant when he proclaimed that he would establish "a new tone" in Washington.

Paul Kengor asserts that Bush's "new tone" was a spinoff of his adherence to his evangelical Christian roots; specifically with regard to the principle of "turning the other cheek (Luke 6:29)."

While a president's abiding by principle is certainly to be lauded, the application of this principle to Bush's leftist detractors during his administration yielded disastrous, and yes, even dangerous results. Turning the other cheek allowed the leftists to set the agenda for debate, and allowed them relatively free rein in their efforts to dangerously damage the morale of this country with carte-blanche levels of seditious rhetoric and out-and-out falsehoods. Bush's "new tone" allowed the leftist elements of this country to give licentious aid and comfort to America's enemies during a time when our sons and daughters were in harm's way, giving our enemies encouragement to climb out of their caves and kill another day. Bush's "new tone" has made it much easier for democrats and other leftist elements to continue relatively unabated on a roll of propaganda based on contrivances that continues to this day, on every issue from energy to foreign policy.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration's failure to utilize the bully pulpit to answer unjust criticism and attacks from detractors has left those of us on the right side of the aisle to do all the heavy lifting; which was all well and good, but not enough.

President Bush has many legislative and policy accomplishments for which to be proud. But public opinion and debate in the arena of ideas are also matters of import.

It is my opinion that President Bush's "new tone" policy is a virtual handbook of how not to play the game.

The Head Lemming...

...Is about to lead her party off of a political cliff:

WASHINGTON — A plan to lift the ban on coastal drilling is stalled on Capitol Hill, for one simple reason: A Californian who opposes President Bush's proposal is calling the shots in the House of Representatives.

Despite growing public support for ending the ban, even in California, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't allow a vote.

"I have no plans to do so," Pelosi said Thursday.

It's an example of the vast power placed in the office of the speaker, who sets the agenda for the 435-member House. Members can force a vote if enough of them sign a petition, but that's a rarity because it requires rank-and-file Democrats to line up against their boss.

In this case, Pelosi is going against a rising tide of public opinion. Faced with rapidly increasing gasoline prices, 73 percent of Americans now favor offshore drilling, according to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp (emphases added).

So, the high and mighty Ms. Pelosi, in her never-ending quest to appease the small percentage of enviro-whackos, is more than willing to lead her party to thwart the will of 73 percent of the American people. That, by definition, includes democrats. The same Nancy Pelosi that led the Congress to single-digit popularity. The worst Speaker in the History of the U.S. House, who actually had the gonads to label the Bush Presidency a "total failure" (when Bush himself has three times the positive approval rating as does Pelosi!)

Ms. Pelosi--if you actually want to lead your party to thwart the will of 73 percent of the American electorate, knock yourselves out.

Word to the Republicans (including John McCain): Energy is your issue. You own it. Use the issue as a sledgehammer, use it often, and use it mercilessly. Those bastards deserve it.

Pot Meet Kettle, Part....

The London Telegraph reports that Britain's Channel 4 is to be censured for telling the truth.

The makers of a Channel 4 documentary which claimed that global warming is a swindle misrepresented the views of some of the world's leading climate scientists, the media watchdog is expected to rule next week.

In a judgment at the end of a 15-month enquiry, Ofcom is expected to censure the channel over The Great Global Warming Swindle, broadcast in March last year.

[SNIP]

The controversy over the film, made by director Martin Durkin, has continued to rage in newspapers and online.

Critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data, relied on out-of-date research and employed misleading arguments.

Hmm.. sounds like they were looking in a mirror when they made those statements.

Obama's "dangerous fantasy?"

Powerline points us to a WND article, which reported that Obama stated he would like to develop a civilian security force every bit as powerful and well-funded as today's military. Paul Mirengoff asserts:

I'm not suggesting that Obama would actually try to establish a domestic security force as powerful as our current military, only that deep-down it appears he wouldl like to do something of the kind. That impulse seems like a threat to our freedom regardless of whether Obama attempts to hatch the full-blown object of his fantasy (sic).

Personally, I'm wondering where the MSM is going to be in all of this. They had a cow when President Bush proposed that we beef up domestic security and fight terrorism more efficiently by enlarging our circle of U.S. citizen informants back in 2007.

Obama's plan would seem to be more ambitious-- in spades.

Awww...shucky darn.

Remember how in 2005 (when Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit) Algore and the other chicken littles went into hysterics saying that further hurricane seasons would be exponentially deadlier because of global warming. Yeah, and that Rita and Katrina were byproducts of man's inhumanity to Mother Earth, and were Gaia's revenge for polluting her atmosphere with evil carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases." Then, after a few nondescript hurricane seasons, with visions of the success of their doomsaying global warming scam being shoved up their collective arses, they were forced to mutter under their breaths,

"Never Mind"

But this summer a new sign loomed over the horizon that gave the climate-change pimps new hope--much to their amazement, their dire prediction of melting ice at the polar cap seemed to actually be coming true!!! Visions of photo -ops of drowning polar bears and floods of U.N. grant money danced in their heads, and all was well and right with their crumbling world!!

UNTIL....

the latest scientific observations show that Arctic ice has actually increased by nearly a half million square miles over this time last year.

Well.. guess they'll have to go back to the ol' drawing board.

"Never Mind"

Trust we can believe in?

A must-read at NRO.

And then one day... at band camp...

Confused yet?

In a brilliant piece at NRO, Victor Davis Hansen sums up the Obama/defeat wing of the DNC:

I think a conventional narrative is slowly forming about Iraq something like the following:

I supported the successful three-week war. I opposed the flawed occupation. My principled criticism, however, led to the salvation of Iraq, which is important and necessary. Yet I did not support the idea of being in Iraq, but now don’t oppose it either. My model of intervention in Afghanistan was the proper one; difficulties there are due either to others’ improper implementation or an unwise diversion of resources to Iraq. If the president employs unilateral action, he should be more multilateral; if multilateral, he is an outsourcer and should by more directly involved and unilateral.

Just remember the details of this narrative, monitor how it is modified to fit the daily pulse of the battlefield, and then almost everything we hear makes sense.

Perhaps to a brilliant mind like yours, VDH. As for me, I'm still trying to figure out why Americans continue engage in a death-wish for defeat for their own.

Perhaps it is a throwback analogous to other species feeling the need to eat their own young.

Oil prices plummet... usual suspects suspected?

Oil prices plummeted today to under $130 USD/barrel. The drive-by media hacks are attributing the drop to a "sudden" decrease in demand, due to high gas prices and a sluggish economy. Curiously, nowhere in any article can I find the notion that the drop nearly immediately commenced after an announcement by George W. Bush that he would lift the executive-order moratorium on offshore drilling.

If the drop in market oil prices, as the media is touting, is due to decreased demand, as well as a "sluggish economy," why has it been a sudden drop, as demand has been decreasing steadily since before the July 4th holiday (accompanied by a concurrently downspiraling stock market and economy), with no corresponding drop in prices?

Hmmm... the drive-by agenda media, giving credit where it isn't due.

Feature that.

Another reminder of what we face...

...Should we elect Barack Hussein Obama to office:



Make no mistake. This is a self-loathing, nation-loathing man who is more than hellbent on taking America down a few notches to assuage his liberal guilt.

In the twisted, socialist mind of one Barack Hussein Obama, our best years are not, nay, must not be in front of us; rather we must atone for the best years we've already had and for having had the audacity of greatness amidst such worldly suffering (much of it caused, incidentally, by socialists and their policies).

Barack Hussein's message of "hope," as far as I can figure out, is a "hope" based on the premise that America is no longer the leader of the free world, but rather that America takes a back seat in world leadership to the "enlightened" European intelligentsia. You know, the ones who have become 'O so tolerant' of Sharia law and other "progressive" policies.

Leadership and the preservation of the free world, not to mention increased prosperity and a better life for Americans and their progeny, is simply not in the cards in Barack Hussein Obama's vision of America.

In fact, when's the last time you've even heard him allude, with but a modicum of conviction, to freedom or prosperity or the greatness of America?

I'm waiting....

Wednesday Hero Blogburst, 7-16-08

Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall
22 years old from Peoria, Arizona
2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division
May 22, 2005


"It was very tough not to be touched by him in some way," said Terri Schall, Sgt. Kenneth Schall's mother.

Kenneth Schall was enrolled at Glendale Community College and was studying to become a history teacher when the country was attacked on September 11, 2001. The event spurred him to join the Army. He served a four and a half month tour in Iraq in 2004 and returned in February of 2005.

Terri Schall last spoke to her son on Mother's Day in 2005. "He sounded great — tired — but he said he was doing OK", she said. Sgt. Kenneth Schall died when the Humvee he was riding in was involved in an accident in Yusafiyah, Iraq.

Along with his mother, Sgt. Schall is survived by his father and two younger siblings.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Crap.

And that's all I have to say about this.

You will be missed, my friend.

Bruce brought down the Wall?

No, it wasn't President Reagan's speech at the Vandenberg gate. No relevance there.

It wasn't the Soviet's inability to keep pace with American ingenuity and resolve to defend itself against the "evil empire," inspired by luminaries such as Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II that brought down the wall. Small potatoes.

No, according to the undoubtedly dope-smoking revisionists at Reuters, it was Bruce Springsteen who really brought down the Berlin Wall.


I. Shit. You. Not.

Newsbusters has more.