Hat Tip: Freedom's Lighthouse.
See also, Johanna Neuman, "Cheney in 2012? Now There's a Real September Surprise," and Memeorandum.
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
Hat Tip: Freedom's Lighthouse.
I really like how Duane actually produced this video, unlike a lot of bloggers who pretty much just talk into the camera for a few minutes.
More at All American Blogger.
Pretty much inside blogball, but Time’s Joe Klein and Salon’s Ellison Rick Ellensberg Thomas Ryan Ellers Wilson Glenn Greenwald are having a bit of a spat. Summat to do with leaked emails and national security concerns according to Klein. Stuff and nonsense insists M. Soque Poopette.I believe Tom Maguire may have the best analysis of this particular “who’s libbing who” dust up:
Joe Klein wastes his pixels and our time lighting into Glenn Greenwald. Whatev – Klein will never be able to move far enough left to placate his audience, as much as he tries – the Atrios/Greenwald screamers have had good success in their goal of working the refs (OK, Bush helped…). However, I *may* be burying the lead – in the email leaked by Greenwald, Klein makes no attempt to conceal his partisan rooting interest in Democratic success, which *may* have led to some awkward moments with his editors. That is pure guesswork, BTW – I can think of plenty of commentators who make no attempt to hide their party preference; I just can’t recall how Klein is marketing and positioning himself.
None of this is particularly important in the grand scheme of things even if the blogger and the hack are relatively influential in their respective corners of the dorkosphere.
There's more at the link, but I've shamelessly reposted the good stuff here.
White House officials are increasingly worried liberal, anti-war Democrats will demand a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress in the eight-year conflict, according to senior administration sources.Forget George Will for now.
These fears, which the officials have discussed on the condition of anonymity over the past few weeks, are rising fast after U.S. casualties hit record levels in July and August.
The aides also expressed concern that Afghan election returns, still being tallied, will result in a narrow reelection for President Hamid Karzai that could result in qualms about his legitimacy — “Tehran II,” as one official put it, in reference to the disputed Iranian election.
The result: some think Afghanistan - not health care - will be the issue that defines the early years of the Obama administration.
“There’s no question that the drumbeat is going to get louder and louder on the left, and you’ll see some fall-off on the right,” said Matt Bennett of the think tank Third Way, the moderate voice of the progressive movement. “His supporters on the Hill are fighting a really serious political battle to keep the criticism under control.”
The Afghanistan conflict, which has gotten relatively little attention in part because Obama talks far more often about domestic concerns, is roaring back to the top of the Obama agenda as Congress is about to return from weeks of meetings with often unhappy voters.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) last week called for a timetable to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan — the same tactic he and other war opponents used to build congressional support for forcing an end to the Iraq war.
But Obama officials — including National Security Adviser James Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — know the problem is much bigger than Feingold and timetables. They anticipate a growing number of anti-war liberals will call, with increasing force, for an end to the conflict when lawmakers return. Cost could become an issue, too. With deficits high, there will be heavy pressure on Obama to find savings somewhere in 2010 — and war critics see Afghanistan as a good place to start.
George F. Will opened a new fissure among conservatives with a column Tuesday calling for the U.S. to pull all ground troops out of Afghanistan, on the theory on the French general Charles de Gaulle that genius “sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.”
But it’s Democratic opposition that could force Obama to retreat on what he has called a "war of necessity."
More at the Link.
All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders ....Click here for full size.
DEFEAT ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FORCES OF HATE WHO CONSPIRE TO REMAIN HEALTHY + WEALTHY WHILE THE PUBLIC LANGUISHES UNDER THE BURDEN OF OUR PRESENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ....
---* RECLAIM OUR LAND FROM THE HEIRS OF, YES: BIN LADEN *---* YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE *---
Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit, "Obama Website: Critics of Obamacare Are Heirs of Bin Laden."
I love this line, "Those Who Claim To Be The Most Tolerant Are Always The Most Intolerant."
As the flagship publication of the political Left, The Nation consistently champions leftists’ lost causes, supporting totalitarian and Communist regimes while simultaneously rejecting any suggestion the United States is justified in military, or even philosophical, opposition to these rogue states.It's clear that Darcy Burner is "burning it up" with some hardcore capitalist-bashing cadres.
An organizer for liberal House Democrats says the bloc “isn’t bluffing” as it prepares to take a reputation-defining stand to protect a public insurance option in the health care overhaul.Whoo hoo!
Darcy Burner, executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation, said the health care debate has rallied traditionally disparate Congressional liberals to hang together, while galvanizing support for their position from an array of left-leaning outside groups. The result, she said, is that Democratic leaders will not be able to clear a package through the House if it does not include the public plan.
“We have never had the Progressive Caucus organized the way it is right now,” Burner said during a Friday roundtable with Roll Call. “This is not the normal scenario. And Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] knows it.”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this week will begin accepting and rejecting the more than 1,070 invitations she has received for paid speeches and political appearances since she resigned from office, aides said.Check the Troglo post for a leggy photo of Mrs. Palin.
Twenty speakers’ bureaus made offers to represent her. She has signed with Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents everyone from George and Laura Bush to Bob Woodward and Katie Couric to Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
More than 950 requests for speeches have poured in for Palin, and over 120 candidates for office have asked her to appear, including folks running for Senate, House and state Legislature, aides said.
Palin will be doing both paid speeches, which are expected to go for six figures apiece, and unpaid speeches for political and charitable causes, including Christian organizations, groups that support families with special-needs children and military families.
Palin has made no commitments so far, and Washington Speakers Bureau will start responding to the invitations this week.
She’s about 85 percent finished with her book, due out this spring from HarperCollins. Then she’ll begin looking through the inch-and-a-half thick file her lawyer, Robert Barnett, has built of offers for network and cable pundit gigs, documentaries and business opportunities.
Barton says, "in the next Congress, I'll be chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce committee, and we'll repeal it."
Yeah, that's real classy.
“Over the past two months we have worked hard to provide overwhelming evidence that Carrie Prejean did not violate her contract with Miss California USA and did not deserve to have her title revoked by Keith Lewis. We will make the case that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage. Keith Lewis has refused to clear her good name or even to admit any wrongdoing. Therefore, Carrie Prejean is left with no alternative but to take her case to court where she expects to be fully vindicated.”I wrote a Pajamas essay on Ms. Prejean back in June: "Miss California Carrie Prejean’s Odyssey: Not Very Pretty." There's clear evidence that pageant officials had a de facto "gay loyalty oath" for contestants. Interestingly, Perez Hilton was demonstrably shocked when Ms. Prejean stated her firmly-held view that "marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised." Indeed, recall the video showed Perez Hilton both embarrassed and perturbed at the then-Miss California's response.
And frankly, that's pretty much how the left views the Bush administration, from the hardline netroots right up to Attorney General Eric Holder (see, "Will the Hard Left Set Our House on Fire?").
Wallace's hourlong fellatio session probably satisfied Cheney immensely, and predictably, the other networks saw fit to publicize Little Dick and his concubine, because what a former Vice President says is automatically news! News! News! ....Also, Duncan Black takes issue with Cheney's reiteration that the administration "kept us safe":
You see what Cheney is doing here. He wants to politicize the Bush terror policies - the investigations being sought by the Attorney General are "clearly a political move," he says - so that any attempt to question them becomes a partisan food fight instead of simply the application of law. This is his metier and he does it very well, judging from all the attention he receives every time he emerges from the bunker. Conservatives, ever on the lookout for victimization, cry that the Justice Department is being all political by investigating torture and murder, and the media cover the ping-pong match.
Also, Cheney won't cooperate with any "improper" investigation. A Justice Department-directed investigation. You know, "fuck you" and all that.
One of the more annoying conservative talking points, one which the Villagers have swallowed whole and regularly spit out, is that "since 9/11 Bush and Dick kept us safe." The obvious flaw in this type of statement is that there's a big mulligan in there. But aside from that, they, you know, didn't. As Steve says:Well, see Fred Barnes, who lists "Bush's Achievements":
- Cheney thinks it was a sterling success when it came to national security and counter-terrorism. Perhaps there's something to this. After all, except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and the anthrax attacks against Americans, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's inability to capture those responsible for 9/11, and waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush's international unpopularity, the Bush/Cheney record on counter-terrorism was awesome.
Second, enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Along with use of secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping, this saved American lives. How many thousands of lives? We'll never know. But, as Charles Krauthammer said recently, "Those are precisely the elements which kept us safe and which have prevented a second attack."See also, PoliGazette, "Cheney on Fox News Sunday."
'Call sign 'Pedro': One of the great untold stories of this war.'
**********
The United States cannot win the war in Afghanistan in the next three months -- any form of even limited victory will take years of further effort. It can, however, easily lose the war. I did not see any simple paths to victory while serving on the assessment group that advised the new U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, on strategy, but I did see all too clearly why the war is being lost.Plus, reporting from the ground in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Michael Yon:
The most critical reason has been resources. Between 2002 and 2008 the United States never provided the forces, money or leadership necessary to win, effectively wasting more than half a decade. Our country left a power vacuum in most of Afghanistan that the Taliban and other jihadist insurgents could exploit and occupy, and Washington did not respond when the U.S. Embassy team in Kabul requested more resources ....
We have a reasonable chance of victory if we properly outfit and empower our new team in Afghanistan; we face certain defeat if we do not.
The 129th ERQS (Emergency Rescue Squadron), flying a pair of HH-60G Pavehawks, launched from Camp Bastion to retrieve the suspected Taliban who was deemed a “Cat A” casualty. Category A means the patient requires immediate evacuation. Total flight distance (given the route) from Bastion to Inkerman back to Bastion would be about 100 miles.Yon's report on the ground comes a few days before last Thursday's election. Read the whole thing here.
Among the British combat soldiers in Afghanistan, Pedro is the only thing more popular than mail. When friendly forces are in need, Pedro will come anywhere, anytime, during any weather, and their helicopters have gotten the bulletholes to prove it. The United States Air Force runs the only rescue service that will always be there, no matter what, no matter that there is no moon for flying, or the dust is too heavy for everyone else, or you are in a firefight. American Army helicopters in Afghanistan fly with the red cross on the side. Flying with that symbol makes it illegal for our people to carry weapons. The decision seems ridiculous; the enemy will only use the red cross for an aim point. While the Army flies armed with a red cross, Pedro flies with miniguns. and they bring some of the most highly qualified medics in the entire U.S. military – which is saying a lot. They bring miniguns, and powersaws to cut soldiers out of MRAPs or other twisted hulks, and scuba gear when that becomes important when troops and gear are lost to the water. If our people can manage to get there, Pedro can manage to get them out. Pedro rescues people every single day.
After an August recess marked by raucous town halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.That's got to drive the netroots freaks absolutley nuts. Routinely when during the campaign last year leftists would cite Silver to rebut polling trends favorable to the GOP. And here we have the guy predicting as much as a 50-seat pickup for the Repubs?
Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House — not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance.
Top political analyst Charlie Cook, in a special August 20 update to subscribers, wrote that “the situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and congressional Democrats.”
"Many veteran congressional election watchers, including Democratic ones, report an eerie sense of déjà vu, with a consensus forming that the chances of Democratic losses going higher than 20 seats is just as good as the chances of Democratic losses going lower than 20 seats,” he wrote.
At the mid-August Netroots Nation convention, Nate Silver, a Democratic analyst whose uncannily accurate, stat-driven predictions have made his website FiveThirtyEight.com a must read among political junkies, predicted that Republicans will win between 20 and 50 seats next year. He further alarmed an audience of progressive activists by arguing that the GOP has between a 25 and 33 percent chance of winning back control of the House.
“A lot of Democratic freshmen and sophomores will be running in a much tougher environment than in 2006 and 2008 and some will adapt to it, but a lot of others will inevitably freak out and end up losing,” Silver told POLITICO. “Complacency is another factor: We have volunteers who worked really hard in 2006 and in 2008 for Obama but it’s less compelling [for them] to preserve the majority.”
The Tucson area Tea Party Coalition held a meeting at Rincon High School in Tucson this weekend. Over 1,000 people showed up at the event ... including one violent counter-protester.
The pro-Obama thug disrupted the meeting screaming-- marched to the front of the room holding a sign ------ And, then SLAMMED AN ATTENDEE IN THE FACE with his elbow!
Also, check out Norma Wilbur's
letter to the editor at the Tacoma News Tribune:The News Tribune’s reporting of Rep. Adam Smith’s town hall meeting (8-27) was disturbing. A man carried a sign of President Obama with a Hitler-type mustache. The News Tribune reported that “bystanders ultimately brought the man to the ground, crumpled his sign and discarded it.”
I assume that organized leftists assaulted the man, while the “violent” conservatives stood by quietly objecting to the leftist violence.
Where is the media’s outrage at the leftists’ violence? The people who assaulted the sign-carrying man should be arrested. Certainly, the leftist mob demonstrated Hitler-like tactics.
The newspaper pictured a huge man shouting and pointing aggressively at a smaller man surrounded by elderly people. The aggressor was pro-health care. Was he planted by the left (as the Nazis did) to ?
I am an elderly lady who plans to attend Norm Dicks’ town hall meeting. Should I be afraid that I will be thrown to the ground as the sign carrier was by what appear to be hired thugs?
No wonder folks bring their guns!
See Dana Loesch, "To Put It Bluntly: People Didn't Bring Guns to Town Halls Until Thugs Started Beating People Up."
Check the post for lots of links.
Also, from CNN, "Tea Party Express Cruises Through Nevada":
Hundreds of people turned out for a series of weekend events as the Tea Party Express cruised across northern Nevada.
The caravan of tour buses, RVs, cargo trucks and SUVs kicked off a cross-country tour Friday in Sacramento, California, and plans on holding events in 33 cities en route to Washington, D.C. for what organizers hope will be a big rally on September 12.
The tour is being funded by Our Country Deserves Better, a conservative political action committee.
The tea party movement gained momentum this year; several parties were held across the country this summer to protest President Barack Obama and the Democrats' economic stimulus plans, among other things.
On July 4, nearly 2,000 advocates, toting signs and chanting slogans, rallied outside Congress. Activists said the TEA Party Day — an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already" — was in response to runaway government spending. But now, the focus is on health care reform, an issue that has brought about demand for bigger, more encompassing debate throughout the country and in Congress.
At an event Saturday in Winnemucca, Nevada, Carolyn Rowe came to the tea party in a T-shirt depicting Obama as the joker from "Batman." In place of the familiar "Hope" logo of Obama's campaign was the word "Joke."
She says she is concerned about the number of so-called "czars" in the Obama administration and she fears losing her choice of doctor if health care reform passes.
"I believe he's trouncing the Constitution and taking control of our country in a direction we don't want," says Rowe, from beneath a wide brimmed straw hat. "I think he has a hidden agenda, and I think he doesn't tell the truth and that in itself bothers me."
Also, NPR, " 'Tea Party Express' Takes Protests Cross-Country" (via Memeorandum).
Glenn Reynolds has rolling coverage to events as well.
But keep checking back at Southern Belle's for more from the tour.
Also, from Moe Lane, "Meet New Boss Rep Shea-Porter (D, NH).
I’ve watched this video a couple of times, and I still can’t figure out why the police took this man out of the room. He was actually less disruptive than the woman behind him. He challenged Shea-Porter on the appearance of SEIU protesters in the room, one of whom got up and disrupted his question. When the first man then challenged the residency of the SEIU rep, police swooped in and removed him.That's SEIU for you. And SEIU punk at the viddy is definitely a goon!
Also, yesterday Mike at Cold Fury wasn't in the mood to commemorate Teddy's burial at Arlington:
The thought of this noisome ruin befouling Arlington National Cemetery, slowly rotting next to real American heroes — blighting everything he touches, in death as in life — is absolutely nauseating. But no more nauseating than the spectacle of debased liberals tripping over themselves to make excuses for this dastardly murderer, for no better reason than that he was on their side politically. It’s beyond appalling; mere words are inadequate to express my revulsion and contempt for such deluded, simple fools.Related (unfortunately): CNN, "Kennedy 'expected more of us' on health care, Dodd says" (via Memeorandum).
The website is probably the creation of artist Mike Flugennock. The artwork at the blog's masthead, and the titles are the same: "The Teabaggers Are Coming!" Flugennock's work includes this disgusting rendering of hooded KKK nightriders lynching President Obama:Enemies List:
teabaggers' march on washington
dick armey's 'freedomworks'
tea party patriots
nationwide tea party coalition
join patients first
smart girl politics
americans for limited government
americans for prosperity
american liberty alliance
american liberty tour
net right nation
redstate.com
michelle malkin, that insane chick
sam adams alliance (not beer-related)
Flugennock is listed here and here as a D.C.-based anarcho-communist poster artist and agitator. See also, "Anarchism in the Arts."
The website also boasts communist Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch among its favorite sources. Counterpunch is a well-know anti-Semitic portal. FrontPage Magazine wrote earlier that:
Almost every self-hating Jew on the planet capable of banging on a keyboard is today either a columnist for the anti-American web magazine Counterpunch, run by Alexander Cockburn, or is an object of Counterpunch’s celebration.Plus, currently running at Counterpunch, "Why Aren't Progressives Disrupting ObamaCare Town Halls?"
"Sympathy for the Devil "
Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit "AND THE ROLE OF EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN WILL BE PLAYED BY…: Liberals’ Knives Come Out for Nate Silver After His Model Points to a Trump Victory..."
R.S. McCain, "'Jews Are Dead, Hamas Is Happy, and Podhoretz Has Got His Rage On ..."
Ace, "Georgia Shooter's Father Berated Him as a "Sissy" and Bought Him an AR-15 to 'Toughen Him Up'..."Free Beacon..., "Kamala Harris, the ‘Candidate of Change,’ Copies Sections of Her Policy Page Directly From Biden's Platform..."