Liberals, Talk to the Hand

Frank Salvato starts out his latest editorial at GOPUSA with words that I could not express any better myself. This is very much how I feel about liberals now-a-days.

"To put it bluntly, I have little use for Bush-bashers. Their song is old and tired. Their mordantly indignant tirades serve to degrade, not only the office of the president, but the intellectual stature of Americans in the eyes of the world. While there is always room for genuine, thoughtful, intellectual debate, debate that supposes solutions over rhetoric, Americans have grown tolerant to the small-minded practice of Bush-bashing. If there is anything that reduces the image of Americans around the globe it is the stunted, acerbic, bullhorn mentality of America's Fifth Column and those who join in their caustic idiom.

For the record, while I agree with much of what the president has proposed and accomplished, I disagree with him on some issues as well. So, for those who dwell amongst the unwashed masses of the Progressive-Left, for those of you who routinely condemn and label those of my opinion "Bush-bots," I say "talk to the hand.""

To read the rest: http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/fsalvato/2007/fs_01261.shtml

President's State of the Union Speech

Overall, I felt his speech was well done and I agreed with alot of what he had to say. Tax incentives for those who buy their own insurance is a great plan! However, the thing that has stuck most in my mind is that the Democrats sat down when he said this about Iraq...

"Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory."

Am I to assume Democrats are not in favor of a US victory in Iraq? Should I infer they want the US to ... fail? Did they just very openly root against the USA during the state of the union? I think maybe they did.

2007 State of the Union Address: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2f.htm

Delta Airlines Did a Good Deed

On a somewhat personal note, I had someone relate a story to me about their son's first child being born last week. The proud grandpa told me that his son is in the military and that the son's wife was living with them while she's pregnant. The son was in Virginia when his wife went into labor and they brought her to the hospital. Apparently, he had a leave scheduled for a week or so later as she wasn't due until then, but everything was happening early.

Grandpa called Delta Airlines to talk about getting his son's airline ticket changed. They said there would be a $50 charge for changing the ticket plus the difference in amount between the two tickets. The new ticket would have a difference of about $250. When Grandpa explained how his son was in the military and his wife was in labor at the hospital in Texas, the person on the phone put him on hold for a moment. When he came back on the line, the $250 extra for the ticket was dropped as long as they paid the $50 and the dad-to-be got to the airport in time.

Needless to say, the military man got to the airport just in time in Virginia, but when he got to Atlanta, he found out that he had a 3 hour layover. Once again, Delta worked with him to get him a more time efficient flight via standby. Just his luck, two people did not show up for an earlier flight to Houston and he got aboard.

Grandpa picked dad-to-be up at the Houston airport and they both got to the hospital at about 10:05pm. Baby was born at 10:30pm. Just in time!

Thank you, Delta Airlines, for making that special moment possible for one of our brave military men!

Chavez Finally Admits What he is

Hugo Chavez made this statement recently...

"Those of you who want to know what type of socialism I have planned for Venezuela should read Marx and Lenin," he said.

There you go. What else do the libs need? Chavez is what I've said he is all along. A communist. Those who understand know that communism is the desired end result of socialism.

I don't want to hear any more pooh-poohing from the left or the disbelieving middle/right any longer on this issue. HE IS A COMMUNIST.

Chavez "socialist cities" plan compared to Pol Pot regime:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53763

Good Financial News

Wow! The US deficit is down 33% from last year! WTG, Republicans!

Unfortunately, I had to read a blog (as opposed to a news service) to find this Treasury report...

LGF: US Deficit Drops by a Third: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?
entry=23984_US_Deficit_Drops_By_a_Third&only

Newsbusters: http://newsbusters.org/node/10133

U.S. Treasury Report: http://fms.treas.gov/mts/mts1206.txt

Gee, you'd think the libs in the media would be happy. Wait! Democrats cannot claim credit. Make sure you bury the truth, libs.

Sen. Boxer's Shame

Today, it is reported that Sen. Boxer (D-Cal) took a seriously low blow at Sec. of State Condi Rice.

"Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush's tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer.

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young."

Then, to Rice: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family." "

Well, Senator Boxer, there are alot of people in the USA who are like Rice and do not have children. Some people cannot have children due to medical reasons. Some people do not have children because they have decided to live a gay lifestyle without kids. Some people stay single and childless while they dedicate their lives to their jobs (like Catholic priests). Do they not have the right to have a say in the War on Terror in Iraq? According to Sen. Boxer, if you do not have a direct familial stake in the military, then you just have to shut up about it.

My question is "would Sen. Boxer have said these words to Janet Reno?" Reno, like Rice, dedicated her life to her work and did not have children. I'm not clear whether or not it came out that Reno was gay, but there was a lot of speculation. I'm sure that speculation surrounds Rice as well, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less about it. The fact remains that both women have no children of their own.

Can you imagine the press pirahnas that would have appeared if a Republican senator had said to Janet Reno, "How can you claim to care about Elian Gonzales when you have no children of your own to compare him to? How can you know what his mother went through for the love of her child when you have no personal experience to draw on?" Oh, the rancor that would have been on the front pages.

And that just leads me to believe that Sen. Boxer has a formerly disguised prejudice against women without children for any reason. In her ecstatic questioning of Rice after her party's win in November, she let her true feelings about women without children be known. To her, they have no say. The libs only THOUGHT she was the women's and gay rights senator.

She owes Sec. of State Rice an apology. I don't care how Boxer predicated the statement with her own words about her children being too old and what not. She let her prejudice slip and her insensitivity is not lost nor appreciated on my ears.

Boxer's Low Blow: http://www.nypost.com/seven/01122007/postopinion/editorials/
boxers_low_blow_editorials_.htm?page=0

Sen. McConnell Sticking it to the Democrats

This is honestly the best news I've heard for some time now! What a nice little Valentine's Day present for those liberals in the Senate who think they are going to take over the War on Terror in Iraq. The Democrats in the Senate stonewalled w/the filibuster for years thinking they could just bide their time. I say what's good for the goose is good for the gander and I'm glad to see that Senator McConnell isn't afraid to stand up for what's right in the USA.

"President Bush's decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq drew fierce opposition Thursday from congressional Democrats, but the Senate's top Republican threatened a filibuster to block any legislation expressing disapproval of the plan."

Congress Divided Over Bush War Plan:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/11/D8MJ6MLO0.html

Thomas Jefferson's Koran

Last week, when I heard about Keith Ellison swearing in on Thomas Jefferson's Koran, my first question was, "What did Jefferson really think about the Koran?"

I've finally read an opinion editorial that speaks of the history of Jefferson and his possible views of Islam. To get a good sense of why Jefferson may have read the Koran, one has to remember the history of the Barbary Wars. I would imagine that Jefferson would have a good reason to read the Koran seeing as the Barbary nations that were declaring war against the USA were using that book's laws as their reasoning for attacking USA ships.

Well, don't take my word for it. Do the reading yourself...

"What Thomas Jefferson Learned from the Muslim Book of Jihad"
by Ted Sampley

http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan07/jeff_quran.htm

"...There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.

Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.

Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves..."

Christopher Hitchens: Jefferson's Quran
http://www.slate.com/id/2157314/fr/rss/

"...A few years later, in 1786, the new United States found that it was having to deal very directly with the tenets of the Muslim religion. The Barbary states of North Africa (or, if you prefer, the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, plus Morocco) were using the ports of today's Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia to wage a war of piracy and enslavement against all shipping that passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. Thousands of vessels were taken, and more than a million Europeans and Americans sold into slavery..."

Global Security Website: Military: Barbary Wars:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/barbary.htm

"...The four Barbary States of North Africa - Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli - had plundered seaborne commerce for centuries. Surviving by blackmail, they received great sums of money, ships, and arms yearly from foreign powers in return for allowing the foreigners to trade in African ports and sail unmolested through the Barbary waters. They demanded tribute money, seized ships, and held crews for ransom or sold them into slavery..."

Wikipedia: First Barbary War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars

"...On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli demanded $225,000 from the new administration. Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May of 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents, but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis soon followed their ally in Tripoli.

In response, Jefferson sent a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress. Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed vessels of the United States to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify."..."

World Net Daily: Jefferson had Quran to know his Enemies
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53692

Jkarl: Celebrities... Who Asked for your Opinion?

Some of us feel obliged to begin a new year detailing their resolutions for everyone to admire but, secure in the realization that the public's interest in mine rival that of watching paint dry, I will spare you that pain. Additionally, at my age, the very thought of resolving to give up something I enjoy or to otherwise alter a lifestyle with which I have achieved comfort does not ring my chimes as Flip Wilson would exclaim.

Instead, I will iterate a long held and strong wish that unfortunately, I hold but little optimism of its ever coming to pass. For years, I have longed for our main steam media to perceive that the vast majority of us could scarcely care less for the prevailing political, sociological or economic opinions of celebrities or "the beautiful people."

As an example, please turn your attention to the recent cat fight between Donald Trump and Rose O'Donnell, two noted intellectually and morally challenged lightweights, over the behavior of an obscure beauty queen. The relative importance, newswise, of this serially silly event should have been relegated to the supermarket tabloid headlines where the handful of interested individuals could linger for the time it takes to peruse them.

Sadly however, as they are wont to do in estimating the public's insatiable desire for this babble, reporters have continued to give this as well as other insignificant opinions and utterances of celebrities more legs than a centipede, particularly in the broadcast media. As for the claims of intense public interest in the intuitive cognition of various owners of "star power," while they are admittedly talented performers in their chosen fields, I have yet to hear of any wholesale clamor for the opinions of say George Clooney, The Dixie Chicks, Barbra Streisand or Charlie Sheen.

The absolute freedom for the celebrated as well as those of us less favored to voice publicly our ideological beliefs is not in question; however, the notion that the Sean Penns, Natalie Maines and Jane Fondas of the world are more prescient than we mere mortals is without foundation. This unearned stature reminds one of actress Sissy Spacek being invited to testify as an expert witness before Congress on the plight of the farmer solely because she played a farmer's wife in a movie or Willie Nelson's similarly claimed agricultural expertise by virtue of his frequent sampling of marijuana and neglecting to pay his income taxes.

This accordance of special political, social and military acumen to the expressions of mostly without portfolio performers, writers and academics is of fairly recent origin. For the life of me, I cannot recall radio personalities, early TV and movie stars, athletes and other notables engaging in other than endorsement of cereal and tobacco products and praising our armed forces. Perhaps they not only recognized their limited knowledge but also the potential damage they might cause by the expression of that ignorance.

I suppose in these days of far too many vendors of the same news product, it is futile to hope for the return to an era wherein the purveyors of information were dedicated professionals and, as such, were at least somewhat responsible for their actions. It appears that today any notable with a message and access to a microphone or camera is free to rant and rave with regard for neither its accuracy nor the possible damage inflicted.

For this reason, I am reminded of the attitude of one of my personal heroes, Joe Louis, the former heavyweight champion of the world. When chided for his reticence to be an activist in the Civil Rights movement---I paraphrase his response: "For the betterment of society, everyone should do what he or she does best. I am best at behaving myself." Could it have been better stated?

JKarl Colonel USMC Retired

AP Ish News: Saddam's Double at the end of his Rope

AP Ish News
Eric Wilson Adams
Fargo Foolum
12/30/06

In a last minute switch Saddam was taken out of Iraq and flown into the heart of Memphis, TN. to avoid being hung at the gallows. Furthermore, far left conspiracy theorists indicate that the trip was planned and paid for by Karl Rove and George W. Bush. Actually, The New York Times sponsored the arrangement and are itching for Saddam's return to power.

In his place, a local Iraqi Saddam double proudly stepped to the rope and entered into the kingdom of heaven. Immediately, the double was met by 77 virgins and James Brown. The Rev. Al Sharpton was not present in Memphis for any immediate comment.

The Administration has high hopes of successful plastic surgery for Mr. Hussein to look like Al Gore and returning him to power after a three year cooling down period. The whereabouts of the real Al Gore are believed to be deep into the heart of Africa, resolved in teaching starving Africans the dangers of global warming.

Upon hearing the news, newly declared Presidential hopeful, John Edwards, said, " Wow, really ?" Then continued photo op sessions east of Bourbon Street.

Happy New Year 2007