Democrats Claim “Moral Victory”

Last week the Congress passed the ethics and lobbying “reform” bill. Democrats declared it a “great victory,” “historic,” and “landmark.”.

But what did the bill actually do? Not much, according to Senator Tom Coburn and Townhall columnist Paul Jacob. Coburn labels the bill a betrayal of the American people. Take a look at some of the points and let me know what you think:

• The bill was changed to make earmark disclosure voluntary rather than mandatory.
  
• The requirement of 67 Senate votes to suspend the earmark disclosure rule was changed to 40 votes – less than a majority.
  
• The language prohibiting a member or staff from promoting earmarks they would personally benefit from was completely eviscerated.
  
• So was the language prohibiting a member from trading votes for earmarks.
  
• The requirement that earmarks be put on the Internet 48 hours after their inclusion in legislation was changed to “as soon as practical.”
  
• The non-partisan Senate parliamentarian was replaced by the majority leader as the referee who would determine whether earmark disclosure requirements are met.
  
• The bill also weakened other elements of disclosure and transparency.

The real problem with Congressmen is not how they disclose earmarks but the fact that they cannot be fiscally responsible to begin with. Legislation is not what is going to stop it. It’s going to take action from the people. Sadly, the people want to do something about every free-spending congressman in DC but their own.

At some point you have to start wondering if our Republic can survive this Washington gamesmanship much longer. – from Neal Boortz
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The people of this nation need to stand up and start paying attention to this hoodoo-voodoo on both sides of the aisle. Both parties are responsible for crap like this and it is tearing this nation apart from the inside. I think Kevin mentioned this earlier and I would have to agree with his sentiment – That Ron Paul is probably the best pick for the country because of his deep concern for the constitution and the good of the people. He has proven so with his voting record.

I think the media, mainstream as well as others, aren’t giving him the exposure he deserves because they fear him and what he stands for.

Is The Media Back-Peddling On The War?

Okay, I think it’s time to stir the pot a little bit.

Yesterday, The New York Times published an article by Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollock of the Brookings institute titled “A War We Just Might Win“. This article is interesting from the view that The Brookings institute is a liberal think-tank and the Times is about as far-left in the media as you can get. The Times has been a prominent basher of the Bush administration for the last seven years and the Brookings Institute has mused in the past that we absolutely cannot win in Iraq.

I will admit that in 2003 I was in favor of the Iraq invasion because of the so-called intelligence conveyed to the public. With time, though, I have come to be a critic of the war. I’m not a critic because I think Bush is an idiot (Although he does appear inept most of the time), but because the war has been mismanaged from the get-go. We can argue until we are blue in the face about the lies of the WMD’s, but we had a pretty good evidence of violations, thus a reason to intervene where the UN inspectors were slacking. That’s a whole other article in and of itself. The only thing I will say is that we know for sure, without a doubt, that there were some WMD’s in Iraq.

Here is where my opinion will probably get me bombarded with nasty-grams.

Fire away, I have my vest on…

The Democratic controlled Congress have had no real illusions about pulling out of Iraq, unless they could get it accomplished before the Primaries in ’08. They aren’t saying as much, but it’s only a matter of time before you start hearing them change their tune. If I’m wrong this time next year, you can then tar and feather me.

My impression of most of Congress right now is that they are still pissed off because they lost the Presidency in 2000. Therefore, their main objective is not to get our troops home, although that is a by-product of their hatred, but to get even with the Evil George Bush at any cost. I will be the first to stand up and say that Dubya has made his mistakes and there are things going on that aren’t kosher, but the impression of revenge is there. That I can argue pretty good, considering that the biggest “accomplishments” they have made are opening over 300 congressional investigations of the White House (295 or so of which were unfounded) and re-named 50 post offices.

With all the problems we have both internally and externally, renaming 50 post offices should be pretty low on the to-do list, considering we are at war.

In January, the Senate confirmed in a vote of 81-0 the appointment of General David Petraeus, who was Bush’s top pick, to lead the military forces in Iraq. They also gave him until September of this year to give a report to Congress on the state of the war in Iraq.

Oh, but how times change – and fast.

Certain Republicans in the Senate have now cast a vote of no-confidence in Petraeus’ plan to win in Iraq. How fitting is that? Just when we found a General with the right plan, and a plan that is working, the Senate doesn’t want to hear about it. It seems to me they wanted another stooge to place the blame on for failure, and when they find out that he is making progress, they cut him off at the pass.

You would think that this would be good news for a Congress who wants to finish the war in Iraq and get us out of there. Well, according to House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-South Carolina), this good news poses some problems for the anti-war crowd in Congress. The problem is that they don’t want us to win, they want us to turn tail and surrender in the French tradition.

Now, there could be several reasons for this.

Pelosi and the gang, along with anyone not in denial, know that there will be a Democratic White House come ’09. They will have complete control of the White House as well as Congress (Let’s here the far-lefters bitch about a balance of power then!). Why does this matter?

Simply put, they don’t want to be the party that lost the Iraq War.

I’m sure there are a lot of late night sessions ahead for the Democrats and Republicans who want us out of Iraq, like, tomorrow. Right now they are assessing what the media, especially the ones they have relied upon to convey their message, have to say in the upcoming months about the successes in Iraq. Just like all politicians, they will go with the flow of public opinion eventually, and realize that they have to accomplish something positive in the publics mind.

It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out between now and January. Let’s all just hope that whatever happens, we can get our soldiers out of there as soon as possible.

Oh, and I’ll lay it out as to why I think we should get our troops home ASAP:

1) To secure our borders against illegals who enter this country, and

2) Because when (Not if) we have another terrorist attack, we’re going to need more troops here because it’s going to be a big one and multi-faceted.

I am not pro-war, nor am I anti-war. I follow the line that we need to win this war in Iraq. Why? Well, because the future of our national security depends on it. Bin-Laden said a while back that America is a paper tiger. If you resist and fight back they will run. That is the mentality of Al-Qaeda, along with kill anyone who is not Muslim and won’t convert. If we run in Iraq, we’re in trouble here..

John Doe And The Nation’s Security

On May 14, Congressmen Steven Pearce, Rep. Peter King and Rep. Bill Shuster introduced HR 2291, which would grant immunity to anyone who reports suspicious activity involving the possible threat to transportation or the safety and security of transportation. This resolution is a direct result of the “Flying Imams” case in November of 2006.

Why anyone in Congress would be opposed to this legislation is beyond me. When we have terrorists that want to destroy America, with their preferred choice being public transportation, it is every American’s duty to report any activity that seems out of the ordinary.

I understand that some people believe, because they have only read headlines or talking points, that the “Imams” were targeted because they were Muslim and praying loudly, nothing more. They were doing more than praying. Praying in public is a constitutional right that all religions enjoy in the U.S., but when you combine prayer with constant moving around in an erratic manner, yelling, and refusal to abide by the requests of the flight attendants to have a seat, any reasonable and prudent person would believe that the activity is threatening and out of the ordinary.

It is very important that citizens be able to report suspicious activity without fear of civil liability. In an age where we have people that want to destroy America, there is not enough law enforcement to go around. Even without the threat of terrorism, police are not able to keep up with crime. Extra eyes and ears are necessary in order to keep our Republic safe.

Death Of Football Star Now Political Fodder

As new reports come out about the circumstances of the death of Arizona Cardinal’s star Pat Tillman, we are finding more and more evidence that not only was his death a friendly-fire incident, but possibly (Or more than likely) a calculated killing.

The evidence has been slow to come out, for sure. When we first heard of Tillman’s death, everyone – pros and cons of the war – was shocked and saddened. We have a young man who’s potential on the gridiron was very, very promising and he gave it all up to serve his country, although he was against the war in Iraq.

Now we are finding out that his death, although still while serving honorably, was possibly a murder. Why? well, it appears at this point one of his fellow Rangers was miffed because Tillman told him to quit sniveling about being under fire (I don’t know what the exact quote was, but you get the picture). Apparently the Ranger in question returned the comment by firing 3 rounds into Tillman’s head at close range.

Was, and is, the Bush administration covering up what actually happened? Sure. Why? Well, that is open to speculation but we can all agree that for one reason or another, they didn’t want the truth to come out. Now, my gut feeling is that they wanted to use Tillman to say, “Look, we have a young man who could have made ass-loads of money playing football but he believed in what we were doing in Iraq and sacrificed his life”.

Now that we have all that out of the way, here’s why I’m writing this. The blog site DailyKos.com is now reporting that Tillman was possibly murdered, by orders from the top of the Bush administration, to keep him from becoming an anti-war icon. How in the hell did this story come about? Well, in a nutshell, it stems from an interview of then General Wesley Clark by Keith Olbermann. Nowhere in this interview did Clark indicate that his murder was possibly ordered, but our favorite nut job and conspiracy whack Alex Jones, who lives in his own little pathetic world, took the story and twisted it, making false statements, and made it appear it was an assassination order from the administration.

It appears now that the bandwagon of the anti-war websites are picking up the story.

There is no doubt that someone, and no one on the outside knows for sure right now, ordered a cover-up of Tillman’s death. Was it Bush? Cheney? Bob who sweeps the floors of the West Wing? Don’t know. Why are they using Executive Privilege to keep the story in the shadows? My guess would be that it has to do with nothing more than trying to figure out who did it, get their story straight and not jump the gun. I could be wrong though. This administration has used Executive Privilege more than I’ve used my dishwasher. The best thing they can do is come clean and say, “Hey, we screwed up and we’re sorry”. Will they do it? Hell no.

Ranger Patrick Tillman died an honorable death doing what he thought was right. This administration has tarnished his, and every other soldier and Marine, who have worn the uniform and died for their country. However, using Tillman’s death to exact revenge on Dubya also tarnishes his memory and his service. It’s the mindless zombies who will get back at this administration at all costs, even if it means lying, cheating, and stealing. They refuse to use common sense.

That pisses me off.