64 Years Ago Today D-Day Began

My uncle was part of Patton's 3rd Army and followed him from the beach to Berlin earning 3 Purple Hearts, Bronze and Silver Stars. The GIs called Patton Ole Blood and Guts, his guts our blood but they followed him as their leader. Here are Gen. Patton's words just before the invasion.

Be Seated."
"Men, this stuff we hear about America wanting to stay out of the war, not wanting to fight, is a lot of bullshit. Americans love to fight - traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win - all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, not ever will lose a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to an American."

"You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Every man is frightened at first in battle. If he says he isn't, he's a goddamn liar. Some men are cowards, yes! But they fight just the same, or get the hell shamed out of them watching men who do fight who are just as scared. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some get over their fright in a minute under fire, some take an hour. For some it takes days. But the real man never lets fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to this country and his innate manhood."

"All through your army career you men have bitched about "This chickenshit drilling." That is all for a purpose. Drilling and discipline must be maintained in any army if for only one reason -- INSTANT OBEDIENCE TO ORDERS AND TO CREATE CONSTANT ALERTNESS. I don't give a damn for a man who is not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready. A man to continue breathing must be alert at all times. If not, sometime a German son-of-a-bitch will sneak up behind him and beat him to death with a sock full of shit."

"There are 400 neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily all because one man went to sleep on his job -- but they were German graves for we caught the bastard asleep before his officers did. An Army is a team. Lives, sleeps, eats, fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is a lot of crap. The bilious bastards who wrote that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting, under fire, than they do about fucking. We have the best food, the finest equipment, the best spirit and the best fighting men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity these poor sons-of-bitches we are going up against. By God, I do!"

"My men don't surrender. I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he is hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight. That's not just bullshit, either. The kind of man I want under me is like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Lugar against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand and busted hell out of the Boche with the helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German: All this with a bullet through his lung. That's a man for you."

"All real heroes are not story book combat fighters either. Every man in the army plays a vital part. Every little job is essential. Don't ever let down, thinking your role is unimportant. Every man has a job to do. Every man is a link in the great chain. What if every truck driver decided that he didn't like the whine of the shells overhead, turned yellow and jumped headlong into the ditch? He could say to himself, "They won't miss me -- just one in thousands." What if every man said that? Where in hell would we be now? No, thank God, Americans don't say that! Every man does his job; every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important to the vast scheme of things. The Ordnance men are needed to supply the guns, the Quartermaster to bring up the food and clothes to us -- for where we're going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man in the mess hall, even the one who heats the water to keep us from getting the GI shits has a job to do. Even the chaplain is important, for if we get killed and if he is not there to bury us we'd all go to hell."

"Each man must not only think of himself, but of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this army. They should all be killed off like flies. If not they will go back home after the war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed brave men. Kill off the goddamn cowards and we'll have a nation of brave men."

"One of the bravest men I ever saw in the African campaign was the fellow I saw on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of furious fire while we were plowing toward Tunis. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at that time. He answered, "Fixing the wire, sir." "Isn't it a little unhealthy right now?," I asked. "Yes sir, but this goddamn wire's got to be fixed." There was a real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how great the odds, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time."

"You should have seen those trucks on the road to Gabes. The drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting around them all the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of these men drove over forty consecutive hours. These weren't combat men. But they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it -- and in a whale of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without them the fight would have been lost. All the links in the chain pulled together and that chain became unbreakable."

"Don't forget, you don't know I'm here. No word of the fact is to be mentioned in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell became of me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the goddamn Germans. Someday I want them to raise up on their hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the goddamn Third Army and that son-of-a-bitch Patton again.'"

"We want to get the hell over there. We want to get over there and clear the goddamn thing up. You can't win a war lying down. The quicker we clean up this goddamn mess, the quicker we can take a jaunt against the purple pissing Japs an clean their nest out too, before the Marines get all the goddamn credit."

"Sure, we all want to be home. We want this thing over with. The quickest way to get it over is to get the bastards. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin. When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a Boche will get him eventually, and the hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one. We'll win this war but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans we've got more guts than they have."

"There is one great thing you men will all be able to say when you go home. You may thank God for it. Thank God, that at least, thirty years from now, when you are sitting around the fireside with your grandson on your knees, and he asks you what you did in the great war, you won't have to cough and say, 'I shoveled shit in Louisiana.' No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, 'Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named George Patton!'"

"That is all."

HT: Confederate Yankee

What did we do to deserve this?

The 'Why do the Hate us?' club has a new member. Rabbi Menachem Froman, chief rabbi of Tekoa, explains that since Hamas is a religious movement, rabbis can use their status to negotiate with them. You heard correctly. The basis of this claim is that Hamas hates secular Israel but will respect fellow religious leaders of another Abrahamitic faith. This claim has been repeated many times before. Dinesh D'Souza, in his book 'The Enemy At Home', he argues that "the cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11 … the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the non-profit sector and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world." The Islamic world views the West as a land of debauchery, immorality and sin and for that reason they must impose Islam's purity.

This is ludicrous. Islam does not hate the West because of its abortion on demand, MTV or premarital sex. Islam wants to subjugate the West because of its Judeo-Christian foundation. The Qur'an mandates Muslims to conquer non-Muslims not because they are immoral but because they are non-Muslims. Jihadist ired is focused equally on G-dless Hollywood, church-going Poland, Bible-thumping Texas or morally relativist Sweden. Rabbi Froman's argument misses the point. Hamas is not committed to Israel's destruction because its Jews break shabbat or eat pork. Islamic fundamentalists cannot accept an independent Infidel, especially Jewish Infidel, state in the heart of the Arab world. The Hamas charter relates the words of Muhammad as recorded by the Sahi Bukhari: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Nowhere in this verse does it say that religious Jews will be spared this longed-for genocide. As evident by the targets of terrorist attacks, Hamas and other terrorist groups attack secular and religious Jews. Teenagers studying in a yeshiva and worshippers in a Meah Shearim synagogue have been attacked just as teenagers in a discotheque erev shabbat. Islam's anger will not abate as long as we insist on being proud and free and refuse to submit to dhimmitude.

It is frequently said that Islam is a fellow Abrahamitic religion with Judaism and Christianity. That is really a misnomer. According to Islam, it is the only Abrahamitic religion. Abraham was a Muslim, thereby making Judaism and Christianity illegitimate. "Ibrahim was not a Jew nor a Christian but he was (an) upright (man), a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists. Most surely the nearest of people to Ibrahim are those who followed him and this Prophet and those who believe and Allah is the guardian of the believers." (Qur'an 3:66-67) All of these calls for universal love and brotherhood are completely silly. Islam has no such pretensions. It believes itself to be the only religion of Abraham and that all others are deviant. It does not view itself as one of three brother religions which share beliefs and values but rather as a ruler and conqueror over these false faiths. We cannot expect Hamas or al-Qaeda to accord a rabbi any sort of respect since he is following a corruption of Allah's original message. Islam holds that the Torah originally contained references to Muhammad's coming but that the Jews conspired to "extinguish the lights of Allah".

Rabbi Froman's suggestion is not only idiotic but dangerous. Think about the horror that the Jewish world felt as it saw Neturai Karta members clad in chassidic garb shaking hands with Iran's president at his Holocaust-denial hate-fest. Neturai Karta is a fringe group with several hundred supporters. Imagine the incredible amount of legitimacy that would be bestowed upon Hamas if well-respected rabbis met and discussed with them. It would be tantamount to negotiating with murderers. This suggestion perpetuates the theme of Western or Israeli guilt in terrorist attacks. Islam is responsible for terrorism, not its victims. Even if Israel became the most observant and moral country (speedily in our days, amen!), Arab and Muslim hatred would not be reduced one iota. It is not our secularism or immorality that is to blame but the very text of the Qur'an. Once they tear out the offending passages, I'm sure my rabbi would happy to give their imams a call.

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

Where Was The Good Samaritan?!?

Ace has the video of an elderly man getting hit by a hit and run driver and noone stops to help or comes to his aid from the busy sidewalk, shameful and terribly sad. My neighborhood ain't the best by any means but when I saw an elderly man turn over on his scooter and fall in a shallow ditch I hit the brakes immediately and jumped out to help. I was beat to the scene by the residents of the house that the accident occured in front of and two passing bicyclists, eight people in 30 seconds ran to help that man. In the video the poor guy lays there in agony till a cop happens to drive by, shame, shame, shame and may the Lord deal with you awful people in good time.

Nut Climbs NYT Building To Hype Global Warming

Alain Robert is well known in climbing circles for his building ascents, crazy frenchy, and today he decided to scale the 52 story New York Times building to raise awareness over global warming, like we don't have enough nuts doing that already. He was followed a couple hours later by a presumed copycat, both were arrested when they reached the top. I love to climb and can climb a brick wall but that is a nutty dangerous stunt. There is video at the link.
Heck I was looking for an excuse to write about climbing again. I have spent many many happy weekends here and sent many of the boulder problems shown(sent means climbed successfully). I love Bishop California!!!!

That is one of my favorite nemesis problems of all times, the Iron Man Traverse, I have come so close so many times, the last couple moves are really hard.

New GOP Ad Hits Rezko Obama Ties

They moved quick on this one for sure and it hits pretty hard. I find it very hard to believe Obama didn't know about the seamy underbelly of Chicago politics that he was part of since Chicago ranks right up there with New Orleans for corruption. Well we know the Democrats aren't concerned about corruption in their ranks only in the Republicans.
HT: Hotair

Obama is not about a new kind of politics, he is the same old liberal politics in a shiny new package of hope and change. Heck even his soaring victory speech Tuesday was a knock off from Mario Cuomo's 1984 speech and full of empty words delivered very well.

Tony Rezko Verdict, Guilty:Updated

Barack Obama's long time friend, fundraiser and Chicago fixer, Tony Rezko, has been found guilty on 16 of 24 counts in his Federal corruption trial. If this guy had been associated with John McCain in any shape form or fashion it would be the top story for all the talking heads of the alphabet networks and yet I doubt it will get much of a mention since it was their golden boy Obama's friend. I have to wonder who else inside the Illinois political combine will be brought down in this far reaching scandal and how many Rezko is willing to take down with him.
It is amazing that the Democrats have nominated a neophyte with so many corrupt or extremely radical friends but then again they turn a blind eye to that sort of thing in their own party. Barack is simply the most far left radical ever nominated by a major party in this country, well he doesn't quite have the nomination yet but I would say it is pretty certain. He is a gun grabbing marxist that will give up American sovereignty to the UN and drastically raise taxes on all Americans and businesses while socializing healthcare and destroying the economy. How anybody could vote for him is beyond me to comprehend.
Those folks that say they will sit on their hands in November and not vote for McCain have every right to do that but I don't want to hear a damn word when Obama, Pelosi and Reid wreck the country.
Update: Don't miss this Hotair post about Obama's sleazy VP search team, ack.

Dumbocrats Construct Devious Plan

Via Gateway Pundit, the moonbats at Democratic Underground have devised a scheme to send out citizens arrest squads to arrest war criminals, Bush ,Cheney etal and have out put down guide lines on how to do it.

1. Don't announce that you're coming, because the war criminal will escape.

2. Pick your war criminal. Here are their names, where to find them, and some of the charges against them.

Note: War Criminals travel frequently. Watch http://convictbushcheney.org for notice of when they'll be appearing publicly near you. Below are their home locations.

3. Form a team. We need teams in California, Texas, New York, and Washington, D.C., among other places. Your mission is to locate a war criminal from the list above in a public place, detain them, handcuff them, phone the police, read the criminal their rights and the charges against them, ask them if they have anything to say in response, videotape the arrest and post it online. Your team should include one or more people who can produce an excellent video and be extremely fast in editing and posting it online. Your team should include people capable of physically detaining your war criminal. Your team should ideally include a lawyer. And, of course, people who can read the charges and question the suspect. Everyone on your team should be able to keep a secret while you're planning your arrest.

4. Prepare to follow this script.

Apprehend and handcuff the war criminal.

Read the war criminal their rights, rights they have denied others:

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
Read the war criminal the charges against them. See above.

Ask the war criminal if they would like to say anything.

Once you have good video footage, your top priority becomes immediately getting it edited (if necessary) and online.

Turn the war criminal over to the police.

Pass out flyers to passersby.

Send statement to the media.

5. Consult a lawyer to avoid unnecessary risks of violating laws while enforcing the law.

6. Be prepared to post your video online in multiple places: Youtube, Google, and convictbushcheney.org (for that last one, mailto:david@davidswanson.org ">contact us).

7. Aquire and learn to use handcuffs.

8. Prepare flyers to hand to passersby and a statement to send to the media.

This should be fun if they try it, LOL. I some how doubt the secret sevice would take kindly to some smelly hippies trying to handcuff Bush or Cheney. I would suggest we use the same tactics when we see the active seditionists of Code Pink and their ilk when they vandalize private property or obstruct private citizens from going about their daily routine. We should file hate crime charges when they slander our troops, turn the table on the hate mongers on the left and let them taste their own medicine.

The Climate Security Act Boondoggle: Updated

The Senate has started debate on the Lieberman-Warner bill that seeks to put a carbon cap and trade regime in place to supposedly combat anthropogenic global warming when in reality it will just be the most massive intrusion of government into our lives in our history. This is based on the new enviroreligion of doomsday hype spread by the likes of Al Gore and Barbara Boxer and simply a backdoor path to socialist control of the energy sector. There is no conclusive evidence that the earth is warming or that man has anything to do with it but it is based on faulty computer models that left out many factors that do control climate on earth like the sun and ocean currents. If you are interested in facts about the climate Icecap is one the best sites to find detailed information from real scientists not a failed politician or UN kleptocrats.
Sen. James Inhofe is leading the fight against this nightmare of a bill and has written an informative piece for the Wall Street Journal about the devastating impacts this will have on the American consumer and industry thus crippling our economy at the cost of trillions of dollars for negligable return.

Various analyses show that Lieberman-Warner would result in higher prices at the gas pump, between 41 cents and $1 per gallon by 2030. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says Lieberman-Warner would effectively raise taxes on Americans by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. The federal Energy Information Administration says the bill would result in a 9.5% drop in manufacturing output and higher energy costs.
Carbon caps will have an especially harmful impact on low-income Americans and those with fixed incomes. A recent CBO report found: "Most of the cost of meeting a cap on CO2 emissions would be borne by consumers, who would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline. Those price increases would be regressive in that poorer households would bear a larger burden relative to their income than wealthier households."

Democrats claim to be for the poor folks and claim to be for keeping industry here in America when this bill will hurt poor people the most and drive industry to countries with less regulation. Contact your Senators and tell them to vote no on this massive boondoggle based on lies and faulty evidence. It does me no good to since Boxer is one of my two and is the nutbag leading the charge in the Senate and Feinstien is not much better. Boxer was even nutty enough to suggest that the economic downturn we are experiencing is the ideal time to cripple the economy further by enacting this bill because it would bring hope, yeah right.
To top it off I am not sure this is even constitutional since all bills dealing with revenue or taxation must originate in the House and not the Senate and this is nothing but a massive tax scheme.
Update: Join Newt Gingrich in rejecting this monstrosity of a pork bill and sign his petition to Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition, over 325,000 have signed it, join them now!

Senator Kennedy Has Brain Surgery Today

His doctors say it was successful at removing as much of the malignant glioma as possible and he will under go chemo and radiation therapy to combat what could not be removed. While I vehemently disagree with the liberal lion of the Senate's politics my prayers will go out to him and his family in this difficult time. I have been through the cancer thing with my late father and it is rough so I could never wish it on anybody.

John McCain At AIPAC

McCain delivered a real stemwinder today to the American Israeli Political Action Conference that shows he gets "it" especially in regards to the mad mullahs of Iran. The full text is here but this is a key excerpt.

European negotiators have proposed a peaceful endgame for Tehran, should it abandon its nuclear ambitions and comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The plan offers far-reaching economic incentives, external support for a civilian nuclear energy program, and integration into the international community. But Tehran has said no.

The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration. In 1998, the secretary of state made a public overture to the Iranians, laid out a roadmap to normal relations, and for two years tried to engage. The Clinton administration even lifted some sanctions, and Secretary Albright apologized for American actions going back to the 1950s. But even under President Khatami -- a man by all accounts less radical than the current president -- Iran rejected these overtures.

Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.

Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on. Essential to this strategy is the UN Security Council, which should impose progressively tougher political and economic sanctions. Should the Security Council continue to delay in this responsibility, the United States must lead like-minded countries in imposing multilateral sanctions outside the UN framework. I am proud to have been a leader on these issues for years, having coauthored the 1992 Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act. Over a year ago I proposed applying sanctions to restrict Iran's ability to import refined petroleum products, on which it is highly dependent, and the time has come for an international campaign to do just that. A severe limit on Iranian imports of gasoline would create immediate pressure on Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to change course, and to cease in the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Why Obama Joined Trinity United And Stayed For Two Decades

After the Obamas declared they were leaving Trinity one has to ask why they were there to begin with. Could it be that they really believed in what they were hearing from the pulpit or was it more politically motivated from the beginning? It appears to be both as more and more starts to come out about Obama's past work as a community organizer with the radical communist Saul Alinsky and his own words about being collective rather than individualistic in the pursuit of social justice. He seeks to unite the anger and energy of black churches like Wright's, Pfleger's and Meeks' with the secular community organizing of the communist movement to attain real change in the economics of America to a more marxist brand; from each according to ability to each according to need, to form a real political grassroots base to the left of even the Chicago Democrat Machine. He did this through his work for progressive groups like the Woods Fund, money, The Annenburg Challenge, education indoctrination with Bill Ayers and ACORN, get out the vote.
Stanley Kurtz has unraveled some of this tightly woven knot in a must read essay for National Review that digs deep and looks at some of Obama's older interviews and writings. There is much to quote in this essay so read the whole thing for a better understanding of Obama's far left views and how he was working to use Trinity and its Marx based Black Liberation Theology to advance his own political advancement.

Having now left Trinity United Church of Christ, can Barack Obama escape responsibility for his decades-long ties to Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright? No, he cannot. Obama’s connections to the radical-left politics espoused by Pfleger and Wright are broad and deep. The real reason Obama bound himself to Wright and Pfleger in the first place is that he largely approved of their political-theological outlooks.
Obama shared Wright’s rejection of black “assimilation.” Obama also shared Wright’s suspicion of the traditional American ethos of individual self-improvement and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” In common with Wright, Obama had deep misgivings about America’s criminal justice system. And with the exception of their direct attacks on whites, Obama largely approved of his preacher-friends’ fiery rhetoric. Obama’s goal was not to repudiate religious radicalism but to channel its fervor into an effective and permanent activist organization. How do we know all this? We know it because Obama himself has told us.

and

So Obama’s political interest in Trinity went far beyond merely gaining a respectable public Christian identity. On his own account, Obama hoped to use the untapped power of the black church to supercharge hard-left politics in Chicago, creating a personal and institutional political base that would be free to part with conventional Democratic politics. By his own testimony, Obama would seem to have allied himself with Wright and Pfleger, not in spite of, but precisely because of their radical left-wing politics. It follows that Obama’s ties to Trinity reflect on far more than his judgment and character (although they certainly implicate that). Contrary to common wisdom, then, Obama’s religious history has everything to do with his political values and policy positions, since it confirms his affinity for leftist radicalism.

Obama is a uniter in that he wants us all to unite in a communist collective as he is fond of saying:"We are all in this together". He just fails to realize that communist socialism is a failed and discredited policy that history teaches leaves nothing but misery in its wake not the utopia of progressive liberals dreams. Obama may be a great charismatic orator but so were Hitler, Lenin and Mao and we all know how well that worked out.

Yep Time to Start Climbing Again

I really miss climbing and have spent the afternoon researching some local areas to get my fingers back in shape. They are sadly limited since I live in a big flat valley and I hate climbing gyms since they are what wrecked my tendons in the first place, I like real rock. I did find one place, an abandoned quarry with enough potential to rebuild my callouses and get my footwork back. I am in need of a partner since mine broke his heel last winter and won't be doing any climbing or even hiking for a long while still so if a stray reader in the Sarcamento area happens on this post that likes to climb let me know.

I am nowhere near this badass but it is inspiring and one of my all time favorite songs.

Mixed Martial Arts Goes Primetime

I have long been a fan of UFC and MMA fights and congrats to CBS for realizing what this sensation is. I have never been a boxing fan even though I loved the Rocky movies, I liked Jean Claude Van Damme's and Chuck Norris' more. These fighters are awesome athletes and deserve the recognition they are finally getting besides being exciting to watch.

Reclaiming "Zionism"- Part I

Over 60 years ago, when the Jews were a beaten and broken nation, Zionism resotred pride to the name "Jew". To be a Zionist was a source of inspiration, to be associated with a little David state fighting an enormous Arab Goliath, the people that had returned to their ancient homeland and against all odds, made her blossom and bloom. Unfortunately, today, the term "Zionist" is often villified and smeared. The slander directed towards Zionism is absolutely disgusting and must be refuted by all decent and good-hearted people.

Zionism is the most natural expression of a Jew to return to his homeland and to control his own destiny with a sovereign state of his own. After suffering 2000 years of wandering, exile, oppression, degradation and outright extermination attempts, the Jew resolved never again to exist on the sufferance of the gentiles, but to live as a free people in his own land. The exiles by the rivers of Babylon lamented, "How can we sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil?" Truly, Judaism in exile was incomplete, missing its glorious redemptive component. Only in the Land of Israel can the Jewish people attain their full potential and develop its culture, religion and language. In a majority gentile society, Judaism is under constant threat from the twin demons of anti-semitism and assimilation. It is only in an independent and free Jewish state where these fears disappear.

Any attempt to make a distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism is artificial and contrived. Since its inception, the national component of Judaism has been essential to its theology and beliefs. Especially today, when most Jews no longer follow the traditional Jewish faith in its authenticity, the identification with the people of Israel has grown more important. Somebody who denies the legitimate right of the Jewish people to their land, claiming to simply be anti-Zionist, is an enemy of the Jewish people. The singular reason for the denial of this principal right of self-determination which is accorded to all other peoples of the world is anti-semitism. Let every opponent of Israel who claims not be an anti-semite realize that the only final result for the Jews of Israel, upon Israel's (G-d forbid) destruction, will be nothing other than death. Many hold the mistaken worldview of a Zionist imperialism threatening the peace of the region. This view is unfounded and the complete opposite of reality. Zionism is a national liberation movement with the intention of impowering an oppressed people. It is opposed by a very poweful and violent Arabic and Islamic imperialism dedicated to cleansing the Middle-East of non-Arabs and non-Muslims. Any person who claims to be a liberal and support the rights of indigenous peoples against aggression should rally to the cause of Israel, the only nation in the world to be living, 4000 years later, in the same country, called by the same name, speaking the same language and following the same faith.

When so many defame and accuse Israel of the most vile of things, it is our duty to defend her. Just as Zionism once restored pride to the title "Jew", every Jew must restore pride to the title "Zionist". Zionism and Judaism are inseperable, being conceived at the same time. Judaism was created when G-d called our forefather Avraham from Haran and Zionism came into being when He promised his descendants the entire Land of Canaan. Zionism has contributed so much good to the world, from scientific advances to democracy and tolerance. It is faced by the cruel and genocidal forces of barbarism and savagery. Should Israel fall, the rest of the civilized world will shortly follow.

Cross-posted to For Zion's Sake

The Obamas Are Leaving Trinity United:Updated

Via Ace and Hotair, CNN is reporting that the Obamas are quitting the TUCC congregation after 20+ years of sitting in the pews hearing the same rhetoric that has now become public knowledge. Why would they leave now I wonder after being married there and having their daughters babtized there? Could it be politically motivated? Cap't Ed thinks it will hurt him more than it helps,

The big problem is that the Obamas sat in that church for 20 years listening to these sermons and finding nothing objectionably about them until they got disseminated to the nation.
Second, and potentially more damaging, it shows Obama’s willingness to throw anyone over the side when the boat starts sinking. That won’t go over very well with his core supporters who have admired his loyalty to TUCC, who excused Wright by pointing out that he had retired, and who bought Obama’s explanation of the “wonderful community” and great works of TUCC. Is that now nothing more than a convenient lie?
If the Obamas quit TUCC, they will confirm it as a political problem, and the act won’t convince anyone that they disagree with its rhetoric. They may convince people that he only joined TUCC for its political connections in Chicago — but that doesn’t exactly reflect well on Obama, either.

I pretty much agree with Ed's assessment.
Update: Jim at Gateway Pundit has more including this interesting quote from Obama:"I will not denounce the church. It is not a church worthy of denouncing."

The Myth Of Obama's Vaunted Intelligence

Much has been written by pundits and blabbed by talking heads across the alphabet networks about how smart Barack Obama is after all he graduated from Harvard Law and was president of the esteemed Harvard Law Review. I have begun to wonder though as he piles gaffe upon gaffe when he attempts to speak from the cuff away from the teleprompter and prepared remarks of hope and change. When answering questions in his rare press avails he often resorts to tired left wing talking points about the failure of the Bush administration's policies and how McCain is just the same without offering anything of substance of his own or dismisses legitimate criticisms as distractions from the real issues. Gone is the eloquence of his prepared speeches and he speaks haltingly with lots of ahhhs and ummms and very often ends up saying nothing at all or getting his facts completely wrong. I am not saying he is stupid but that he is not as smart as his handlers have made him out to be.
Pamela Gellar has posted a devastating article by one of her readers that examines just how Obama came to be president of the Law Review, affirmative action, what he did while there, nothing, and what he did afterwards, not what one who holds that position usually does. The people that have held the prestigious position in the past have gone on to clerk for Supreme Court Justices or at least the DC Appeals Court and then to the top law firms in the country because they want the best and brightest and Obama did not even get an offer. He instead went to a no name firm in Chicago and got involved in socialist community organizing and shady land deals with Tony Rezko.
Go read the whole thing but here is a key excerpt.

Once the glitter and glisten of that title had worn off, the bare reality beneath was that Obama was nothing a politically glib individual able to talk well in abstract - but not produce in concrete. And the judges had recognized that fact by refusing to give him a clerkship. The brutally competitive law firms had also recognized that by not giving him a position at their firms. Therefore, there was only one venue open to him - politics. As the NY Times put it, Obama would be returning to Chicago to "re-enter community work, either in politics or in local organizing."
Such then is the smoke and mirrors of Obama's vaunted 'intelligence'. To this day, he has blown that smoke skillfully in the faces of the liberals to lull them into not asking questions - much the same way the ancient Kings of France blew smoke into the faces of their hunting birds to quieten and lull them into inaction. The terrible problem is that modern bloody birds of prey like Ahmadinijad, Chavez and the Taliban, etc. are not lulled by smoke. To the contrary, these terrorists have mastered the art of blowing their own smoke into the world's face to lull it into submission and inaction. Such years of mastery means these terrorists will make short shrift of the untested Junior senator from Illinois's huffing and puffing. Obama's smoke will be blown back instantly into his face by the hot breath of their hate and insane contempt for human life.
Which will leave Obama with only his intelligence to defend him - and us. Unfortunately, as the above arguments sadly prove, Obama's intelligence itself appears to be smoke. Thus leaving us with a potential Commander in Chief able to defend this country with --- what?

Dean Barnett also has a piece posted at the Weekly Standard that asks How Smart is Obama. As Dean concludes not smart enough and certainly not experienced enough to be Senator let alone POTUS.

Crazy But Cool

Via AoSHQ side bar odd links, the late great Dan Osman doing in a few minutes what would take my partner and me over an hour. I know the cliff well and have done some climbing there. This is an easy climb by his standards.

He was one of the best climbers to have ever put on climbing shoes and died in '82doing something stupid stuff like this.

Dang watching some of the climbing videos at You Tube makes me want to get back on the rock and climb again now that my hands have finally healed. They had gotten so bad I could not form a fist anymore.

LMAO

This fits the Barnyard pretty well and its main denizen, a grumpy Goat, but I don't drive a Ford, I drive a Dodge 4x4 truck.

Wow, This is Super Cool

Via Hotair and Dangerroom is the next generation exoskeleton, I want one since my back problems limit my backpacking enjoyment.

There are so many great applications for this technology for those confined to crutches, canes and wheelchairs, good work guys. I guess Berkeley is good for something.

Obama Sure Can Pick His Friends

When someone who's actual resume` is as shallow as Barack Obama's runs for higher office on his judgement alone chooses such people as the Revs. Wright and Pfleger as his spiritual mentors for more than two decades and subjects his young daughters to this type of vile racist rhetoric preached from the pulpit one has to wonder about his vaunted judgement. Michael Pfleger has also called for a Chicago gun store owner to be "snuffed out" and here he is at the pulpit of Trinity United this past weekend.

HT: Hotair.
Obama claims he did not know about the vile rants that these men seem to spew on a regular basis but how is that after knowing them for so long? Maybe he paid as much attaention in church as he did in history class yet somehow I seriously doubt that. He has chosen to surround himself with radicals of the far left for most of his life and has indeed sought them out as he wrote in his first book. The amount of information that is starting to come out now that he is the presumptive nominee about his connections to radical communists, the corrupt Illinois Combine, racial grievance mongers and terrorist sympathizers is quite astounding. He is a good looking fellow with a handsome family that delivers prepared speeches with a rare elonquence for sure but when it comes to actual substance there is only air there or typical failed socialist policies of the past.
He speaks of hope and change but has done nothing to bring actual change in either Senate seat he has held at the state or federal level just happily following along with party line votes as the most liberal member, never reaching across the aisle or doing any actual work on tough issues. He labels every criticism as a distraction from the real issues or a distortion without ever taking a stance on any tough issue other than being a strong advocate for socialism and retreat and appease in the face of our enemies abroad that want to see America crumble and fall. Why else would folks like Hamas, FARC, Castro and Chavez be rooting for him to win? They know he actually believes as they do, America, Israel, freedom and capitalism are the root of all that ails the world, as does much of the Democrat party. He is not as the MSM paints him as some sort of post-racial, post-partisan messiah, he is exactly the opposite, a hyper-partisan far left socialist grievance monger who's supporters call those that don't bow down in awe of the Obamassiah, racists.
Update: Hotair has more, Pfleger and "surprise" from the Chosen One.

Obama Doesn't Watch The News: Updated With Video Of McCain Smacking Obama

I have wondered how Barack could seem so ignorant of current events particularly in the Middle East but now it comes out in a profile of his "body man" Reggie Love in the NYT. Dean Barnett and Abe Greenwald picked up on this little nugget that sheds alot of light on the subject. I hear he doesn't read blogs either so where does he get his news?

Along the way, some unofficial rules have emerged between the candidate and his aide. From Mr. Obama: “One cardinal rule of the road is, we don’t watch CNN, the news or MSNBC. We don’t watch any talking heads or any politics. We watch ‘SportsCenter’ and argue about that.”

John McCain recently challenged/invited Obama to go to Iraq with him to meet with PM Maliki and Gen Petraeus to see the very real progress that has been made there in the last year or so but the Obama camp declined with talking points that sound more like talking points gleaned from a MoveOn memo.

John McCain’s proposal is nothing more than a political stunt, and we don’t need any more ‘Mission Accomplished’ banners or walks through Baghdad markets to know that Iraq’s leaders have not made the political progress that was the stated purpose of the surge. The American people don’t want any more false promises of progress, they deserve a real debate about a war that has overstretched our military, and cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars without making us safer.

So how does Barack explain why we haven't been attacked on American soil again or that terrorist attacks are down 40% worldwide? What is he afraid of, is he afraid he will see the progress and it won't fit his narrative anymore? Is he afraid to alienate his moonbat base? The Iraqis have come lightyears in a very short time and accomplished more politically than our own inept Democrat controlled Congress and with the central government now extending its security control to areas that had been controlled by various militias like Basra, Mosul and Sadr City the people now have real hope for the first time in decades. Even the hopelessly biased NYT has had to admit to the growing success over there when Al Qaeda has even admitted they are defeated and unable to win.
This man want to be POTUS and he can't even remember what city he is in, what month it is, or when events in history happened or the results of history and now we know he does not even stay abreast of current events. He is barely qualified to be dog-catcher in my little country town let alone POTUS.
Update: Via Hotair is McCain at a townhall meeting today with the gloves off and landing devestating body blows.

Now This Is Interesting

Hmm, I have spent a little time on a couple pro-Clinton blogs, notably Larry Johnson's No Quarter since his readers have linked to me a few times, and reading through the comments they seem to dislike Obama as much as those of us on the Right do. This is not the irrational spewing I have seen at Kos or other pro-Obama sites but solid pragmatic support for their girl, Hillary, along with an overwhelming dislike for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the do nothing Congress with strong support for McCain if Obama gets the DNC nomination.
I am not part of Rush's Operation Chaos and did not particularly agree with it since I don't like it when they play in our primary process but this is really interesting in that the Democrats are really tearing apart at the seams over the Obama Clinton split. I guess noone likes to be called a racist just because they don't fall down in awe of the Obamassiah, from what I have seen it looks like Hillary has what is left of the old school Scoop Jackson Democrats while Obama represents the noisy moonbats of the new old left socialist democrats of the Euroblend.

The One Communists Can Believe In, Obama

Kyle-Anne Shriver has an excellent article in National Review today detailing all the old communist revolutionaries in America flocking to Obama's side in this year's elections and why. From Obama's work with Saul Alinsky right out of Harvard to Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakan, the Black Panthers and their Marxism based Black Liberation Theology. I have been writing about this for weeks now but Ms Shriver sums it all up perfectly and why Barack has become the one they have been waiting for.

For a Boomer like me, following the threads of the Obama movement is like a flashback from a bad 60s drug trip — an old, unwelcome nightmare.

Whether it’s Billy Ayers or Bernadine Dohrn, Tom Hayden or Jane Fonda, or any of the other lesser-knowns, 60s Marxist radicals are lining up behind Obama.

Obama’s young worshippers think they see something altogether new, a unique persona, seemingly magically transported to this moment in history to help them finally be the ones to net the elusive butterfly of socialism’s never-realized promise.

The kids think they see something new. But do they?

Sixties’ radicals see their as yet unfulfilled yearning for socialist utopia in a well-groomed, glittery, establishment-approved package.

The college kids today, flocking to Obama rallies, don’t look much like we did, with our tie-dyed shirts and frayed bellbottoms, our waist-length hair or wild Afros. And they seem to see Obama as the antithesis of 60s’ madness, with a been-there-done-that-want-something-new kind of thirst, a quest for which youth has always been known.

Obama is clean-cut. He talks unity, not subversion. He promises equal outcomes without resorting to violence to get them. He endorses marriage and fidelity for himself, without condeming other lifestyle choices. He speaks in highbrow English, rather than the 60s revolutionary slogans

She points out how Obama's politics and policies are not new at all but just the same old tired and failed policies of the past pulled out of the dustbin of history and given a shiny new coat of wax. The aged radicals know this but all the screaming youth that boost his rallies don't since they are taught history by those same old radicals that have taken over the education system lead by Bill Ayers and his revisionist history with its water colored portrait of a socialist utopia. Obama and his wife have both preached about opting out of joining the corporate world and search for profits and instead opting for the world of community service and activism. As the saying goes you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig, well Obama is the lipstick and communism is the pig.

Update: A welcome to RCPers, regular readers can go vote for this post at Real Clear Politics.

Is Radical Islam Killing Itself? Updated

In a must read essay for The New Yorker Lawrence Wright examines the split developing between Dr. Fadl and Dr Zawahiri two of the founders of Al Jihad, while Fadl lanquishs in an Egyptian prison and Zawahiri continues the murderous rampage of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Fadl has come around to seeing how violent jihad has harmed islam and its standing in the world far more than it has helped through its indiscriminate killing of innocents whether they are infidels or other muslims. Indeed Sunni Al Qaeda and its Shiite equivalents have killed far more muslims than infidels in the Iraq and Afghan wars by bombing markets full of women, children and elderly or sectarian cleansing in order to intimidate them into compliance with their radical ideology. Zawahiri disagrees and says it is OK as long as the main target is the infidel crusaders. It is a fairly long essay but it is a must read to understand the rift taking place in the muslim world, here is the introduction.

Last May, a fax arrived at the London office of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat from a shadowy figure in the radical Islamist movement who went by many names. Born Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, he was the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad, and known to those in the underground mainly as Dr. Fadl. Members of Al Jihad became part of the original core of Al Qaeda; among them was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant. Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda’s top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; Al Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting Al Qaeda’s violence. “We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,” Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.

Fadl’s fax confirmed rumors that imprisoned leaders of Al Jihad were part of a trend in which former terrorists renounced violence. His defection posed a terrible threat to the radical Islamists, because he directly challenged their authority. “There is a form of obedience that is greater than the obedience accorded to any leader, namely, obedience to God and His Messenger,” Fadl wrote, claiming that hundreds of Egyptian jihadists from various factions had endorsed his position.

I read Wright's authoritative book on the lead up to 9/11 "The Looming Tower" a few months ago and highly recommend it for those that wish to understand just what we are fighting and the threat that is radical islamic jihad and this essay offers just a peek but is a positive development just the same. I wonder if the Democrats or their presumed leader Barack Hussein Obama have or will read either one, somehow I doubt it.
Update: More at Strategy Page and even the New Republic via Hotair.
Even more at the Jawa Report.

Always Remember Why

As another Memorial Day passes and we gorge on BBQ and consume massive quantities of beer we must always remember those that died so that we can enjoy days like this in freedom. From the Revolution that founded this great nation to the current conflicts to protect it brave men and women have stood for liberty and given their all so that we shall remain free. I found this poem KJL posted in the Corner to be very fitting, by LtCpl Jason Gerstner.

FINAL INSPECTION

The Marine stood and faced his God, which will always come to pass.

He hoped his shoes were shining, just as brightly as his brass.

Step forward now you Marine, how shall I deal with you?

Have you always turned the other cheek and to my church been true?

The marine squared his shoulders and said, “No, Lord, I guess I ain’t,

Cause those of us who carry guns can’t always be a saint.

I’ve had to work on Sundays and at times my talk was tough,

And sometimes I’ve been violent cause the world is awfully rough.

But I never took a penny that wasn’t mine to keep,

Though I worked a lot of overtime when the bills just got too steep,

And I passed a cry for help though at times I shook with fear,

And sometimes, God, forgive me, I wept unmanly tears.

I know I don’t deserve a place among the people here.

They never wanted me around except to calm their fears.

If you’ve a place for me here, Lord, it needn’t be so grand.

I never asked or had too much. If you don’t, I’ll understand.

There was silence all around the throne, where saints had often trod,

As the Marine waited quietly for the judgment of his God.

Step forward now, you Marine. You’ve borne your burdens well.

Walk peacefully on heaven’s streets. You’ve served your time in hell.

Cool Space News

The NASA Phoenix Lander has made a successful landing on Mars in a mission to explore for signs of life and water in one of the polar regions. My uncle worked for NASA's Huntsville, Al. installation for years before, during and after the Apollo program and visiting there with the exclusive guided tours was a big thrill as a kid during that time so I have long followed NASA space news. This is from the article linked above since NASA's site seems to be down at the moment.

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft appeared Sunday to have made a safe, flawless landing on Mars.

In the mission support room during the final, tense minutes before the landing, long stretches of quiet were punctuated by cheers and clapping as confirmation of crucial events like the deployment of the parachute were confirmed.

Then, at 7:53 p.m. Eastern time, Richard Kornfeld, the lead communications officer for entry, descent and landing, announced: "Touchdown signal detected." The mission controllers erupted in cheers and began hugging one another in congratulations.

Because the signal was relayed via the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the controllers would have to wait a couple of hours, until Odyssey's next pass over the landing site, for additional word of the Phoenix's condition, including whether it had successfully unfolded its solar panels, and possibly for the first photographs of its landing site in the frigid plains above the arctic circle of Mars.

If all is operating properly, the next few days will be spent checking out the lander's instruments. Then it will begin the first up-close investigation of Mars's northern polar regions. That area became a prime area of interest for planetary scientists after Odyssey discovered in 2002 vast quantities of water ice lying a few inches beneath the surface in Mars's polar regions.

I remember reading all the cool articles about future space stations on the moon and dreaming about being an astronaut as I am sure many kids of my generation did. What I want to know is why the heck we are doing spending all this time and effort with the current space station when we could be basing on the moon by now? Want to get kids into math and science then get them interested in the great unknown of space. I will try to keep an eye on the future deveopments of this program.

Gaffe-A-Minute Obama Delivers Again

Coming on the heels of calling Sunrise, Florida,"sunshine" several times in one speech he delivers another doozy that shows how weak his knowledge of history is. Will the MSM report it? I doubt it but if it had been McCain or any other Republican the clip would be running nonstop on MSNBC with doctor after doctor speculating about what it might indicate. Speaking to a Cuban group the Obamassiah had this to say about Hugo Chavez another dictator he wants to sit down with to discuss the finer points of communist totalitarianism.

Since the Bush Administration launched a misguided war in Iraq, its policy in the Americas has been negligent toward our friends, ineffective with our adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in peoples’ lives, and incapable of advancing our interests in the region. No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum.

Of course it is Preident Bush's war in Iraq that is to blame for Hugo coming to power in 1998 and getting reelected in 2000 both under Clinton and long before the start of the Iraq war. He also neglects to mention that it is the Democrats that are holding up a free trade agreement with our ally in the region, Columbia, where the communist FARC terrorist group also dreams of an Obama presidency while negotiating with Dem congressman McGovern as recently captured computers have shown. President Uribe meanwhile has been kicking Chavez supported FARC butt the last couple years with our help and has them splintered and broken, now of course Obama can't have that since it might interrupt his supply of cocaine and they are just freedom fighters like, Che Guevara, that lovable icon of his lefty supporters. Heck Che posters even adorn the walls of Obama campaign offices along with Che-like posters of the Obamassiah. I guess those are the people who's challenges that Bush isn't interrested in unlike those that would be helped by the free trade agreement that Bush supports but since Obama has a long history with communist sympathizers, his mother, Alinsky, Ayers and Dohrn, we know where his sentiments lie, he even told us in his own memoirs. I guess he and Chavez do have alot to chew over besides coca.

Is Obama On Drugs?

Obama has made so many gaffes of incredible stupidity recently that he is either stupid, ignorant or high as a kite, like his 57 state comment or Kennedy's meeting with Kruschev well before the Cuban missile crisis and constantly forgetting where he is.

So Obambi has been gaffe-ridden for some time. Another beauty occurred on May 8, 2007: In a campaign speech, he said 10,000 people had died in a tornado that hit Greensburg, Kansas a few days earlier. The death toll was 12.

In the past few weeks, however, the O-gaffes have been proliferating.

On April 28 in Wilmington, North Carolina, he thought the month was "March" and that it was "nine months to November."

On May 13 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he claimed the war in Iraq was responsible for a shortage of interpreters in Afghanistan: "We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it is harder for us to use them in Afghanistan." Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. Afghans don't, speaking Pushtu, Dari, and various tribal languages.

On May 16 in a press conference, he claimed, "When Kennedy met Khrushchev, we were on the brink of nuclear war." The two met in Vienna in June, 1961. The Cuba Missile Crisis, which Obambi claimed was resolved by the meeting, was in October 1962.

On May 18 in an interview to the Lexington (Ky) Herald-Leader, he said: "I'm not very well known" in Kentucky compared to Hillary because of her husband and "her coming from a nearby state of Arkansas." Illinois - the state he's a senator of - borders Kentucky; Arkansas does not (Tennessee's in between).

The champion O-gaffe was committed on May 9 in Beaverton, Oregon. You have to see it to believe he actually said that during his campaign, "I have now been to 57 states with one left to go," then says that one is "Alaska and Hawaii."

Pamela Gellar pointed to this interesting post by Dr. Jack Wheeler that examines whether these gaffes are from the exausting grind of the campaign trail or are they the result of a drug addled mind. Obama has an admitted history of drug use as he discussed in his book "Dreams From My Father" so it is possible the toils of the trail have gotten to him and he has turned to cocaine once again to relieve the pressure. I have noticed in some interviews and debates that he has a strange airy aloofness and abstract thinking pattern I have seen in people high on coke.

A neuroscientist with years of research into drug abuse and brain chemistry tells To The Point that the behavior exhibited by Obama is consistent with the use of either amphetamines or cocaine.

"His campaign's almost impossibly high level of activity, mental and physical, unrelenting day after day for month upon month is incredibly hard to maintain," he says. "The temptation to maintain it psycho-pharmacologically is great, especially for someone with a history of drug use. The drugs of choice would be amphetamines or cocaine, which can cause amazing mistakes, errors of incredible stupidity."

I don't find this very far-fetched at all and entirely plausible since I know many successful people like Obama who still use controlled substances and he strikes me as the type yuppy that would. I agree with Dr. Wheeler that Obama should consent to a hair follicle drug test especially in light of the very shady characters he has as friends most notably Ayers and Dohrn who are products of the 60's drug culture. It does make me wonder if instead of crumpets and tea with Ahmadinejad he is planning on a few lines and a bowls of hashish to discuss the finer points of totalitarian communism just like his days in college.

Mark Steyn On Congress Suing OPEC

Mark in his usual brilliant way totally rips Congress for its incredible hypocrisy in his latest column and here he gets right to the heart of the matter but go read the whole thing.

“It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act,” declared the House of Representatives, “to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product… or to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas, or any petroleum product when such action, combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the United States.”

Er, okay. But, before we start suing distant sheikhs in exotic lands for violating the NOPEC act, why don’t we start by suing Congress? After all, who “limits the production or distribution of oil” right here in the United States by declaring that there’ll be no drilling in the Gulf of Florida or the Arctic National Mosquito Refuge? As Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz herself told Neil Cavuto on Fox News, “We can’t drill our way out of this problem.”

Well, maybe not. But maybe we could drill our way back to three-and-a-quarter per gallon. More to the point, if the House of Representatives has now declared it “illegal” for the government of Saudi Arabia to restrict oil production, why is it still legal for the Government of the United States to restrict oil production? In fact, the government of the United States restricts pretty much every form of energy production other than the bizarre fetish du jour of federally mandated ethanol production.

So Congress has declared that itself was illegaly restricting the production of oil and gas, HAH.

Friday Night Feel Good

Via Newsbusters and Fox is this touching story of a soldier's homecoming surprise.
Have a tissue handy.
I tried to embed the video but it messed up the site so follow the link to see it.

Maxine Waters, Nationalize Our Oil Industry

Via Hotair, wow the Democrat from the socialist republic of California has her plan to lower fuel costs.

Link: sevenload.com

Powerline has a deeper look at the testimony of the oil company execs attepmting to school the blind deaf and dumb in Congress, good luck with that.
CNS news has clips from some NIMBY Senators saying sure I support more drilling just not in my state while China is working with Cuba to drill just 50 miles from Key Wesr Florida but no our oil compnaies can't.
China is also partly to blame for the genocides in Sudan and probably Zimbabwe as well in order to guarantee their monopoly on the oil there. A short documentary on that can be found here but here is the critical part of the multipart series.

Update: Newt Gingrich's American Solutions has launched a Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition drive, you can sign it here, I did! Newt is right on the money in this video.

In a bit of good news Gov. Palin of Alaska is sueing over the listing of the polar bear as threatened which would cripple the country's economy and 32,000 scientists have signed a petition sceptical about man made global warming.

Bombshell, Democrats Lied To Their Anti-war Base To Get Elected

Thanks to Democrat Congressman Janjorski Jeff Emmanuel is able to blow a major hole in their facade about ending the war in Iraq. The money quote from Kanjorski:

"I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we...the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn't say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts...and people ate it up."

From Jeff's post but go read the whole thing.

The truth in Mr. Kanjorski's statement is both evident and obvious, and has been )to any who have been paying attention) since the Democrat out-of-Iraq-now campaigns began in early 2006. It has become more obvious with every bill the Democrat-led Congress passed that, rather than ending the war, simply gave the President nearly every single thing he asked for, without putting up any real fight (as opposed to the semifrequent, yet brief, preening-for-the-cameras moments of solely rhetorical dissent).

The impression the Democratic Congress gave during those minor-at-best wars over the continuation of the War was that it was simply incompetent. Reps. Pelosi, Hoyer, et al wanted to end the war as soon as possible -- at least, that's what they kept saying. Unfortunately for those who largely elected them on that basis, the best and brightest Democrats in elective office were simply unable to figure out any way to outsmart and outmaneuver the buffoon in the White House on the issues of wartime budget and policy, instead (inadvertently, I'm sure) ending every fight on the wrong side from their point of view, having yet again given the President every single thing he was asking for.

HT:Hotair's quote of the day.

This Is Cool

Via Dangerroom is a mini-documentary about the satelite shoot down a few months ago. I would say the Navy has the right to do a little chest thumping for the effort's success.

Mike Yon On Fox

Link: sevenload.com

The Solution To High Oil Prices: Updated

The solution is actually quite simple, drill and pump more of it to increase supply but no Congress won't allow us to process our domestic oil. Their absolutely insane solution, sue OPEC which will only piss them off and cause prices to go higher. The same idiots voted to block the development of the massive oil shale deposits in the Green River formation in Colorado and Utah, won't allow us to drill of the coasts or in Alaska and won't allow us to build more refineries.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."

Besides developing our domestic resources I could support some sort of curbing speculation in futures markets by hedge funds that have driven much of the current distortion in the market. Sueing OPEC will not solve the problem since they do not set the price but could make matters far worse.
More can be found here.
The Energy Tribune makes some very good points.
Update: Gateway Pundit has much more and has been following this for a while.

More Good News From Iraq

Via Gateway Pundit, coming on the heels of the major successes in Basra and Sadre City by the Iraqi security forces President Jalal Talabani has announced that all provinces should be under Iraqi control by the end of the year. From what I have gathered thousands of insurgent rebels from both JAM and Al Qaida have been eliminated in just the last few months and the people are grateful to be able to live in peace finally.
From Aswat Aliraq News:

The Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday expected Iraqi forces would take control of security by the end of this year.

Speaking in press briefing at Suleimaniya airport before flying to Baghdad, Talabani said “Iraqi forces have been progressing and enhancing their combat capabilities to take control of security of all Iraqi territories.”

“Next year will witness a remarkable improvement in security across the country,” he added.

When asked about the proposed cabinet of Kurdistan’s regional government, he said “we must have patience,” noting “it would be formed soon.”

President Talabani held talks with Kurdistan’s regional President Massoud Barazani on the new cabinet for the Kurdish region.

Democrat's Budget Plans

Congressman John Campbell reports and it ain't pretty.

Raises taxes by at least $683 billion over the next 5 years. These include increases in marginal tax rates; elimination of the 10-percent bracket for lower-income taxpayers; restore the marriage penalty, the death tax, as well as install higher tax rates on investments.
Authorizes More Than $1 Trillion over and above entitlements. The conference report increases so called “discretionary spending” by $21 above the President’s request, pushing it above $1 trillion for 2009. This translates to a spending increase of $241 billion when extended over 5 years.
Entitlements Continue on Automatic Pilot. This budget does nothing to address the growing entitlement problem. Medicare and Social Security alone currently face $40 billion in unfunded liabilities, and that figure is growing unchecked every year.
Record Debt Increase. Although Democrats claim to balance the budget by 2012, the conference report results in the largest debt increase in history – from $8.951 trillion in 2007 to $9.575 trillion in 2008 – and increase of $624 billion this year.
No Earmark Reform. Having repeatedly decried the scandal of earmarks, the Majority does nothing in the budget to address them. Last year’s appropriations bills included some 11,000 earmarks totaling $14.8 billion – and under this budget, the trend will continue.

Hillary Vs Barack, Kentucky And Oregon Edition

With about 85% counted in Kentucky it's Hillary by 35% with an almost 200,000 vote lead. I guess they didn't appreciate Barack writing them off as one of those states in the middle of the country that didn't know him despite the fact his state borders theirs and Arkansas doesn't.
Can Hillary keep it close in Oregon? It's possible but at this point I would rather run against Barack than Hillary and just want to see CHAOS at their convention in Denver. The two camps are building tremendous animosity between them and it is sweet to behold, the Democrat's long lived identity grievance victim politics at its best, err worst.
Update: As I was typing Hillary increased her lead to over 200,000.
Update: This is a real trouncing in Kentucky as I looked through county by county votes Barack was unable to break out of the single digits percentage wise in many precincts. Obama is going to have real problems in a rural America that sees him as a big city elite liberal snob.
Update: Obama is leading in Oregon by 16% and about 60,000 votes with the bulk of that number coming from Portland and Eugene, like I said, big city liberal. Hillary is winning alot of the more rural counties but they don't have the population numbers. I loved Oregon when I went there because it is largely wilderness.
Update: It looks like Hillary will win the popular vote tonight by about 150,000 as the turnout in Oregon is well below expectations though Obama will win the state. This is going to the convention in August, break out the peanuts and beer, grin.

Obama's Massive Rally

So Obama had this massive rally in Portland, Oregon over the weekend that the swooning MSM reported as having nearly 75,000 people in attendance which is impressive if all those people showed up to see Barack. What the MSM didn't tell us is that a very popular Portland based indy-rock band The Decemberists gave a free hour long concert to open the event so how many of those people just showed up for the concert I have to wonder. The rather ironic thing is the band is named after the Bolshevic decemberist revolution and they open their concerts with the Soviet national anthem very fitting for the socialist Obama.
Hugh Hewitt has had a couple callers into his show that went to the concert unaware that Obama was going to be there or that it was a rally for him, the funny part is that they were Obama fans before the event and left with changed minds and no longer support him.
It seems the more Obama talks and demonstrates how little he knows the less people like him. He cannot run on the empty rhetoric of hope and change without telling thinking people what that change they hope for is.

Senator Kennedy Diagnosed With Malignant Brain Tumor

This is sad news and my prayers go out to him and his family as the prognosis is very bad. From the AP story:

Malignant gliomas are a type of brain cancer diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year — and the most common type among adults. It's an initial diagnosis: How well patients fare depends on what specific tumor type is determined by further testing.

Average survival can range from less than a year for very advanced and aggressive types — such as glioblastomas — or to about five years for different types that are slower growing.

The main thing I have noticed is the difference in the reactions on the right side of the blogosphere to this news as compared to the left side when Dick Cheney has heart problems. I may disagree with Kennedy's politics but this is tragic news for any family to bear and they deserve our prayers and support in this difficult time.

Mr Flip Flop, Barack Obama

He is out to make John Kerry look solid and consistent by comparison especially in regards to Iran. Yesterday was Iran is not a threat, today Iran is a grave threat.

Criticizing Michelle Obama Is Now Off Limits

The Obama's went on Good Morning America today for a typical cheese and whine fest about the rapid right wing attack machine and Barack in all his chivalrous hopeness declared criticism of his wife as out of bounds. Sorry Barack but when you send her out as a surrogate of the campaign to make stump speeches for you her words from the stump are very much in bounds and open for scrutiny. Geeze every time the Obamas receive critical scrutiny they whine that its not relevant to the issues or its an unfair attack, get over it or don't send your wife out as a surrogate. He constantly whines about remarks being taken out of context and twisted but then he turns right around and does the same thing to John McCain's remarks, hypocrite. If Obama's skin is so thin you can see through it how in the heck will he be able to handle all the vaunted diplomacy he touts?
The man is clueless about foreign policy, economics, the military, history, geography or how America thinks and works, I guess that is to be expected after spending years in the echo box with radical leftists that see America as the cause to all the world's ills and not the greatest force for good in history. He loves to rail against the war in Iraq but does he think the Iraqi people don't deserve a chance to be free of a ruthless dictator and the brutality of radical islamo-fascists? The more I listen to he and his wife speak the less respect I have for them, they lie, complain and paint a very gloomy portrait of an America that has given them so much without the faintest clue about reality. I swear I am so sick of these elitist snobs that think they know what's best for the rest of us I could puke.

War Costs

One of the favorite memes of the the anti=war liberals like Obama is that we are spending billions of dollars in the Iraq war that we could be using to fund all their groovy socialist programs instead. What they don't tell you is that the vast majority of those funds goes to pay the soldiers and to purchase the necessary equipment needed. The last time I checked that means that money is going right back into the US economy and helps create and maintain manufacturing jobs here. A large portion of the money that does go to Iraq is used to purchase military equipment and other goods and services from American suppliers. Even if we did bring all those soldiers home from Iraq we would still be paying them a salary and purchasing equipment so there would not be any great amount of money being saved to spend on all those nifty programs that Obama has proposed so it is a false meme.

Red Meat On Obama's Ties To The Illinois Corruption Combine

Lots and lots of meat on those bones in Obama's closet and his ties to Tony Rezko the now infamous Chicago fixer. I stumbled on this link to an Evelyn Pringle, an investigative journalist for opednews, in the comments at ABC's Political Radar's blog post about more Obama whining. She has done extensive research into Rezko and the depth of the corruption that is Illinois politics that extends even to the Middle-East. It will take hours to get through all the pieces of the puzzle that she has assembled in eight multi page expose`s that look into all the connections Obama has to the Combine. I can't tell if she is a Clinton supporter or not but she appears to be and the only reason I can see why Hillary has not used this is much of it is very new and would only invite inquiries into the Clintons' own deep seated corruption. She seems to think Obama will be indicted in this ever widening scandle before November and that Rezko was just the tip of the iceberg. Anyway, dig in there is tons of tasty red meat here.

Sunday, May 18, 2008
Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part V
(1 comments) If the Combine's plot to get rid of Patrick Fitzgerald and shut down Board Games had worked, Rezko would have landed an office right smack in the middle of the White House.

Friday, May 16, 2008
Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part IV
(18 comments) The solution to the problems arising from the unsuccessful attempts to shut down Operation Board Games would be for Barack Obama to become president and issue a bipartisan pardon to all members of the "Combine" who funded his seat in the US Senate. The scam worked when Scooter Libby took the fall for the Bush administration.

Thursday, May 15, 2008
Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part III
(11 comments) Three days after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Aiham Alsammarae, the former electricity minister convicted of corruption in Iraq, put up $2.7 million in property to help raise $8.5 million to free Tony Rezko from jail in Chicago, the Times reported that Alsammarae had contributed six times to Obama's presidential campaign.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part II
(13 comments) If the Combine's plot with the Bush administration to shut down Operation Board Games had worked, Obama would be home free. But it failed and the Republicans are just waiting to air the roadmap of dirt pieced together from Fitzgerald's investigation if Obama is nominated. McCain is in the clear because there is no sign of his involvement anywhere.

Monday, May 12, 2008
Curtain Time For Barack Obama - Part I
(32 comments) Republicans have enough damaging information against Barack Obama to knock him off the ballot before the November election. Those at the top of the Democratic Party know this by now and voters need to recognize that if they nominate him they are throwing the election. Nothing else can explain why they would allow this disaster to happen.

Friday, April 18, 2008
Barack Obama - Subplots of Operation Board Games - Part I
(9 comments) If Obama becomes the nominee, the Republicans will unleash a non-stop expose of Obama in the mainstream media that will make the swift boat attacks against John Kerry seem trivial. Only this time, they won't have to make lies because the truth will be on their side

It does appear to be a left wing pro Clinton website judging from other articles there and that last link's comment about the Swift Boaters making up lies about Kerry. Oh well, thanks for the work Evelyn, you saved us a bunch of time doing oppo-research.
Update: Another Barnyard welcome to Real Clear Politics readers and a huge thank you to whoever Dan53 is! My regular readers can go vote for me here under the headline for this post, really cool, twice in one week, thanks.

McCain On Saturday Night Live

He gets off some pretty good lines with his advice to the Democrats.

I like his ability and ease with self-deprecating humor.

Beer Drinkers, Time To Revolt!!!!!!!!!!

Now I am pissed, the ethanol bull crap, failure to drill for domestic oil and refine it and lack of nuclear power is now driving up beer prices not to mention the moonbats in charge here in Sacramento want to tack on 30 cents a can in taxes. We had a "Tea Party" to found America, time to have a "Beer Party" to save it and not the frat boy kind. If the government doesn't want a serious revolt by beer lovers everywhere they need to change some policies advocated by the Democrats. Yeah I can put it in terms us good ole boy rednecks can understand, more corn going for fuel means less to make whiskey and feed the cows, chickens and pigs we eat thus higher prices and less acreage for barley driving up the cost of beer and thanks to the polar bear and the idiots in the NFWS the greeny nuts will now try to take away our BBQ grills. Time to wake up folks ! Don't blame me when you are waiting in lines to get a ration of gas and bread and beer is a benefit for the bureaucrats, I have warned you all along.