Mitt's Secret Weapon

Mitt Romney's best counter for those that wish to discredit him is his personal family life, married his childhood sweetheart and has been the devoted family man for almost 40 years, no divorces or affairs just a deep devotion to his wife and life partner. This is so unlike his main competition in Rudy Giulliani, I like Rudy alot and would be a whole hearted supporter if he is the nominee as I would Sen. McCain. If you can read Mitt's tribute to his wife Ann and not draw a tissue then you have know idea of love, marriage or family. Goat has zero doubt about Mitt's conservatism and his ability to lead America into a new century. His recent ad buy was message based and he is sailing the relatively quiet waters away from the break of the daily tides while raising alot of money. It is worth noting that Mitt will run his campaign as the fiscal genious he is and not a dime will be wasted. That is why I want Mitt as President, a solid family man that knows the value of his dollar.
Gov. Jim Gilmore and Rep Duncan Hunter give a major voice to the GOP debate as does Newt Gingrich and Gov. Huckabee. Though both these guys are great conservative voices Goat does not see somebody named Newt or Huckabee as POTUS, sorry guys it is the name, so sad.
Goat would like to see a Romney/Giulliani ticket with the rest of the field being brought in as cabinet positions. I would like to see Hunter or Gilroy as a sub at veep though Mitt and Rudy can reach where they can't. the independant crowd. Yeah. we are devided but look at the caliber of candidate as compared to the left, Hillbillary and Hussien Obama.
Mitt as Pres, Rudy veep, Dr.Rice stays at State, Newt gets a major policy position as does Hunter and Gilroy if not on the ticket. Lots of formulations and ideas to consider, lets pick the best, hint, Mitt Romney

Oh So Rich

When I saw this I about fell out of my chair, one has to wonder how Rev. Al Sharpton felt when it was made news that his ancestors were owned by none other than the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family and they may share common blood. While the Barnyard does not agree with the historical stand of either of these men, the irony and small worldness has to be appreciated, the "reparations" voice and the "segregationists" historically and forever linked by blind fate. How long before Sharpton files a suit against the Thurmond estate demanding to be paid off? He may actually have a case, though I think he should not make a big affair out of it as it would do nothing to help his community. Slavery was and still is a great sin upon humanity. We must remember that the practioners of the slave trade of the last couple centuries has mainly been by Islamic cultures and that it has been Christianity that has led the fight against it.
It was Islamists that ran the Barbary Coast, the hub of the African slave trade untill smashed by America under Jefferson. tens of millions more African slaves were taken to Arabia and Persia than were sent to the West. The difference, most of those sent to the West have extended surviving families not so for those sent East. Here in America a slave was a valuable asset and expensive and most owners at least treated them as such, a beaten unhappy slave was not as productive and the big plantations knew that and they lived no harder lives than white share-croppers and starry eyed settlers and in some cases better.
Goat did not miss a minute of the TV series "Roots" as a kid, and then went on the library waiting list for agonizing weeks for the book and it remains one of the most influential books ever read. Dr. Rice just a few miles away at the time and in a totally different world overcame that diminsion to become the most powerful woman in the world. She matured in the hell of Bull Connor's Birmingham inside the tight community of her fathers Church. Goat ran around like a useless twit on thousands of acres of farm and parkland, learning about snakes and large mouthed bass while she practiced Chopin. It is one thing to be able to hit a moving target at 500 yards it is another to move rogue nations with words. Some how I have a feeling Dr. Rice might know a bit about the finer arts of fishing and hunting as well.
Slavery is wrong but what went on in America must be put in context of what did and still goes on in the Islamic world. The treatment of women being a blatant and blaring signal to civilized people of a very real threat from modern day Islamic slavery. That is why Sam Adams' famous quote has a prominent place in the Barnyard.

The Art Of The Interview

In the Goat's humble opinion Hugh Hewitt is the media master at this time, especially the extended format. His full show length talk with Andrew Roberts on his new book " A History of the English Speaking People Since 1900" was absolutely fascinating and another book added to a bloated reading list. Hugh doesn't have the transcript or audio up yet but it will linked when he does. Goat wants to read it before delving in though he was riveted during the broadcast. Hugh is a master at this format and conducts interviews like the attentive law proffessor should, deep and informative and lively enough to hold an audience.

Meanwhile the good Joe on the Dem's side, Sen. Joe Lieberman has published a fantasic piece in the Wall Street Journal on why American commitment to the Middle East is so important. The Barnyard may disagree with the good Senator 90% of the time, but he is absolutely correct here.

Congress thus faces a choice in the weeks and months ahead. Will we allow our actions to be driven by the changing conditions on the ground in Iraq--or by the unchanging political and ideological positions long ago staked out in Washington? What ultimately matters more to us: the real fight over there, or the political fight over here?

If we stopped the legislative maneuvering and looked to Baghdad, we would see what the new security strategy actually entails and how dramatically it differs from previous efforts. For the first time in the Iraqi capital, the focus of the U.S. military is not just training indigenous forces or chasing down insurgents, but ensuring basic security--meaning an end, at last, to the large-scale sectarian slaughter and ethnic cleansing that has paralyzed Iraq for the past year.

Read the whole thing, Senator Lieberman is an extremely decent, sober individual and exibits classic liberalism in most of his policy positions and should be applauded for his moral clarity in standing up to what is increasingly his former party's leadership.

Mitt Romney continues to be willing to sit down with the New Media talk and answer tough questions as this interview with Real Clear Politics further shows his desire to get ahead of the wave while appearing to be in placid water.

High Sierra light, God's ethereal morning fire

Yes, there is glory on High, the Lord's Glory, and the Grace to recieve it!

Weekend Roundup

A better picture of the what the Denocrats are trying to do with their nonbinding resolution soapboxing is starting to take shape. It is a move to keep the base happy and as Iraq stabilizes over the next year because their own defense forces have taken over the battlesphere and to take credit as troops are able to redeploy. Their "slow-bleed" set of proposals put forth by John Murtha will not get much traction now that it has been exposed and full funding will continue though the GOP may have to stiffen their collective spine a bit. America wants to win this war and is disheartened by the constant negative bleet from the main stream press, and that dissatisfaction is being misread by the Left in a big way.
What to do with Iran, Amir Taheri sums that up much better than the Goat can. (here)

Has war between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran become inevitable?

These days, the question is at the center of discussions in diplomatic circles across the globe. A good part of the talk on the sidelines of the annual International Security Conference, held in Munich, Germany, last week was precisely about that.

The same question will be at the center of talks between Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad who is due in Tehran today to coordinate his strategies with Iran.

And (Here)

Even a month ago, few believed that Syria would make a definitive switch over to Iran in the current struggle over reshaping the Middle East. We had it from well-placed Syrian sources that the leadership in Damascus, debating the wisdom of throwing in its lot with the Khomeinists in Tehran, might end up joining the new Arab bloc of moderate states.

And yet, the switch over to Tehran came last weekend in a dramatic way when President Bashar Al Assad paid his sixth visit to the Islamic republic and was received by the Khomeinist "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

While we could spend all night posting positive links, we are winning this war though in the two steps forward, one back fashion, America prefers the quick rush to victory over a few hours of football and pizza. America understands it did not want this job but in our workman like way want to finish it as best they can.

Weekend Rambler

Hmmm, well, the Barnyard just learned from Chris Matthews' show that Al Gore is a major hedge fund manager in the stock market. That of course begs the question of whether his piece of science fiction documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"is nothing more than a super hyped infomercial for companies he has major holdings in? Al Gore may be a lunatic but he is far from stupid and as we have stated before this whole thing is about power and money not the environment.
There is much blather about computer models and their dire predictions well any computer model is only as good as the data fed into it, if the data is incomplete or flawed the model can be drastically skewed. Only recently was man able to design a computer able to beat a man at chess and its millions of variables are well documented. There are so many billions more times more variables in the earth sciences that prediction on that scale is impossible especially by simple computer models built on limited data input.
So lets assume we warm a few degrees at the northern and southern latitudes, that would mean extended growing seasons throughout those regions and previously unavailable cropland made available thus more food, higher CO2 levels contribute to vibrant flora and thus a healthy fauna with ample food and higher levels of oxygen because of the increased flora. Dang, that sounds good to the Goat, much better than an iceage at any rate, it seems life flourishes during our warm periods in history and suffers during the cold, well who'da thunk it? Does Al Gore prefer an iceage environment like other blubber encased creatures where the predatory strong prey on the weak?
A quick mention on ethanol, we get about 250 gallons of fuel per acre of corn, do the math, and it takes about half of what is produced to produce the other half so double that acreage. How many acres would it take to fuel your car on ethanol for a month? Get the picture, it is a pipe dream that will drastically drive up the price of food basics for the world's poor as starch, corn, rice, grain etc gets converted to fuel not food. Dang that cost vs. price thing always gets in the way of pipe dreams doesn't it. At least global warming would allow those crops to be grown in a larger region, how ironic is that?
Hey this Goat loves to dine on clean veggies and game, breath clean air and drink clean water from mountain streams, the last folks he wants in control of that are the neo-socialist greenies of which he is a former member and avid supporter of.
Conservation and survival is about freedom, freedom to overcome obstacles, freedom to maintain your own land, freedom to create new and profitable alternatives, not government mandates, taxation, and social engineering. This Goat is tired of beaurocrats talking about something they don't do, when was the last time Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer hauled a backpack full of toilet paper and beer cans out of the backcountry of the high Sierra? How many truckloads of soiled diapers, beer cans and assorted garbage have they helped remove from our waterways on their own time with their own vehicles?
The Goat doesn't need just hipboots to get through the liberal duplicity, he needs a spacesuit.

Must Read

From Mike Yon while "Walking the Line" in Iraq with our troops

California Spring

Sensing Weakness

The terrorist thugs in Iraq, sensing weakness here in America, have started using chemical weapons in attacks against the Iraqi civilians with at least three truck bombs loaded with chlorine gas going off recently and the Pelosi-Murtha defeatocrats want to just surrender Iraq to the mercies of those savages. Con. (arab despot lover) Murtha has put forth a "slow bleed" strategy to damage our troops ability to do their job properly in Iraq and Afganistan assuring a victory for the jihadi terrorists and their Islamo-fascist backers and an excruciating blow to American credibilty just to hurt a President that shunned his advice in '02. This is a shameful, dare we say, traitorous move by the Democrats that only fuels the hope our enemies have of defeating us with pure propoganda and bloody headlines. The move to poison gas by the terrorists should galvaninize noodle spined Republicans and hopefully a few dozen sober Democrats to supporting finishing this war with a victory and bringing our much deserving Patriot Armed Forces home triumphate, not in scorn tobe called scared dogs by the Arab media.
Yes, more troops have been killed or injured of late because we have been seriously taking names, taking it to the fanatics and kicking ass. Iraq will soon have one of the largest and best trained armies in the Middle East and an increasingly better equipped one as Iraq's oil wealth begins to flow and American arms pour in. Real wars take much longer than a video game to win, there are so many millions more variables than in a simple game of chess, that a computer was only recently ably to beat the Chess Champion and I believe the match is at draw at this time. How can we defeat a ruthless dictator, set up a new government, defeat a nascent insurgency, train a self defense capable military, and rebuild a rotted infrastructure in four years when it takes three months to get a building permit for a storage shed here in America? We are really good at making things nearly instant, from sex to wealth, however , war will never fit a cyber reality, it is human life at its base and as unpredictable as life itself and without a decisive victory lasts forever. Where is Vince Lombardi when you need him? Yes, Coach, Winning is everything!

Goat's Not Prescient But...

Well the first shots have been fired by the Obama and Clinton camps at each other, appears Hillary is jealous that Barak is stealing her thunder among the Hollywood elite. Arianna Huffington referees, (Hat Tip: HughHewitt) and this is so rich. David Geffen, movie mogul for Dreamworks, called the Clintons expert pathological liars, in so many words, when interviewed about an Obama fundraiser among the glitterati. The sparks are flying as Obama moves in on her political money base, the wrath of a woman scorned, this is going to be fun to watch. Hillary will not be upstaged by anybody, but maybe Bill if she sees it as helping her along, in her despotic preordination fantasy. Goat doubts that Barak is ready for the full on, knee-high, rear assault coming his way aimed at clipping his momentum in the backfield, Hillary has a notabley vicious linebacker core...

Finally there is an alternative petition to counter the global warming alarmists led by Al Gore, figures it would be "The Patriot Post" leading the way, sign the petition here. If the icecaps are shrinking, why are they adding thickness? Could solar cycles play a major role in planetary surface temperature fluctuations? How accurate are meteorlogical data from a century ago as a very young science? Would not ice core, tree ring, and other more specific geologic and biologic evidence be just as viable even if it doesn't fit the socialist hype? The "earth" sciences have long held a passionate amateur lure to the Goat, considering his godfather is/was a geo-physicist astronomy professor and an uncle with NASA. It was a world of wonder and delight for a kid with access to the largest telescope in the SouthEast at the time and the planetarium at Birmingham Southern University and regular stops at the Chicago Museum of Natural History along with access to an extensive private High School's library year round from an early age. The region was an ancient sea floor rich in fossils and elaborate limestone caves, it was all this that kept me from Christ, rejecting the 5000 year view held by the religious surroundings at the time, till early adulthood being one of the earliest to understand intelligent design. The Goat is not just spewing BS when he posts on the environment, it has been a big part of his life's passion and a serious hobby.

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DNC Dilimma

While much is written and said about divisions in the rank and file GOP base very lttle is mentioned about the very deep divisions in the loose coalition called the DNC. There are still plenty of Reagan and 9/11 Democrats among the public that don't support retreat or the far left agenda of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid or prospective POTUS candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama or John Edwards. All three are running on a neo-socialist platform that will not play well with the voters once they are informed and are playing leap frog to see how far left they can go. Hillary now has to make pretty faces for the loony base of her party while trying to attract center and center right voters, she ain't Bill when it comes to a silver tongue, ingratiating personality, or ability to triangulate.
The fight between Hillary and Obama could get very ugly as she will pull no punches and her operatives are among the best and slimiest in the political business, Gov. Bill Richardson will benefit from the fallout.
Goat expects just the opposite from the GOP side, with ideas and real solutions being put forth with real discussion. Has there been a more solid, well rounded set of candidates put forth by either party that meets the caliber of those the GOP has put forth in decades? In fact, Newt Gingrich (video) and Mario Cuomo have launched a very intriguing idea where instead of a scripted moderated debate, the candidates sit down eye-to-eye and have a conversation in a townhall setting with a Q&A afterwards about the issues. Goat very seriousely doubts there will be much mudslinging by conservatives at each other and if there is, it will be squelched. While the Barnyard will fully support Mitt Romney in the primary bid, it will also fully support the GOP nominee and will not attack them in a personal way. In the Barnyard opinion, personal life that does not interfere with the ability to lead or govern should be left off the table, ie. messy divorces, affairs, etc. Goat did not support the impeachment of Bill Clinton as it was a waste of time and money over a personal fault, irrelevant to the nation as a whole, now if the Dems wish to try and impeach Pres. Bush over the war, that does affect an America that is engaged in a war for our way of life, a very different prospect.
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PS: Comments by visitors from banned sites will be deleted.

President's Day

While the Barnyard honors Presidents Washington and Lincoln as rightfull heroes of our history, it does not honor this holiday as an excuse for government slackardness and paid union timeoff on its taxdollar.
Another thing that has seriousely disturbed the Goat is the severe ignorance or lack of understanding of so many of our pols to grasp the scope of what we face from Islamo-fascism and its desire to destroy or rule us. The Goat challenges a person to spend some time at Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail or the CounterTerrorism Blog, and not feel their hair start to stand up and hackles rise is a blind fool. It appears many of our pols have not taken advantage of the new media to get a more rounded sense of what is really going on in the world, the Goat is just a third tier blogger with more upfront info than any newspaper in the country is willing to put out. Not that its bahhhed about but linked to on the blogroll, with feeds from Centcom, Bill, and Mike Yon, currently embedded walking the line with our troops or stop by Benador Associates and read some of the articles by Amir Taheri and others. It is not hard to find information if you look.
What bamboozles this already fuzzy Goat noggin' is why America's left wants to surrender to its exact opposite, the extreme religious far right as represented by Iran's Shia Mullahs and Wahhabiist supported Al Qaida of radical Islam? Oh yeah, sorry, Goat forgot the left firmly subscribes to, almost to religious fervor, victimology, and with Sha'ria law over them they could be eternal victims. Christians and Jews just aren't rough enough dominatrixes, we welcome them and love them and try to persuade them from their sinful ways, they want to be beaten so their "message" can claim a higher post in the victims list than their much hated Jews and Christians. While not claiming any psychiatric analysis skills, Goat spent much time reading Jung and Freud because ,well, it was more interesting than my HS teachers at the time, it is hard to understand how badly the left wants a Christian to kill a gay or abortion clinic worker in Christ's name. It won't happen but if a Muslim did it in Mohammed's name it would not make the press, that has been shown in many recent events.

The Unoriginality of the Left

As I sit and watch the Mitt Romney campaign unfold, the efforts on the left to discredit the man have officially amused me.

When I say amuse, it is more along the lines of frightened and/or boredom. Politics is a rough game and at the presidential level, really, only the very best should be involved. Strategies need to be implemented to chip away at the opposition's cores and done so in a very specific manner tailored to each candidate. Enter my amusement at the "been there, done that, may as well recycle the Republican method with John Kerry cause we can't think of anything ourselves" style.

While many things have hit me as of late, two stand out in my mind.

First is the very sad, ongoing, yet absolutely ineffective school yard gutter game of insinuating and injecting perceived prejudice into a candidate that simply isn't there. If you do an internet search for Romney's acceptance speech, odds are you will wind up in a random blog closely resembling a sandbox where the authors and/or contributors are assailing Romney for his "insensitivity" in choosing the museum of an anti-Semite for his announcement speech. EGADS! Could it be, "Moonbats," that the man, as a capitalist to the core, was thinking more along the lines of, Michigan, successful American businessman etc??? Honestly, the ankle biters are tedious.

Secondly, is the pathetic attempts by the other team to discredit Mr Romney as a, you may not have heard it here first since, again, these Democrats like to steal others' strategies because their own do not seem to work, but yes, the dreaded "FLIP FLOPPER." While his positions on a couple of core issues did change, and whose hasn't over a 50+ year life time, I can not get the scnt of crayons and glue out of my nose to save my life! Changing one's personal position on abortion as public policy in a country where its original intent has been skewered and morphed into a form of easy birth control is slightly different than, "I voted for the war before I voted against it."

Kids, do we really, honestly want to send a Democrat whose people can come up with nothing better than this stuff, to 1600 PA Ave?

Mr Romney is perhaps the most competent, qualified candidate this country has seen in decades. Don't for a second believe the school yard tactics of the Left in regards to Mitt. As Cal Thomas said, "They only make an issue if they think you're a threat."

Mitt Gets Hit With the “Pretender” Label

I knew the questions, or should I say, accusations, regarding Mitt Romney’s Mormonism would surface, but I didn’t quite expect them to be this rude or blunt.

As usual, Mitt handled himself with the tremendous poise and grace that is indicative of his character. It, eventually giving way to a standing ovation. Click on the thread title for the video feed.

Weekend Wanderings

The early spring weather sent the Goat out on one his favorite local trails, in the Spenceville Wildlife area a short bucolic drive from the Barnyard, for a meander through the oaks and gray pines to a little known waterfall. He was in search of early spring flowers for an ever hungry camera lens but, alas, found none and with the falls at normal flow so after a few minutes to graze and water, uphill it is to the best vista point.




This is a good idea of what vast parts of California look like, it sure ain't what that ten square mile peninisula of earthquake country, SanFrancisco, that yearns to rule us through dicdat, looks like. Those big city folk want to tell us country boys about the environment they pollute so we have to be carefull about the fish we eat or the game we hunt for sustenance because we don't trust meat factories.
Note the young age of these oaks, these hills were nude a century ago as was most of America, not so anymore, America has reclaimed most of its forests and it grasslands are suffering a bit from exotic invasion but are coming back as well. Americans are the best stewards of their homeland of any and the leading innovators in clean technology and the last thing we need is ultra-rich big city liberals like Nancy "Mommycrat" Pelosi telling us countryboys how to manage the wilderness we so love. Goat will stack the Nature Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited against the Sierra Club and Greenpeace any day for actually making a difference, not a buck or a liberal social club, though the folks at that DU do carry guns and shoot ducks...
Goat intends to own a chunk of land one day, hopefully bordering NFS or BLA land, and dreams of going "Aldo Leopold" on it while being disconnected from the electric grid. He knows we are much cleaner today than we were thirty years ago under alarms of global cooling and we will be thirty years hence without the socialization of that cause but rather by the free market forces that drive the technology. We don't need a bloated gasbag spewing excess CO2 and methane into the air, Al Gore, and his neo-socialism to save us. The free market will take care of the problem just fine , thank you.
The Goat, well he is going to enjoy all those oxygen spewing trees and plants and keep spouting manure and CO2 so they continue to grow well, hey and paperless press, Dang, who thank of that, was it Al Gore?

The Barnyard is totally into our environment and as fully against the "Global Warming" hysteria mongers, socialism gets no free ride down this river. Come bang heads with a mountain goat on the subject if you dare on one of my favorite subjects.

The "Whiteflag republicans" leave me too angry to comment at this time lest I break into language more in accordance with Edward's former employees. Just join the Victory Caucus if you feel the same frustration.

Thursday This and That

"Good Grief", as Charlie Brown would say so often in Charles Shultze's beloved "Peanuts" comic strio, as a conservative I feel much like Chuck trying to fly a kite, the kite being Iraq and the "kite eating tree" being Congress, many, many anologies can be drawn from this classic strip, Lucy and the football, Snoopy's fantasies, etc.. Our congress looks like 'Pigpen' was let loose in a white room and smells worse.
Join the Victory Caucus and if your congressman is a whiteflag republican or blue dog democrat, find a replacement for the primary soon and put the pressure on. We cannot lose or walk away from this conflict without devestating results in the greater African, Asian and European regions of influence. Are our politicians that brainlesss and so eager to hold their seats or gain political power that they are willing to sacrafice America's good name once again on the world stage by showing us to be cowardly dogs and paper tigers? After all, thanks to our 2nd Ammendment, I can buy the same Styre .50 cal sniper rifle here in the US as Iran is supplying militias in Iraq with. It is a single shot, bolt action, target rifle that happens to be of elephant gun caliber, big game, not an illegal weapon. A trained sniper can kill with a squirrel gun and secure a country, America is proof of that.
As an American Patriot whose family has been here since the 1620's, Prayers are sent that our Congress will not show its tucked tail to our enemies but rather our teeth in a silent but deadly snarl, they consider us "dogs" anyway so lets turn our Dogs of War loose upon them.
Please join the Victory Caucus

Interesting Straw Poll

GOP bloggers runs a regular straw poll of GOP POTUS candidates and only four are on the positive side, Rudy, Newt, Mitt and Duncan and Newt has not declared. The results so far are interesting in that we are still many months away from the first primary and Sen. McCain is in a hole and sinking fast, it appears the base wants a fresh face for the party and John is old news. Mitt and Rudy are new and fresh, while Duncan and Newt are old stalwarts of the GOP base, true bastions if you will.
Here is the Goat's dream scenario: a Mit Romney ticket wins, Newt gets a high level policy position, Rudy would be an awesome Attorney General, Dr. Rice stays at State and maybe McCain at SecDef., bringing in Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell to important roles would be awesome. Mitt is far smarter than the average bear seeking political fat and that is why the Barnyard supports him, besides he is the only one with any fiscal knowledge dealing with lots of really big numbers and been very successful at it.
Take the poll here.

Mitt Romney's Announcement Speech

link here.

The House Debates Iraq

In yet another empty resolution meant to send hope to our enemies, Nancy Pelosi's Defeatocrats brought their spineless message to the floor for extended debate today. Talk about a waste of time, Goat had Cspan on while working and listened to a few hours of the debate, and hats off to the GOP leadership for a spirited rebuttal and clearly showing which party understands what we face. Democrat speaker after speaker clearly did not understand the war, lied about it, and obviously was not concerned for the Iraqi people only about their own political posturing for a loonbat base. Conservative radio talkers will get plenty of play just from today's assinine performance by the Pelosicrats and the solid well schooled opposition led my Mike Pence, John Boehner, Duncan Hunter and others.
A comment on one theme that ran consistent in the Defeatocrat's speeches that we are hated because we are there and as a result spark terrorist violence and anger. Of course our military prescence provokes hatred and violence from the jihadis because it prevents them from operating undercover and establishing bases from which to attack the West and removes the threat of extortion from the people that would not support their terror gangs any other way. It threatens the jihadi extremists way of life and way of control since that involves intimidating the populous majority.
We are dealing with three distinct groups in this fight, common gangbanger type criminals, former regime elements and true jihadis led by AQ on the Sunni side and the Mullahs of Iran on the Shia. They generally don't like each other but comingle to various degrees depending on where you are in Iraq and in many cases it is the criminal gangs that spark further violence. Fairy GodMother Pelosi wants to wave her magic wand and make all that just disappear by removing us from its sight so her party can waltze into the White House , it ain't that easy, with both feet stuck in there mouth, which they did with unsurprising agility today.
GOP leadership is showing some backbone, putting the chips on the table in a proudly unPC way and supported the mission. The Democrats want to retreat and swaddle the poor little troops in socialist mommycare to help them recover from what this evil administration that the troops overwhelmingly support has inflicted on them.
Diplomacy was another theme, diplomacy is fine, just not appeasenik diplomacy, buying off or bribing our enemies not to hurt us amounts to falling victim to extortion. Oops, I forgot the left loves to be the victim since they crave sympathy not empathy. The ultimate diplomacy is the power to back up your word, by force if neccessary, not your willingness to tuck your tail and lick the other dogs scrotum, we need pitbulls and sheepdogs, not jittery chihuahuas.
Forgive the imagery but you hve entered the Barn Yard.
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Update: As Lisa announced earlier, Mitt is officially in the race and the video is here. He is talking cars and that will play well in the South East, Vrooooom.