Contact Your Representative!

Hat Tip: Jay at Stop the ACLU

Here are the details:

A BILL
To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to eliminate the chilling effect on the constitutionally protected expression of religion by State and local officials that results from the threat that potential litigants may seek damages and attorney's fees.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005'.

SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN LAWSUITS AGAINST STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS.

(a) Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights- Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended--

(1) by inserting `(a)' before the first sentence; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

`(b) The remedies with respect to a claim under this section where the deprivation consists of a violation of a prohibition in the Constitution against the establishment of religion shall be limited to injunctive relief.'.

(b) Attorneys Fees- Section 722(b) of the Revised Statutes of the United States (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following: `However, no fees shall be awarded under this subsection with respect to a claim described in subsection (b) of section nineteen hundred and seventy nine.

This bill is being co-sponsored by South Carolina's own Gresham Barrett. I have personally met Rep. Barrett. He is a man who truly has the best interests of our state at heart.

Let your representative know that you support this. It could be a good first step toward preserving our religious freedoms. It could also help stop groups such as the ACLU from using our taxpayer funds in an attempt to eliminate our ability to worship as we please.

Contact Information:

Go here to find your South Carolina Representative for your district and send them an e-mail showing your support.

Is Hillary Off the Hook? Don’t Bet on It!

There’s an interesting in story in NewsMax today regarding the David Rosen trial. He was acquitted of underreporting costs of an August 2004 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton,
However, Peter Paul believes his civil case is strengthened, not weakened as a result.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief accuser Peter Paul said Saturday that yesterday's acquittal of her former campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, doesn't mean she's in the clear.

"This is by no means an exoneration of Hillary's campaign," Paul told NewsMax. "In fact. it's an indictment of her campaign."

Calling Rosen a sacrificial lamb who was set up to take the fall for higher-ups, Paul said, "The jurors clearly didn't believe that he filed these false FEC reports on his own."

The jury’s decision in this case actually reflected the degree in which Rosen was responsible for the accounting, not whether the accounting was accurate.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dismissed one count before Rosen's trial started earlier this month. On Wednesday, Matz tossed out a second count, which - Paul told NewsMax - was based a false report filed by the campaign's treasurer, Andrew Grossman.

"When the judge dismissed that count of Rosen's indictment, that was a signal to the jury that he wasn't responsible," Paul explained.

"In fact, it wasn't Rosen's responsibility, which one of the jurors made clear, to ensure that the accounting was accurate," he said. "And if Rosen wasn't responsible for the third one, there was no reason for the jury to think he was responsible for the first two."

It could very well be that Senator Clinton has been exonerated as a result of the verdict of this trial, but there is still a question that remains unanswered, at least in my mind. If Rosen isn’t responsible for the accounting, then who is? Until that is resolved, there will be more questions than there are answers.

Technorati Tag: politics

Cox & Forkum

Don’t Let Your Guard Down

(Via Fox News)

NEW YORK — Authorities said Sunday that Rafiq Abdus Sabir (search), 50, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah (search), 42, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, conspired to treat and train terrorists. Both are American citizens.

This clearly illustrates how global the War on Terror is and how it must also be waged within our own borders.

The one-count complaint claims the men allegedly took an oath pledging their allegiance to Al Qaeda. The government said the men engaged in multiple recorded conversations with a confidential source and an FBI agent posing as an Al Qaeda operative.

During the conversations, Shah also described how he and Sabir in 1998 tried to get to training camps in Afghanistan and said they were a "package" deal, Kelley said in the release.

There will no doubt be some who will come to their defense (the ACLU comes to mind) and claim some type of Freedom of Speech or Freedom of Expression violation, but it clearly doesn’t apply here. The evidence appears to be rock solid:

As recently as May 20, during a meeting at a New York City apartment, Sabir indicated he would travel shortly to Saudi Arabia to treat the wounds of jihadists at a Saudi military base, prosecutors said. Travel records showed he was scheduled to leave Thursday.

During recorded conversations, Shah also repeatedly indicated his desire to train Muslim "brothers" in the martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, the release said.

Shah took steps to find secret locations for jihad weapons training, at one point inspecting a Long Island warehouse, and described previous efforts to recruit others, prosecutors said.

We are a nation at war and these two definitely qualify as enemy combatants. It matters not whether they conduct or participate in training, or fire the weapons- they are providing aid and comfort to our enemies.

I fear there are more out there like them, perhaps even in our own neighborhoods. I shudder to think what they can do if this nation lets it’s guard down-even for a second.

This is not the time for complacency. Vigilance must rule the day. We must treat this as further evidence that the enemy is still out there and they mean us harm.




terrorism

Never Forget

Arlington National Cemetary

On this Memorial Day:

Remember those who paid the ultimate price so that you could remain free, and comfort
those who are less than whole because their loved ones paid that price for you.

Thank God for blessing this nation, and for those who dedicate their lives to protecting and defending it.

And..

Never forget those, from the very beginning to the present day, who have stood in harm's way to provide freedom not only here, but all across the globe.

God Bless America!

The Best of My Blog Buddies

Sailor says the Constitutional Option is still on the table. If it truly is, the Republicans had better turn the keys and push the button. While you're there, read the whole page! All of it is spot on!

Mustang 23, reporting from the Cradle of Civilization with lots of good news the Mainstream Media would prefer you didn't know. I would prefer that you did!

John Behan reports some interesting developments and analysis of Virginia politics. Interesting and informative as usual.

Barry Johnson is headed to the Outer Banks with the wife and the dog and will be modemless for an entire week. I guess the rest of us cynics will just have to work that much harder. Thanks a lot Barry!

Don demonstates why Pajamas Media is an excellent idea. A man, a camera, and a modem provide stunning images of the implosion of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Ten years ago, he was there when it all happened, both during the explosion and the demolition.

Animal rights activists love animals, but can't stand people. Van Helsing has proof.

Amen, Jacqueline!

Tran Sient has the scoop on Linda Foley. I haven't seen this anywhere else and that is a shame!

This Memorial Day, send some love this way. She's fighting the battle on the homefront while her husband is fighting for Freedom in Iraq.

5000 Hits!

Blogging has been light today. I guess it has been one of those days where life gets in the way of blogging, and that's perfectly fine. I happen to really like my life outside of this blogging hobby and the time off to recharge the batteries so to speak, is a good thing. I suppose it all equals out since I was up until around 2am tracking the Bolton thing.

I thought I would mention something that really made me feel good today. I looked at my statcounter this afternoon and saw that I have now gotten 5000 hits. I know there's probably nothing magical about the number, but I never thought when I started this thing in March that I would ever even get 100.

I know that quite a few of those hits came from yours truly, but the overwhelming majority are from the people who have visited and read what I had to say. Quite a few keep coming back, and that really makes it seem worthwhile. Not everyone agrees with me and a few have corrected my misteps, but I appreciate each one just the same.

I know there are a lot of big names that get 5,000 hits each day before they finish brushing their teeth in the morning, but I am ecstatic about the traffic I have gotten so far. I'll keep it up as long as there is still interest, whether it be mine, yours, or a little of both.

As long as I have a modem and some spare time, I'll be here. I hope you will too.

Cloture Vote on Bolton Fails

(Via GOP Bloggers)

Vote Tally: 56-42

Reid/Frist Exchange(Via Michelle Malkin):

656pm. Sen. Harry Reid on the floor: "We're not here to filibuster Bolton, we're here to get information."

658pm Frist: It certainly sounds like a filibuster. It quacks like a filibuster.
It does disappoint me...We are going to come back to this issue...but I think what America has just seen is an engagement of another period of obstruction by the other side...once again, another filibuster...

700pm. Reid: We need to work together and we're going to work together, but how can we work together when we don't have information...

Blogs for Bush liveblogged it here.

Well, I wonder how those 7 Republicans, Lindsey Graham included, feel about their little agreement now! I am fully aware that Bolton is not a judicial nominee, but this just shows that the Democrats are still in the obstruction business and are there to stay. You should have nuked them when you had the chance. I wonder it any of you have the guts to do it now!

Update: Rick Edwards at Powerpundit has some astute observations on the matter.

The Political Teen has the video.

Stop the Presses!

I think I may have solved the evil template problem! I changed one thing in my sidebar and looked at my blog in Internet Explorer and it was right. Could this be? Please let me know. If this solved the problem, then I thank you for your patience and we'll be back to business as usual. If not, then it's back to square one.

Template Misery

I am currently suffering from template misery, as some of my regular readers can attest. I am sure there are a lot of interesting things to cover today, but unfortunately, I must fiddle with my template in order to get it into some sort of viewable mode in Internet Explorer. It looks fine in Firefox(recommended) and some other browsers I have tried.

So in the interest of reaching more readers in the future, I must resort to resolving this now.

Here's my dilemma if you know of some tricks I can use:

My blog has a sidebar on the left, content in the center, and a sidebar on the right. When someone opens my blog in Internet Explorer, it will show my header and left sidebar. After you have scrolled all the way to the bottom of the left sidebar, then you will see all of my content. At the end of the content you will then see my entire right sidebar. Totally worthless!

I have been asked what template changes I have made, and I really haven't made any with the exception of adding some javascript such as blogrolls(i.e. Alliance, Blogs for Bush, etc). I have deleted a couple of elements and was able to get it to display correctly in Internet Explorer for Mac, but that is the end of the good news.

If anyone can help me think of some ideas, I would be much appreciative. Just leave a comment to this post and I will try it out. If you happen to like my content being way down at the bottom, then I apologize in advance for having somehow offended you. If you find it in your heart to help me anyway, I will be forever in your debt.

This Pretty Much Says It All!

Cox and Forkum

Carnival of the Vanities #140

Be sure to check out Carnival of the Vanities #140 at Alarming News. There are a lot of great posts(71 to be exact) by many aspiring bloggers, myself included. I'll let you be the judge as to whether mine is great or not. The Carnivals are a great way to see bloggers that you may not have seen otherwise, so it is definitely worth the time. Subliminal Message: You can always come back here when you are finished.

Kerry Signs Form SF-180?

(Via Michelle Malkin)

John Kerry has signed form SF-180 fully releasing his military records, according to The Boston Globe.

I promised here that I would remove the clock showing the number of days that had passed since his promise to sign form SF-180 when he signed it. The promise still stands Senator Kerry, but I will need proof.

Simply drop me an e-mail at the address listed in my sidebar, along with an attachment in the format of your choice that shows proof of your signature. Any other information you would like to provide detailing your service record prior to it's official public release will, of course, aid in the verification process. If you do not comply with this request within 114 days, I will have no choice but to assume the story is false. The clock starts now!

Disgusting!

The Office of Senator Lindsey Graham(R-SC) issued the following press release yesterday:

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) tonight made the following statement on the agreement which clears the way for some of President Bush's nominees to be confirmed to the federal bench.

Graham said:

"The American people won tonight. The Senate is back in business. And I truly believe future judicial nominees will be treated better because of this agreement."

"The agreement allows up or down votes on deserving nominees and gives the Senate a chance to start over regarding future nominees. It's my hope both sides have learned from their mistakes and we can get back to the traditional way of doing business when it comes to judges.

"One of the major elements of the deal makes clear that if one of my seven Democratic colleagues decides to filibuster in the future because of an "extraordinary circumstance," I retain the right to vote for a rules change. It's my hope we never get to that point.

"With better communication and a spirit of putting the country ahead of ourselves, I believe we can avoid future filibusters.

"We are a nation at war which desperately needs a functioning Senate. Our men and women in harms way deserve Senators with personal courage and respect for the institution. They are risking their lives to defend our freedom and those of us in the Senate should have the courage to put the welfare of the country ahead of our own personal political interests. That's the least we should do.

I can't begin to tell you how angry this makes me as a citizen of the State of South Carolina. I also can't believe that Senator Graham actually believes this accomplishes anything at all.

He and the thirteen others who drafted this worthless agreement should be ashamed of themselves. The American people have not won, they have been railroaded! These senators have taken the position that they are in charge, when in fact, it is the President's role to nominate judges to the judiciary, and the Senate's job to give them an up-or-down vote. It is not their job to decide who "deserves" a vote.

As a Republican from the State of South Carolina, Senator Graham should know this will go over like a lead balloon to those who put him in office. So he says the Senate is back in business. Exactly what business is that? This agreement is the polar opposite of business. It assures further obstruction. Sure, they agree to have an up-or-down vote on three judges, but it accomplishes nothing because the threat is still there.

Senator Graham notes in his statement that he reserves the right to a rule change should one of his Democratic colleagues decide to filibuster. He has that right now! Exactly what confidence should we get from this assurance. If he is afraid to do it now, what assurance do we have that he will ever summon up the courage.

The seven Republicans in this agreement have handed power directly to the minority party. It is power they have not earned and do not deserve. I will never understand why they think this is such a noble accomplishment, but I guess it will all come out over time. I do understand, however, that Senator Graham has won no friends in the State of South Carolina with his support of this agreement. If he isn't careful, one day this state may be calling Jim DeMint the Senior Senator from South Carolina. He would be wise to prepare himself for that reality.

Deal Struck on Judges

According to AP News, a deal has been struck clearing the way for up-or-down votes on Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor for appeals court seats with no commitments made on further appointments. I'm not optimistic that anything at all has been accomplished by this, but I will reserve judgement for a time when my temper has cooled a bit.

Basically, we still have some centrists who are too worried about their image with the press or are too worried about offending someone to do the right thing. This is basically the same "deal" that has been floating around for weeks, and it smells no better now than it did then.

It just gives Harry Reid and the Democrats more time to delay voting, bad mouth the President, and obstruct the process. I'm starting to wonder if the party in power has any guts at all. Mark my words: One month from now you will see no significant difference in Senate behavior or progress toward up-or down votes. This is nothing more than a delay tactic and I'm growing very weary of it and of the moderate Republicans that are helping it along.

Sorry, I guess I didn't reserve judgement after all!

Mainstream Media RIP?

John Leo sees a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Mainstream media. He offers this today in Townhall:

Much of what journalists turn out is very good. But when they omit or mess up stories, run badly skewed polls, or publish disgraceful front-page editorials posing as news stories, nobody seems to notice because groupthink is so strong.

Time is running out on the newsroom monoculture. The public has many options now—as well as plenty of media watchdogs, both professional and amateur. So the press takes its lumps and loses readers. In March, a report on the state of the media by the Project for Excellence in Journalism said that in the past 17 years, Americans have “come to see the press as less professional, less moral, more inaccurate, and less caring about the interests of the country.” According to the report, fewer than half of Americans think of the press as highly professional (49 percent, down from 72 percent 17 years ago). Another finding was that coverage of George Bush during the presidential campaign was three times as negative as coverage of John Kerry (36 percent to 12 percent). If the press is that much out of sync with the country, its future looks very uncertain. Something has to change.

Earlier in the article, the Newsweek debacle reared its ugly head:

Instead of trampling Newsweek—the magazine made a mistake and corrected it quickly and honestly—the focus ought to be on whether the news media are predisposed to make certain kinds of mistakes and, if so, what to do about it. The disdain that so many reporters have for the military (or for police, the FBI, conservative Christians, or right-to-lifers) frames the way that errors and bogus stories tend to occur. The antimilitary mentality makes atrocity stories easier to publish, even when they are untrue.

While I will agree that Newsweek quickly offered an “excuse” for what happened, I am not yet ready to say they were very honest about it. I still say the only regret they had was that the story didn’t go over particularly well.

In the days before bloggers and other media watchdogs were as prevalent as they are today, the story would have, at most, been a blip on the radar screen. Today, however news stories are picked apart before the print rollers get cold. This is good and can only lead to better fact-checking and more reliable information. We can all disagree about what the facts mean, but at least now we are dealing with facts.

I don’t believe Newsweek has been trampled, but I do believe a story lacking merit and newsworthiness has. And rightly so! Newsweek is not the problem; the culture within the organization is the problem. It is the same culture that dominates a large percentage of the mainstream media today.

In the not so distant future, if not already, a majority of Americans will not care whether the media is “predisposed to making certain types of mistakes”; they will simply go elsewhere. They will do so because they can and are already doing so in ever growing numbers. This is unlikely to change unless the internal culture of the mainstream media changes. If they continue to ignore this problem, one day they will find that it will go away. It won’t be because we have become complacent, it will be because they have become irrelevant.

Armed Forces Day

Today was Armed Forces Day. If you haven't already, take some time to say a prayer for all those who are in harm's way defending our freedom. I know I did today. As a matter of fact, do so daily.

Saddam the Humiliated

It appears Saddam Hussein wants to sue the British Newspaper, The Sun, for publishing pictures of him in his underwear.

According to BBC News:

Saddam Hussein plans to take legal action after a British newspaper published photos of him half-naked in his prison cell and doing his washing.

"We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures," said Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer Ziad Al-Khasawneh, speaking from Jordan.

The Sun newspaper said it would fight any legal action and said it planned to publish more photos on Saturday.

The US has launched an investigation into how the photos were leaked.

The US military and legal experts said the photos - possibly taken more than a year ago - may breach Geneva Convention rules on the humane treatment of prisoners of war.

The conventions say countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from "public curiosity".

Saddam Hussein is being held by US troops at an undisclosed location in Iraq as he awaits trial on numerous charges, including murdering rivals, gassing Iraqi Kurds and using violence to suppress uprisings.

Let me get this straight: We're supposed to feel bad for Saddam Hussein because some pictures were somehow leaked showing him in his underwear? I think Powerline summed it up best with their headline, "Cry Me A River".

This from the man who had people put feet first into wood chippers so that they would suffer longer before dying, used weapons of mass distruction(yes, he had them at one time)to gas his own people, buried thousands in mass graves, had tongues cut out of those who dared to disagree with him, and routinely had people exterminated for little or no reason at all. This is the man that is embarrassed and humiliated for the world to see him in his underwear? I've got a few tunes I'd like to play for him on the world's smallest violin!

Do you want to know how bad he actually has it? According to Michelle Malkin, not bad at all:

The terribly abused tyrant gets hair dye, example, "to keep his mane youthful-looking."

He gets three squares a day, a fluffy pillow, and full-air conditioning. Plus, "He can exercise in a 4,300-square-foot back yard while razor wire keeps out would-be attackers. He tends a small garden in a nearby courtyard."

It's really hard to feel sorry for someone who is given the royal treatment considering the treatment he routinely gave to others. If there is a crime that has been committed in this whole affair, it is the fact that he is being treated so well!

Note: The New York Post has more info on Saddam's present living conditions here. (Requires free, somewhat painless, registration) Sure, they're not as good as they were when he controlled practically 100% of the total wealth in Iraq, but it's much better than he deserves and considerably better than the troops that had to pull him out of the spider hole to send him there.

The Donald is Right!

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

(Via Chrenkoff)

This is what I think the World Trade Center should look like when it is rebuilt. The same as it was before the September 11 attacks, only taller and stronger. What a message to send to the terrorists and those who would do us harm. We will not be intimidated!

This is what Trump had to say:

The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 18, 2005; 2:51 PM

NEW YORK -- Donald Trump has his own plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center.

Trump unveiled his plans at a news conference this morning. He wants to build two Twin Towers, similar to the ones that were destroyed on September Eleventh, however the new towers would each be one story higher than the old towers.

Trump says the Freedom Tower design being considered now looks like a skeleton. If that tower is built, Trump says "the terrorists win."

The new twin tower design being pushed by Trump was actually built by engineer Ken Gardner - who has had a nine-foot-tall model for more than one year.

Like him or hate him, Trump is right about this one. The best way to defeat the terrorists is to put the towers back up the way they were!

What do you think?

An Open Letter and Civilian Salute to Shakey Pete

I visited the Carnival of the Vanities today and saw lots of well written entries by many different bloggers. Most, I suppose, are trying to move a little farther up the blogger food chain and stake their claim somewhere in the thin air of the Ecosystem. Others may simply be yearning for their voices to be heard by more than just family members. I guess I would put myself somewhere between the two extremes.

I missed the entry, "Missed Anniversary", by Peter Davis when I first glanced at the Carnival this morning. I should be ashamed. Maybe it was the heavy eyes, maybe it was some desire to see my name in lights or my hit counter go up. Whatever it was, it's not important now.

After I read the post submitted by Shakey Pete, those things seemed much more insignificant than they were when the day started. This is a man who served in Vietnam from 1964-1970. He walked side by side with death on a daily basis, he watched friends die, lost years of sleep, and is riddled with survivors guilt.

He's going to the wall in D.C. to pay his respects to those he served with years ago, in fact, he may have already been. I don't really know. I do know that Pete will be in my prayers before I retire each night, because he fought for me and held my life and liberty in the palms of his hands. That is something I can never repay him for.

Pete's story reminded me of the times when I talked with my grandmother about my great-uncle, her brother. I was young at the time, but I remember her saying that he served in World War II and fought at Iwo Jima. He didn't help hoist the flag on Mt. Suribachi, but he was there,she said, and he never talked about it. He's gone now so the story has gone with him, but the memory I have of him, has, and always will be the same: HERO.

I feel the same about Pete after reading his story today. He served his country and he came home to see his family grow. I can't begin to imagine the difficulty he has faced in his daily life after experiencing the things he has experienced, but he has dealt with it the best he could in my humble view, much the same as my great-uncle did.

Pete, I hope the demons stay at the wall when you leave, and your pillow is soft upon your return. I hope you find what you are looking for and return with the peace you so richly deserve. You've earned it!

May God bless You Shakey Pete!

139th Carnival of the Vanities is Up!

Commonwealth Conservative is the host of the 139th Carnival of the Vanities. It is the first one that I have taken part in, so it's a pretty big day for me. Check it out to get a look at some good work by bloggers you may have never heard of before.

Press Refusing to Face Facts

Powerpundit has responded to the melee that was once known as the Daily Press Briefing. Apparently, the White House Press Corps can't come to grips with the fact that Newsweek is at fault in the Koran flushing story. A member of the press corps even had the audacity to ask Scott McClellan, "Who made you the editor of Newsweek?".

Here's a thought: Maybe if McClellan had been editor of Newsweek, he would have had enough sense not to run the story in the first place! The current editor is the one that should be drawing the ire of the media for yet again allowing them to look incompetent.

As to Powerpundit's question, "Aren't you glad that you have sites like this and others on the internet, as well as other new broadcast and print media to get your information from, instead of those neanderthals?", I, for one, certainly am.

Hey Zarqawi, Can We Talk?

Fox News has an interesting story today titled "Zarqawi Group Blasts Rice Iraq Visit".

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Al Qaeda in Iraq purportedly posted an Internet statement Tuesday blasting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent visit to Iraq and criticizing her calls to include Sunni Arabs in the political process.

The statement, posted on a Web site that has previously carried similar communiques, said Rice was not welcome in Iraq and that she had "desecrated" its land. The authenticity of the statement, which was signed by the so-called spokesman of the group, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi could not be verified.

The group, believed to be led by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is held responsible for kidnappings, beheadings and killings and some of the deadliest bombings in Iraq

.

So basically these terrorist thugs run around the Iraqi countryside killing anything and everything in sight, including hundreds of innocent civilians, then expect us to believe Secretary Rice is the problem? Give me a break!

More of the statement:

"The hag wants the participation of the apostates and secularists who are claiming to be Sunnis," the statement said about Rice. "You should know that our [the Sunni] way is fighting you."

"The constitution is written only by those who disavowed their belief in God's book," the statement added. "Our belief entails that the sword and bullets are our way of holding dialogue with you."

And as reminder that "Newsweek Lied*.People Died", the statement also had this to say:

"You will not get away with insulting God's book," the statement said.

I've got an idea for Zarqawi and his band of thugs:

There are several thousand of my closest friends over there in the desert looking for you as we speak. Why don't ya'll come out from behind that modem and pick a time and place. I'm sure they would love to meet with you and talk this thing out.

They won't do it because words and threats are about the only real weapons they have left. They are still armed and dangerous, but the Iraqi people are finally getting a taste of freedom and as the coming days pass, they will realize that it is worth fighting and dying for. Many already do. More and more will come into the fold each and every day.

The time is rapidly approaching when they will run out of friends, find no safe quarter, and have no place to hide. It is then they will know they were on the wrong side of freedom, and that is no place you want to be.

Newsweek Commits Unpardonable Sin

Flushed!

I am quite sure everyone is aware of the Newsweek debacle that has resulted in an avoidable loss of life. This is yet another example of the mainstream media rushing to get the scoop while disregarding the need for fact checking and common sense.

A refresher:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Malaysia and by the Arab League.

On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.

The blogosphere and other media, perhaps none better than Glen Reynolds of Instapundit, have covered it extensively. He had these points to make regarding Newsweek's admission of error:

Two points: (1) If they had wrongly reported the race of a criminal and produced a lynching, they'd feel much worse -- which is why they generally don't report such things, a degree of sensitivity they don't extend to reporting on, you know, minor topics like wars; and (2) If a blogger had made a similar mistake, with similar consequences, we'd be hearing about Big Media's superior fact-checking and layers of editors.

People died, and U.S. military and diplomatic efforts were damaged, because -- let's be clear here -- Newsweek was too anxious to get out a story that would make the Bush Administration and the military look bad.

I have a third point to add:

(3) If the same sources had said The Holy Bible had been flushed instead of the Koran, would the gang at Newsweek have even found it newsworthy?

I have my doubts.

E-Mailing Senator Harry Reid

It may not be obvious to those who have been reading me lately, but this blog is not solely about Senator Harry Reid(D-NV). It only appears that way. Earlier in the week, I invited all who were concerned about Senator Reid's disgusting rhetoric to e-mail him and ask him to discontinue it. I feel I owe it to you to reveal the results.

Let me start off by saying that Senator Reid's e-mail form states that replies will not be sent to those who are not citizens of the State of Nevada, so I didn't expect a response, though I hoped for one.

This is the e-mail I sent:

Dear Honorable Senator Reid,

I am writing to ask that you choose your words more carefully in public. While I am not a citizen of your state, I am concerned about your rhetoric as of late.

I feel that it is unbecoming of a man of your stature and position to continue directing cheap shots toward our President.

While you may not agree with his positions, it does neither yourself nor your party any favors to continue attacking the personal character of our president. You owe more to the people of your state and your country than that.

While I believe disagreements on policy are perfectly acceptable, I don't believe personal character attacks are. I think this rhetoric has a tendency to offend those on both sides of the political aisle and is below the office you hold.

I'm sure all would welcome a healthy political debate and would appreciate comments limited to that.

Thank You for your time and attention in this matter.

Sincerely,

Barry Ready

This is the response I received:

Thank you for contacting me.  I am pleased to hear your thoughts.
I will try to respond to your message as soon as possible.

Due to the high volume of correspondence I receive daily,
I am only able to respond to messages from Nevadans.
If you reside in another state and would like to contact your
Senators, please go to the following address:
http://www.senate.gov/

My best wishes to you.

Sincerely,

HARRY REID
United States Senator

Obviously a form letter. I am sure if he had read it, he wouldn't have been pleased to hear my thoughts. Once again, let me assure you that this is exactly what I expected to get. What bothers me, however, is that his comments aren't only affecting the citizens of the State of Nevada, but the entire nation as a whole.

All of this made me wonder what type of response would be given to the same request from someone who is a resident of Nevada. It would be really interesting to find out.

So here's the game if you would like to play:

If you are a resident of Nevada, and would like to find out, send Senator Reid an e-mail here.
When you get a response, feel free to leave a comment about it in the comments section of this post. Don't worry about leaving the full text of the response if you are worried about legalities. A summary will be fine. If you get something other than a form letter, it would be interesting to see. I'm doubtful, but you never know!

Attention Trolls: I am fully aware that all senators have a form letter that they send out, so I will concede that point from the start. This e-mail game only involves Senator Harry Reid and the responses he gives for his behavior. I don't want to know your opinions of President Bush, Dick Cheney, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, Tom Delay, or anyone else from center-to-right in the political spectrum. I am fully aware of your opinions in that regard. There are tons of other places you can go that will welcome those comments. They will be deleted here.

Constitutional Option Anyone?

Apparently the only way to stop Harry Reid is to invoke the Constitutional Option, also known as the nuclear option. I frankly don't care which term is used to describe it as long as it happens. We are giving Senator Reid much more power than his party has earned at the ballot box. If he is going to continue undermining the process and uttering absolute nonsensical and harmful blabber on his self-made bully pulpit, then someone needs to pull the rug out from under him.

The Washington Times today:

Republicans charged yesterday that Minority Leader Harry Reid was wrong to mention on the Senate floor "a problem" he said is in a Bush nominee's "confidential report from the FBI" as grounds for keeping him off the federal bench.
"He shouldn't be pulling this kind of stunt," said Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican. "It is not civil, it is unfair, it is hitting below the belt, and it does ultimately show how desperate the democratic leadership is in the United State Senate."

Apparently, Senator Reid feels he is the poster child for all that is right in America. I beg to differ. It is true he didn't reveal any classified information on the floor of the Senate, but he mentions "a problem with a confidential report from the FBI" simply to raise suspicion. He knows the American people don't have access to this information. He just wants us to take his word for it and create doubt. Anything to slam a Bush nominee is apparently fair game for Senator Reid. If he is the poster child for anything, it is for the absence of decency.

He also knows that his only power at the moment stems from this "super majority" nonsense the Democrats are claiming is required for confirmation of Bush's judicial nominees. It doesn't pass constitutional muster and he knows it, but he will continue this behavior until it is no longer effective. That will only happen when the constitutional option is invoked.

The article continues:

The imbroglio began Thursday when Mr. Reid said Michigan Appeals Court Judge Henry Saad, nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, would be filibustered under any circumstances.
"All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there," Mr. Reid said, referring to the FBI file generated from the routine background investigations all judicial nominees must go through.
Colleagues of Judge Saad, as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill, were outraged and accused Mr. Reid of violating Senate rules to smear the nominee.

It's time to pull the rug out from under Senator Reid and stop all of this foolishness. By the way, do you suppose if one were to look in Senator Reid's FBI file they would find any troubling information in there? Maybe, maybe not. But I can guarantee you one thing: He wouldn't want the same done to him as he did to Judge Saad.

Politics Must End At Our Borders

The Washington Times reports today: "Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona"

An excerpt:

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.
More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

If this is true, we should all be concerned. The border issue isn't a political issue. It is a National Security issue. Politics should not come into play when it comes to protecting the American people. It is our government's primary function.

Here's more:

"It was clear to everyone here what was being said and why," said one veteran agent. "The apprehensions were not to increase after the Minuteman volunteers left. It was as simple as that."
Another agent said the Naco supervisors "were clear in their intention" to keep new arrests to an "absolute minimum" to offset the effect of the Minuteman vigil, adding that patrols along the border have been severely limited.

This reeks of politics. These agents are basically saying that the higher-ups are feeling the pressure that was brought to bear by the success of the Minutemen, whether they will admit it or not. If this is true, then they are obviously more worried about their own job security than they are about National Security. That is absolutely pathetic!

Continuing:

Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar at the agency's Washington headquarters called the accusations "outright wrong," saying that supervisors at the Naco station had not blocked agents from making arrests and that the station's 350 agents were being "supported in carrying out" their duties.
"Border Patrol agents are the front line of defense against terrorism," Chief Aguilar said, adding that the 11,000 agents nationwide are "meeting that challenge, head-on ... as daunting a task as that may sound."

I sincerely hope that the above statement is more than mere lip service. The Border Patrol must do it's job to make sure those coming into our country are doing it legally and are highly scrutinized. This all starts with the leadership within the agency and must not be swayed by any political agenda whatsoever. Do it right, or get out of the way! Peddle your politics elsewhere.

Michelle Malkin runs an immigration blog that covers these issues in-depth. In it, is a quote by President Reagan that is especially appropriate here:

"This country has lost control of it's borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position."
-Ronald Reagan

If this country does not take the steps necessary to control it's borders, we will pay a price for it at some point in time, and that price will be one we can ill afford to pay. I, for one, don't want to wake up one day to find that we have been attacked again on our soil by terrorists who slipped through border control on the way to do us harm.

If you think for a minute the same devastation as 9/11, or even worse, can't be done just as easily with an automobile as with an airliner, then you are sadly mistaken. The Murrah Federal Building bombing should serve as a reminder that massive devastation can occur using little more than a fertilizer filled rental truck. I pray that the powers-that-be within our government figure this out before it is too late.

Possible BRAC List?

Jeff Quinton has what is possibly the Base Realignment and Closure list that is supposed to be out tommorrow. If it is genuine, it could be good news for those in the Augusta, Ga area, but not so good for our friends up the road at Shaw AFB. Go here if you want to take a sneak peek.

CBS Is Up To The Same Old Tricks

Ken Starr has been taken out of context by CBS News. They have apparently mischaracterized statements he made regarding judicial fillibusters. CBS attributed Starr's comments to a displeasure toward the Republicans regarding the constitutional option when in fact, his displeasure was toward those who use judicial philosophy as a means of disqualification. Powerpundit has the full scoop here, which includes Starr's original comments along his e-mail detailing the mischaracterization by CBS News.

This has the same smell to me as the Forged Documents scandal. The only difference this time is that a font is apparently not involved.

Way to Go, Condi!

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice believes our right to keep and bear arms is just as important as our rights to freedom of speech and religion. I tend to agree.

Dr. Rice stated yesterday:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South, said Wednesday the constitutional right of Americans to own guns is as important as their rights to free speech and religion.

In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Rice said she came to that view from personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defend the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.

And also:

Rice said she favored background checks and controls at gun shows. However, she added, "we have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that the Founding Fathers thought very important."

Rice said the Founding Fathers understood "there might be circumstances that people like my father experienced in Birmingham, Ala., when, in fact, the police weren't going to protect you."

"I also don't think we get to pick and choose from the Constitution," she said in the interview, which was taped for airing Wednesday night. "The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment."

In the end, it really doesn’t matter what your positions are on gun control, freedom of speech or freedom of religion. The only thing that matters is what the constitution says they are. It is not a living and breathing document. It is what it is, and should remain that way.

Welcome to the Main Event

As we speak, there's a boxing match going on in the comments section of my post here. So far it's gone 11 rounds with no apparent end in sight. In the right corner is TranSient and in the left is OK Democrat. I say let's make this a tag team event. Jump in at any time, but watch out for the flying folding chairs!

I Was Right! Apparently There Is No Cure!

Forgive me if I sound too much like Maha Rushie here, but I have to steal a line from the great one: "See, I Told You So". As I mentioned in my post on May 7, Harry Reid apologized for comments he made last week about President Bush. If you remember, he had this to say:

"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser.

"I think President Bush is doing a bad job," he added to a handful of chuckles.

"He's driving this country into bankruptcy," Reid said, referring to the deficit. "He's got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and another 15,000 injured."

I noted in my post that Reid had apologized for his remarks and I doubted that he meant it. Well, apparently I was right! He didn't mean it!

Here's what he said yesterday:

"I tell people how I feel about things. I don't try to hide how I feel," Reid said.

"Maybe my choice of words was improper, and I have indicated that maybe they were, but I want everyone here, I repeat, to know I'm going to continue to call things the way that I see them, and I think this administration has done a very, very bad job for this nation and the world."

Apparently where Senator Reid comes from, apologies don't mean the same thing as they do here in the South. When you apologize in the South, you typically don't go back a couple of days later and say the same basic thing in a different way.

It all boils down to a little thing we Southerners like to call remorse. When we say something that is offensive to someone else, we generally take any and all steps necessary to ensure that it never happens again. Remorse is something that weighs on your conscience and makes your heart feel at least three times heavier than normal. This,of course, assumes that you have a conscience and a heart to begin with. I have yet to see either in Senator Reid.

I am in no way saying that Senator Reid has no right to his own opinion. What I am saying, however, is that he has a responsiblility to make sure his words mean something. It is disingenuos to make an apology one day and turn right around and spew the same venom a couple of days later. The words were not the same, but the message was.

I personally have no problem with Senator Reid making a complete (Democratic Party symbol) fool of himself. As far as I'm concerned his rhetoric only helps President Bush and the Republican Party. I do have a problem with people saying things they don't mean and using apologies to get out of sticky situations they happen to find themselves in. The people of Nevada deserve better and so does the rest of this country.

I think we should let him know this conduct is beneath the office he holds and ask him to start making real arguments instead of childish insults. E-mail him and tell him what you think. I just did. I am just a small fish in a big pond, but if enough of us do it, his inbox will look like it was hit by an Instalanche.

By the way Senator Reid, if my above post was out of line, I make no apology. I meant every word of it. See how easy that was?

Cox and Forkum

100 Days and Counting

100 days ago John Kerry promised to sign form SF-180 which would release his military records. As you may have noticed by the counter in my sidebar, he has yet to do so. When and if he does, I'll remove the counter. I have a feeling it may have to be reconfigured for additional digits before that happens, but you never know. PoliPundit has the forms and the fax numbers if you would like to help Senator Kerry along a little bit. By the way, when you visit PoliPundit to get the forms and fax numbers, take a minute to add the counter to your blog. That's where I got mine.

Note to Media: Watch Your Backs!

Jacqueline at Red State Rant has a great post today regarding the across-the-board numbers drop currently being experienced in all areas of the mainstream media.

An excerpt of what she had to say:

This is a strong message from morals and values Red State America---a message that says loudly and clearly: "We've had enough of your secular-humanism and political propagandizing on our time and our dime. While you have freedom of the press and freedom of speech, we have freedom of choice of where we get our information and what kind of information and entertainment we want. We also have freedom not to listen to and allow you to patronize us with your secular indoctrination, political correctness, increasing vulgarity and hate-speech, and mocking of our faith. We've declared our independence from your long years of control of news, views and entertainment.

The rant is in response to an op-ed by John Podhertz in the New York Post titled "Mass-Media Meltdown". In it he describes the root causes of the mainstream media's problem:

But it can't be a coincidence that the five major pillars of the American media — movies, television, radio, recorded music and newspapers — are all suffering at the same time. And it isn't. Something major has changed over the past year, as the availability of alternative sources of information and entertainment has finally reached critical mass.

Newly empowered consumers are letting the producers, creators and managers of the nation's creative and news content know that they are dissatisfied with the product they're being peddled....And it goes without saying that the Internet has transformed the way people interested in news can get their information.

The bottom line is this: The mainstream media, in all of it's forms, is not the only game in town anymore. As far as news and information is concerned, people are going several different places to get news and information and doing their own fact checking instead of watching the nightly news as they did in the past. The primary reasons are because the facts are much more accessible now than they were in the past and also because they generally don't trust the media to fact check themselves or report them without bias. It's as simple as that!

I wonder if they'll get the hint. I, for one, won't be betting the ranch just yet.

Are You a Republican?

Hat Tip: Don at Danz Family

This is fun, try it!

I am: 94% Republican.

"You're the perfect sycophant of the Republican elite. Tom DeLay and Karl Rove would be utterly proud of you."

Are You A Republican?

And I'll Huff, And I'll Puff, ...Oh! Never Mind!

It appears as if Arianna Huffington's foray into the blogosphere isn't turning out to be the barn burner she thought it would be:

Judging from today's horrific debut of the humongously pre-hyped celebrity blog the Huffington Post, the Madonna of the mediapolitic world has gone one reinvention too many. She has now made an online ass of herself. What Arianna Huffington's bizarre guru-cult association, 180-degree conservative-to-liberal conversion, and failed run in the California gubernatorial-recall race couldn't accomplish, her blog has now done: She is finally played out publicly. This Web-site venture is the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable, because of all the advance publicity touting its success as inevitable. Her blog is such a bomb that it's the box-office equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven's Gate rolled into one. In magazine terms, it's the disastrous clone of Tina Brown's Talk, JFK Jr.'s George or Maer Roshan's Radar. No matter what happens to Huffington, it's clear Hollywood will suffer the consequences.

The funniest part of her whole blog to me was right below the Title:

"DELIVERING NEWS AND OPINION SINCE MAY 9, 2005"

You mean since today! Surely you could have been more creative than that!

I've got an idea for tommorrow:
"DELIVERING NEWS AND OPINION FROM MAY 9-MAY 10, 2005"

Now that would be funny!

Hostettler VS. ACLU

I got a tip from John Stevenson this morning:

An Indiana congressman plans to curb the ACLU's appetite for filing suits targeting religion in the public square by introducing a bill that denies plaintiff attorneys the right to collect attorneys fees in such cases.

Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., is expected to file his measure next week to amend the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorneys fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. (See World Net Daily article here)

Let your representatives and senators in Congress know you support this measure if you are tired of the ACLU attempting to eliminate our religious freedoms in this country. It's a crying shame that the ACLU receives taxpayer funds in it's quest to destroy our freedoms. If you are also tired of that, sign this.

Lobsters 1, PETA 0

In a bit of local news, the annual Lobster Races were held in downtown Aiken, SC last night. The event pits lobsters "trained" by various people in the area against other lobsters in a spoof of the Kentucky Derby. In the past 21 years it has raised well over $300,000 for local charities and has provided additional revenue for local business owners in the downtown area. The winner of the race is spared from becoming the main course. This year's event drew a crowd estimated to be around 10,000. As you might have imagined, PETA has sided with the lobsters.

Note the statement sent to the Aiken Downtown Development Association last month by Jennifer O'Connor, an animals in entertainment specialist with PETA:

"Given the irrefutable shift in public perceptions about the use of animals in entertainment, coupled with the substantial evidence of cognitive function in these complex crustaceans, we are asking that your board of directors give serious thought to eliminating the races from your festival."

From the Lobsters feel pain department, O'Conner continues:

"Being mishandled and treated roughly in the races surely causes the lobsters discomfort."

When Todd Stilp, Lobster Race co-founder attempted to contact O'Conner to find out why she thought the lobsters were being mistreated, his call was not returned. Figures.

Stilp describes the conditions faced by the crustaceans during the race:

"We have a salt solution to keep them alive, water to keep them cool and the track has salt-cooled water flowing through it," he said. "We have never injured a lobster."

Stilp also doubts whether PETA has ever been to the Lobster Races. Me too!

Personally, I would be willing to bet that the lobsters competing in the races have never seen conditions better than they saw last night. Kudos to the Aiken Downtown Development Association for beating back this lame attempt by PETA to disrupt a local tradition, and to the estimated crowd of 10,000 local citizens who apparently also disagree with PETA's assessment.

I wonder if PETA would ever come out in force to protect the rights and conditions of the unborn in this country as they do for crustaceans and other animals? I remain doubtful.

Note: The blockquotes and statistics in the above post were taken directly from the text of an article in The Aiken Standard, Thursday May 5, 2005 written by Karen Daily. The post is not intended to reflect the opinions of Karen Daily, as they are those of the post author alone.

Harry Reid Stricken With Verbal Diarrhea, Cure Apparently Unknown

In a recurring condition of late for Senator Harry Reid, he has once again opened his mouth without first consulting his brain.

According to Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reid said this of President Bush:

"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser.

"I think President Bush is doing a bad job," he added to a handful of chuckles.

"He's driving this country into bankruptcy," Reid said, referring to the deficit. "He's got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and another 15,000 injured."

He later apologized, but based on past history, I doubt he meant it.

Blair Wins Historic Third Term

Tony Blair has been re-elected to a historic third term as Great Britain's Prime Minister. I am a little late getting to it, but Boortz nails it much better than I could anyway.

What's In The Notebook?

Abu Faraj al-Libbi, aka Al Qaeda #3, apparently was unable to destroy a notebook containing valuable contact information fast enough. According to an ABC News report:

Sources said officials believe al-Libbi's seized notebook contains "hot" contact information. They said officials are hopeful the notebook contains useful information because al-Libbi was stunned when he was captured.

One senior official described al-Libbi as "shocked" and enraged.

"He thought he was invincible," the source said. "He was caught with his pants down. This was not the time and place of his choosing."

Al-Libbi was trying to destroy the notebook when he was apprehended, multiple sources said.

Here's hoping this notebook yields tons of critical Al Qaeda operations data. I'm quite sure if the notebook had no value to us, he would have spent more time running and less time ripping.

We Haven't Stopped Looking!

On April 25th, I submitted a post that discussed James Woods accidental flight with Mohammed Atta in March 2001. Atta was apparently on a test run for the September 11th hijackings and James Woods was worried there might be terrorists aboard the flight. As we now know, he was right, but I won't rehash all of the details here.

The news today of the capture of Abu Farraj al-Libbi earlier this week got me thinking about a comment I got in regards to the James Woods story.

OK Democrat left the following comment:

It's sad that our government stopped pursuing Al Qaida after Bush took office. He will have to answer for that one day. It's also sad that this government ignored warnings, such as the one this story described.

I don't recall Clinton persuing Al Qaeda with any intensity at all. It was Bush that made it a top priority! That said, there are a lot of people out there who think we called of the search for Bin Laden when we began operations in Iraq. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth! The search has never stopped as evidenced by the capture of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, aka Al Qaeda #3.

It is true that he was caught in Pakistan, within which our military is not allowed to operate, but his capture was aided in great measure by significant U.S. human intelligence. If we are providing human intelligence toward the apprehension of Al Qaeda terrorists, and military support where we can, then it is irrational to think that the search has been called off.

For better or worse, we are following the rules of engagement as they exist at the present time and our military is making significant progress toward the elimination of Al Qaeda. Part of the problem we are facing, as it relates to information coming out of Afghanistan, is the lack of news coverage coming from the region.

Note this excerpt of a post by Arthur Chrenkoff on February 7:

"Once a journalism hot spot, Afghanistan was all but left behind when the media's spotlight turned to the conflict in Iraq. In June/July 2003, [the "American Journalism Review"] reported that only a handful of reporters remained in the struggling country on a full-time basis, while other news organizations floated correspondents in and out when time and resources permitted.

"A year and a half later, Afghanistan has become even more of an afterthought. Only two news organizations--Newsweek and the Washington Post--have full-time reporters stationed in Kabul, the capital. Other major newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, rely on stringers in Afghanistan and correspondents based in New Delhi, India, to cover the region, a stark contrast to the hundreds of reporters pouring into Iraq since the war began. The New York Times uses a stringer, albeit a full-time one. Television networks have nearly disappeared."

I hate to use the tree falling in the woods analogy, but just because the media is not there to report the events on the ground in Afghanistan doesn't mean they aren't occuring. The left in this country seems to take whatever actions necessary to undermine the war effort due to a pure hatred for President Bush. This does a great disservice to the military personnel serving in the region who deserve to have the great progress they have made reported by a fair and impartial media.

The good news is out there if you just bother to look for it. Here is a great place to start!

This Smells Fishy To Me

According to a story regarding a recent CNN/USA Today Gallup poll, "Most in U.S. say Iraq War not worthwhile". This sounds pretty bad until you break down the questions. As we all know, the results of a poll are reflective of the way in which the questions are asked.

The first question was: "All in all do you think it was worth going to war in Iraq or not?"

41% said yes, 57% said no, and 2% had no opinion.

The question seems innocent enough but I wonder if the "not" at the end of the question would solicit a negative answer if the respondent were not paying close attention. Would the question have been the same had the respondent been asked "Do you think it was worth going to war in Iraq?". It would be interesting to see if the results would have been the same given the same choice of answers. The question just seems leading to me.

The second question was: "In general, how would you say things are going for the United States in Iraq -- very well, moderately well, moderately badly or very badly?"

56% said badly, 42% said well, 2% had no opinon.

I am not a polling expert but it seems to me that the questions were asked with four possible responses, but reported lumped together as if it doesn't matter. It does matter when you consider that moderately well and moderately badly are responses that are actually very close to swinging one way or the other on any given day. These responses by their very nature are right down the middle and cannot be definitively classified in either category. I don't believe these results hold much validity without being able to see the actual results from each category.

The third question was: "In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq or not?"

49% said yes, 48% said no, 3% had no opinion.

Could the same question have been asked in this way?:

"In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made the correct decision in sending troops to Iraq?

Asking the question in this manner doesn't solicit a negative result. Naysayers will object that using the word "correct" would be skewing the results toward a positive result, but that is not true. Using the word "correct" begs the respondent to decide whether the decision was right or wrong. Using the word "mistake" leads the respondent to assume a mistake has been made before the question has been fully asked.

The story ends in this way:

Early Tuesday, the U.S. military found the body of a pilot from one of two missing Marine Corps F/A-18 jets that Navy officials believe collided while flying in operations in Iraq. (Full story)

The number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war stands at 1,587, according to the military.

A poll conducted in February showed that the January 30 Iraqi elections produced a bump in President Bush's approval rating. In that poll, 55 percent of Americans said the Iraq war was not a mistake. (Full story)

Political negotiations since then have delayed the formation of a new government.

But on Tuesday, Iraqi politicians were putting the finishing touches on the nation's new Cabinet, with Shiite Arab leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari sworn in as prime minister.

More than 100 Iraqis, most of them security forces and civilians, have died in insurgent attacks since last Thursday, when Iraq's transitional National Assembly approved a partial Cabinet list.

As you read the story, note that there is no new headline for this information. It was tacked onto the end of the poll story as if it were part of the poll. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but could they possibly be trying to influence public opinion in an attempt to skew the results of the next poll? They wouldn't do that, would they?

Some Things Are Just Worth Fighting For

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting piece today regarding current reinlistment patterns:

It is a glance at one of the most unexpected developments of the war in Iraq. Even as the conflict drags on, undermining recruiting efforts and testing the patience of the nation, American soldiers are so far continuing to reenlist at levels that surprise the Pentagon and pundits alike. To the head of the National Guard, this is the legacy of America's "next greatest generation": a band of soldiers more sophisticated than any before in history, which has been asked to adapt to a new style of warfare and often serve multiple tours - all as a volunteer force.

At a time when Army soldiers are under international scrutiny for roadside shootings and prison abuse, comparisons to the generation that landed on the shores of Normandy might seem curious, but they are more than mere rhetoric, analysts say. The American soldier's commitment to the cause in Iraq and Afghanistan has been historic and decisive, allowing the United States at least a measure of success in an engagement for which it was not prepared.

While I don't necessarilly agree that the United States was "unprepared" for the engagement, I will agree that the events of September 11th, 2001 caught us completely by suprise. That being said, it is my personal belief that our armed forces responded with a speed, skill and determination seldom, if ever, seen in the annals of warfare.

Continuing:

"To compare our generation to the World War II demographic would be grossly misleading," says Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.

But the task of this generation of soldiers, he says, is "every bit as demanding, and they're doing it as volunteers."

What is perhaps most significant is that they continue to volunteer. In a normal year, the Army National Guard expects 18 percent of its soldiers to leave because of retirement, injury, and death, or because they do not reenlist. This year, the attrition rate is only 18.9 percent. Meanwhile, reenlistment rates for the Army and Marines are either exceeding goals or are within a few percentage points of them. Some data even show that reenlistment rates are higher for units deployed overseas than for those that have remained at home.

In some ways, this is the first prolonged test of the all- volunteer military, so experts didn't know what to expect. But clearly, the response has exceeded expectations. "It's a little bit surprising, frankly," says Mr. Donnelly.

It may be surprising to the people who run the numbers and compile reinlistment statistics, but it shouldn't be surprising at all. Our military is chock full of professional men and women who put it all on the line to further this little experiment we like to call Freedom. They do it because they want to do it, they believe in the mission, and want to see it to it's successful conclusion. They have seen a yearning for freedom in the eyes of those who have been woefully lacking in it
and have responded by putting their lives on the line in order to provide it for them.

They also understand something that the mainstream media never will:

There are still some things worth fighting for and worth dying for. They may never get it, but I do, and I salute you!

Is Your Favorite On The List?

Right Wing News conducted a poll of 200 right-of center-bloggers to determine who their favorite columnists were. 52 bloggers responded to the poll and the results were compiled into a Top 20.
It is definitely representative of my personal favorites list due to the fact that all 20 are considered by me to be indespensible. And the winners are.......here