Biden sticks his foot in it again

Joe Biden says that if there's a return to sectarian violence in Iraq now that we've pulled out of the cities, we may just pull out altogether.

Gee, Joe. Why don't you motivate the bad guys to be violent?

The incompetence of this administration's foreign policy is amazing. George W. Bush and his crowd at their worst were better than these guys. When they're not insulting our allies, they're motivating our enemies to attack us.

I have a feeling Republicans aren't the only ones who can't wait until 2012. President Obama must be, too- if only to have a chance to dump Joe Biden!

Happy birthday to the greatest nation on Earth

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

If only one verse is to be sung, in my opinion it should be the last.

Iranians may try British embassy staff

They haven't seized the British embassy, but the whack-jobs in Tehran are considering doing to certain arrested British embassy staff what they never dared do to our diplomats during the Carter-era hostage crisis: put them on trial.

When- and I suspect the moment is approaching faster than the Iranians realize- the Israelis either take out their nuclear facilities or (less likely) do the regime change thing, the Allahcrats are ensuring that the Jewish state will have the united and enthusiastic support of the Western world. Only the Moslem nations of the Middle East and the Russians will do anything but applaud.

Palin quits

Sarah Palin has resigned as Alaska's governor. My guess is that it's her first move in a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Given her lack of experience- especially in the national arena- and the hatched job the media did on her in 2008, her nomination would spell a certain Obama landslide in 2012. Her smart move would be to serve at least one term in the Senate before running for the White House.

BTW, I'd give the same advice to Mike Huckabee.

Bobby Jindal remains the guy I'm looking most at, though Tim Pawlenty is looking better and better to me as time goes on.

Shouldn't a stimulus, like... stimulate?

Our Beloved Leader has given us unprecedented deficit spending, unsupportable debt, likely stagflation... and it hasn't helped stimulate the economy.

Most Americans now oppose Sotomayor's confirmation

Megyn Kelly of Fox News reports on a new poll which shows that more Americans now oppose Judge Sonya Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court than support it.

Sotomayor- a judge whose track record has shown her to be as readily reversible as a cheap Wal-Mart belt- is supported by only 37 percent of those asked by the Rasmussen people, as opposed to 39 percent who want her defeated.

Two weeks ago, 42 percent wanted her confirmed, as opposed to 34 percent who opposed her.

A glimmer of hope in the wilderness

According to Gallup, 46% of the American people now see the Democratic party as "too liberal."

That compares with 43% who see the Republican party as "too conservative."

More Americans see the Democrats as "too liberal" than as "about right."

HT: Drudge

Poor Minnesota! First Jesse Ventura... and now, this

For the second time in recent years, Minnesota has become the laughingstock of the nation.

Mean-spirited clown Al Franken has been declared the winner in last year's Senate race in that state. Franken appeared on election night to have been narrowly defeated by then-Sen. Norm Coleman. But Coleman's margin was close enough to trigger an automatic recount under Minnesota law.

Then, as the recount proceeded under the supervision of a highly-partisan Democratic Secretary of State, it was soon Florida in 2000 and Chicago in the bad old days all over again."Missing" ballot boxes began to be "discovered," other ballot boxes began to go missing, votes in heavily Democratic areas started being re-counted twice, and- under a heavy cloud- a walking joke became a United States Senator.

HT: Drudge

Which party dragged its heals on that slavery apology?

In view of the recent U.S. Senate vote to apologize for slavery (a resolution long, long overdue, btw), the remarks of my far-Left senator, Tom Harkin, need to be held up to the light of historical evaluation.

Why did it take so long, anyway?

Hint: The political party responsible wasn't the one that was organized with the explicit purpose of fighting slavery.

It was the one responsible for Jim Crow... and the Civil War.

Supreme Court reverses Sotomayor- again

Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonja Sotomayor has had sixty per cent of her rulings overturned by the very Supreme Court to which she has been nominated.

It happened again today.

Ordinarily, a record like that would preclude a judge from even being considered for appointment to the nation's highest court. Ordinarily, the nomination of a candidate with such a record would be the target of massive derision from the media. But in the Obama Era, it seems, all things are not only possible but commendable in the eyes of the media and the cultural elites- if only they are the Will of Beloved Leader.

HT: Drudge

Mr. Obama seems a tad unclear on the concept

President Obama has opined that this past weekend's coup ousting Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was "not legal."

Thank you for clarifying that point, Mr. President. After all, most countries have provisions in their constitutions allowing for coups, don't they? After all, a legal coup is one thing, but...

Oh? They don't? Well,imagine that!

Legality was no more the issue here than it was when Abe Lincoln- illegally, but necessarily- suspended habeus corpus during the Civil War. The same question Lincoln asked then can be asked with regard to the Honduran coup: "Should all the other laws go unenforced, so that one law may be kept?" If you're interested in what really happened in Honduras (as opposed to what the Castro/Chavez/Obama axis is telling us happened), read this cogent summary by former Polk County GOP chair Ted Sporer.

"Legal" or not, the Honduran military was acting to enforce a decision of the nation's Supreme Court, and to prevent Zelaya from becoming a dictator. Would that have been "legal?"

HT: Drudge

Barack Obama shower curtain

No, I'm not kidding.

HT: Rev. Christopher Esget

House passes ill-advised "climate change" bill

The House dealt the staggering U.S. economy a potentially devastating blow when it narrowly passed the costly and probably unnecessary "climate change" bill today.

The vote was 219-212. Eight Republicans defected to make the result possible.

HT: Drudge

I resemble this remark!

The MSM has largely ignored it, but President Obama thinks that maybe we should save money by just not treating fragile old people for medical conditions if it isn't going to stop them from being fragile.

I just turned 59, which may not qualify me as a senior citizen yet. But I'm close enough- and Mr. President Dude... we vote.

ROTFL!

Russia says that Iran's rigged election was "an exercise in democracy."

Sure. The same kind of democracy Russian tyrants from the Tsars through Stalin and Brezhnev and now Putin have always specialized in: the kind where everybody gets to vote, but only the votes cast for the "proper" candidate get counted.

HT: Drudge

Joe Biden, standup comic

Read the wisdom of our vice-president, laugh yourself silly- and speculate as to how many nightly comedy programs these would have been on had George W. Bush said them.

On second thought...

see more Political Pictures

Don't count the World's Only Superpower out just yet

Perhaps those who see an inevitable decline of U.S. influence in the world need to think again.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Earth to Olbermann and company: snarkiness is no substitute for arguments- or class

Are Olbermann and the other bitchy one under the illusion that Carrie Prejean's "no comment" didn't win this particular exchange between Miss California and those who think inane personal attacks on matters which have nothing to do with the issue are a substitute for arguments?

Dunno. But they're no competition for her in this exchange, either in substance or in class:

Why it is impossible to defeat a lib- er, progressive- in a debate

Ridge would beat both Toomey and Specter

According to a new poll by a Republican pollster, if Tom Ridge runs for the Senate from Pennsylvania, he'll cream Pat Toomey in the Republican primary and beat Arlen Specter in November.

HT: Real Clear Politics

More good news for the GOP in next year's Senate races

Things are looking good for Sununu in New Hampshire.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Somebody should let Leno and Letterman in on this guy

see more Political Pictures

Don't look now...

...but as of today, it looks like the Republican Mike Castle will defeat Joe Biden's son for the Senate in Delaware next year.

HT: Real Clear Politics

You couldn't prove it by me, but...

...a couple of economists from Forbes magazine say that the recession is over.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Ridge weighs race for Specter's seat

Former Gov. Tom Ridge, another socially liberal Republican, is considering challenging former Congressman Pat Toomey for the Republican nomination to run against turncoat Sen. Arlen Specter (Whatdayoftheweekisit?- Pa).

Ideologically, Ridge is no great improvement on the former RINO. Unlike Toomey, though, the polls indicate that Ridge would have a real chance to beat Specter, and at least return the seat to the Republican caucus.

HT: Drudge

In Iran, the law doesn't count

Iran's highest judicial authority reprieved Dalara Darabi, a young woman sentenced to death for a murder she says her boyfriend committed- when she was seventeen.

The barbarians in Tehran hanged her anyway.

Gay "marriage-" and gay hypocrisy

Andrew Brietbart on a point which I've also noticed: the strangely selective hostility of the homosexualist Left toward those who oppose the redefining of marriage.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Sticking it to the GOP

Mark Hemingway of the National Review points out that the media don't even try to report fairly where the Republican party is concerned.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Obama should enjoy his high approval rating while he still can- because it won't last

Dick Morris argues- convincingly, in my opinion- that however glowing President Obama's poll numbers may look at first glance, they reveal the seeds of his political undoing.

However in love with The One the public may be (cheered on by the sycophantic media), America simply doesn't want to go where Obama is trying to lead it. Sooner or later, his unpopular substance will outweigh the glitter and media adulation.

And even Bo won't save him.

HT: Real Clear Politics, M.Z. Hemingway

FAA realized low-flying NY flight would cause a panic

After 9/11, having an airliner fly at a very low altitude over New York City was not a very bright idea even given the standards of the current, blunder-prone administration. But it gets worse.

The FAA figured that this stunt would (quite reasonably) cause New Yorkers to panic. The Obama administration went ahead with it anyway.

"The Obama flu?"

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack (a former Iowa governor) and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano want us to stop calling the swine flu "the swine flu."

They want us to call it "the H1N1 flu."

The reason they give is that people who raise hogs shouldn't have to suffer. Personally, I don't think people are likely to persecute hog farmers because of a virus, and I'm not convinced that they're going to stop eating pork, either. And given the fact that- although it's not the same virus- the virus which caused the great 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic is known by the same designation, this does not seem to me to be the smartest moniker for the bug.

But I don't think "the H1N1 flu" is going to catch on. What do you think? Should we call it "the Vilsack flu" or "the Napolitano flu?" Or maybe "the Obama flu?" After all, if Dubyah is going to be blamed for everything that happened on his watch, wouldn't it be only fair to treat The One the same way?

ADDENDUM: Interesting point made somewhere (don't remember where): since strains of flu are typically known for their area of origin (e.g., "Spanish Flu," "Asian Flu," "Hong Kong Flu"),
why not call this strain the "Mexican Flu?" Or would that be politically incorrect?

Arlen Specter announces he's a Democrat

In other news, Grant takes Richmond and the thirteen North American colonies declare their independence from Great Britain.

Nor is Specter's reception by his fellow Lefties universally gracious.

HT: Drudge, Real Clear Politics

A mistake a day for America's imperfect messiah

Here's an apt rundown of The One's first 100 days in office: 'One Hundred Days, One Hundred Mistakes."

HT: Drudge

Al Gore vs. the facts

Go get 'em, Newt!

John Murtha rides again!

Remember Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa), the powerful congressman who spread the lie about the Haditha non-massacre and portrayed brave Marines who were later exonerated and shown to have been acting in self-defense as sadistic baby killers?

You might find this interesting:



Also this, from when he was an ABSCAM target (FBI film of his interview with undercover agents offering him a bribe):



John Murtha is a disgrace.

HT: MZ Hemingway

Why they're "progressives" now, instead of "liberals"

I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my on-line conversation with lib... er, progressives: their seeming conviction that to disagree with them, or to suggest that their rhetoric is irresponsible or ill-advised, is somehow to attempt to deny them their freedom of speech.

An equally fascinating phenomenon is their conviction that conservatives have no right to free speech whatsoever.

Maybe that's why they don't want to be called "liberals" anymore.

HT: Real Clear Politics

The One is on the cover of TIME. Again.

This is the seventeenth week of 2009.

Barack Obama has been on the cover of TIME magazine for thirteen of them.

He's there again this week.

This is getting a little ridiculous. The One is no more newsworthy than any other president. But love is a powerful motivator- and the media are in love with Barack Obama.

HT: Drudge

ADDENDUM: This is about right!

Iowa porkulus

In case you're wondering, here is where some of President Obama's bacon-flavored "stimulus" money is being spent in Iowa.

Information concerning the number of jobs to be created by the spending is provided.

Nothing like good, tasty Iowa pork.

Was ist das?

A sensible article about German-American relations from Der Spiegel?

The governor of Texas really ought to know better

It seems that even Texas Gov. Rick Perry believes the urban legend that the treaty by which the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States granted Texas the right to secede.

Snopes.com deals with that much-circulated whopper in the last paragraph of this article.

That the treaty contained no such provision can be readily seen by simply reading it. Its full text is here.

The Wikipedia article on the annexation of Texas to the United States says this:

A popular urban legend has grown stating that Texas has a special right to secede from The Union. A thorough reading of all documents for annexation shows that no provision is made for Texas to secede from the United States.Texas has the same rights granted to it as any other state, but also the right to form from its territory 4 states in addition to "Texas", essentially creating 5 states. Furthermore, in its 1868 decision in Texas v. White, the United States Supreme Court ruled that secession of Texas from the United States was illegal. The court wrote, "The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States."

Here is the text of the Ordinance of Annexation approved by Texas.

Here is the Joint Resolution of Congress annexing Texas to the Union.

But no matter how many times the facts are pointed out, the silly legend that Texas has a right to secede established by legal treaty continues to bounce around the internet. If the treaty in question had contained such a provision, the United States never would have signed it.

HT: Drudge