J's Cafe Nette

Archive for April 20th, 2007

What did Senator Reid actually mean yesterday when he informed us we had lost the war in Iraq. I thought the words spoke for themselves. Apparently I was incorrect:

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: This is a classic definition of a gaffe. The definition of a gaffe in Washington is when a politician accidentally says what’s in his heart, because it’s a rare occasion and obviously, the fact that Reid had to go out on the floor of the Senate and then restate it in a different way is an example of how he knew he’d made a gaffe.

He went out on the floor and said, no, I didn’t say it was lost. In fact, he did. He not only said it was lost, but in that clip that we saw he said the secretary of state, secretary of defense know it’s lost as well. Then he goes out on the floor and says, no, it’s only lost if we follow the policy of the president. It’s not if you follow mine.

More at NRO, The Corner.

Tweet This Post

According to this Washington Times story fundraisers in the Democrat party are not so eager to raise money for Mrs. Clinton these days due to the pressure they say they are getting from her campaign.

An increasing number of Democratic fundraisers — alienated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s strong-arm tactics against prospective donors — are raising money for presidential rivals of the former first lady, Democratic campaign strategists say.

The strategists said the exodus is growing as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign applies pressure to uncommitted party donors to join her fundraising team or pledge to sit out the party’s nominating process.

“The Clinton camp has been very tough on contributors. I’ve heard that ‘if you don’t contribute to us, don’t contribute to another campaign.’ I’ve heard that,” said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who just joined the campaign of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and managed Howard Dean’s ill-fated 2004 presidential bid.

One of the most frequent complaints among longtime party contributors is that no matter how hard they work or how much they raise for Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, they will never be given special access to her campaign’s high command.

“If you are not part of that original Clinton family, you are never going to be part of her inner circle. What this translates into is: Why invest in her campaign when whatever you do, you will never be part of it?” said a former senior Democratic Party campaign official who is uncommitted in the race.

“I’m hearing this echoed all over the place by Democrats, especially outside of Washington.”

“People are peeling off from the Clintons. A friend of mine who has done fundraising for Hillary in the past, but remains uncommitted, told me that her fundraising people said if you don’t want to raise money for us now, will you agree not to raise money for anyone else?” a Democratic fundraiser told The Times.

“I could raise money from now to eternity and not really be on the [Clinton campaign] radar screen,” Mr. Gutman told Newsweek magazine.

“After those fundraising numbers came out, people are now saying, ‘Wait a minute, she is not inevitable as the party’s nominee,’ ” said a Democratic strategist here. “When you see people who have nothing to lose going with Obama or Edwards, then you know she is going down.”

The latest national Gallup Poll, taken April 13-15, showed Mrs. Clinton losing ground to Mr. Obama who trailed her by five percentage points — 31 percent to 26 percent. Mr. Edwards was in third place with 16 percent.

We were talking to some friends of mixed political persuasions Wednesday evening and everyone has decided they haven’t found the candidate they can support yet of the ones who are running.

It almost seems like we are choosing from the bottom of the barrel instead of the cream of the crop.

Tweet This Post

I don’t know if it’s constitutional or not, and it seems the members of Congress disagree on that point also, but the House of Representatives voted yesterday to give the citizens of Washington DC the right to full representation in the House. Along with adding one seat for DC, which is predominantly Democrat, they have agreed to give an at-large seat to Utah, which is predominantly Republican, until the next census in 2010. This would bring the number of members in the House to 437 instead of the 435 members it now has. President Bush has vowed a veto.

Our country was founded on the basis of taxation with no representation, but I’m not a constitutional scholar and you can bet your bottom dollar this will go to the courts to decide.

One question I have is if they get a representative, will they also get two senators? That shouldn’t be far behind.

I’ll let better minds than mine sort this out.

Tweet This Post

In his usual persuasive style DJ Drummond at Stolen Thunder put into words what perhaps many of us feel:

Begone to Nothingness

The mass murder this week at Virginia Tech was a horrible, inhuman act by a madman. The suffering was made worse, however, by the mercenary and stone-hearted decision by the media at large to broadcast everything they could find about the killer. What started as a reasonable effort to provide news and relevant information, soon devolved into a vulgar circus to see who could make the victims’ families experience the worst anguish. It must be said, before I say anything further, that the decision by NBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and CNN to flood the airwaves with sounds and images from the malignant narcissist, is effectively to promote the worst kind of voyeurism, and to display as cruel an indifference to the pain already endured by the victims’ families, as to be worthy of criminal charges in any just society. I firmly believe that on the day when all men are judged, there will be a grim reckoning for the likes of Brian Williams, Steve Capus, Dan Abrams, Roger Aisles, and their cronies.

But for all the crude behavior by the media, the fault for the massacre rests with the gunman. Him alone. For all the efforts made to blame the crime on Gun Control or the lack of it, on administrators or the police, the hate and the decision to destroy so many innocent lives lies on the person who made the choice. I don’t know, or care, whether or not he was “mentally ill”; even the mentally ill often know how to keep from hurting other people, and in the end there is no excuse, whatsoever, which justifies murder.

This particular monster wanted attention. He sent out photos, a “manifesto”, a video comparing himself to every person he ever considered great, though he was – at best – a pathetic failure who wasn’t man enough to accomplish anything more than to blame everyone and everything else for his failures. He is not worth remembering.

You have probably noticed I have not mentioned his name. So far as I am concerned, every evil act he committed took away something of what was left of him, and after so many murders there is nothing left to speak. A man, a real man anyway, is the sum of the good he does, and he establishes his name through honorable and virtuous acts. Heaven is by the grace of God, but a man’s honor and name is something he can build and know might have a chance of surviving him. Like Dr. Liviu Librescu, or Jacob Russell Ryker. Maybe like Todd Beamer or Paul Ray Smith.

Thank you Mr. Drummond, Spot On!

Go here to read the rest.

Tweet This Post