Archive for April 26th, 2007
Humor from days gone by
April 26th, 2007
If you loved Dragnet and The Tonight Show, don’t miss this..a great Thursday night laugh courtesy of Power Line.
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Cautiously Optimistic Until Tomorrow
April 26th, 2007
I had to share this news with you now.
Today my daughter in law was in class doing her rotation at a hospital. She received a voice mail from the pathologist who diagnosed her cancer but couldn’t take the message.
He then called the hospital and asked to speak to her. He told her to go into a room, close the door and sit down. She told him she just couldn’t stand to hear more bad news as she had had a body scan of her cancer done yesterday. He commanded her to do as he said and she did.
He then told her of the 15 malignant spots she had in the prior scan, 7 are completely gone, 6 are what they call reactive, meaning swollen glands from something like a sinus infection (she has a sinus infection), and 2 are still cancerous but are under her arm and can be removed by surgery!
She has to go back tomorrow and repeat the scan just to make sure the machine didn’t make a mistake, and we are cautiously optimistic until we get the final word.
None of the lymph nodes got larger, as you have seen some have gone away and the color has not changed in any of them.
People all over the country have been praying for her, including my good friend The Anchoress, Kimsch from Musing Minds and many other bloggers whose names have escaped me at this moment of excitement.
Please keep her in your prayers that this is, indeed, a correct reading of the body scan. I’ll let you know something tomorrow as soon as I know.
Praise God! She asked me if I could believe it and I told her there were people all over the country praying for her and that my prayer has been thanksgiving for healing her body, whether it be directly by God, or by God using doctors.
He’s still in the miracle business. He made our bodies and He can certainly heal them if that’s His will.
Most days It’s a Good Thing
April 26th, 2007
Rick Moran with an interesting take on today’s Day by Day cartoon.
Many of you will recall when we conservatives came down hard on Jane Hamsher of Firedog Lake for her photoshopped picture of Joe Lieberman in minstrel make up. It is an unnecessary, hurtful reminder of days past when black people were thought not good enough to share the stage with white people. And to make matters worse, the Minstrel Show itself portrayed blacks in the most nauseatingly, submissive, subservient ways imaginable.
Muir makes a living going to the edge. That’s what good cartoonists do. But putting anyone in black face cannot be seen as anything except out of bounds for decent society. We conservatives said as much following Jane Hamsher’s extraordinary Lieberman slur. And we should say the same about Mr. Muir and his idea of humor
I must say, I agree.
A True Gentleman
April 26th, 2007
Thank you Senator Lieberman for this:
Last week a series of coordinated suicide bombings killed more than 170 people. The victims were not soldiers or government officials but civilians — innocent men, women and children indiscriminately murdered on their way home from work and school.
If such an atrocity had been perpetrated in the United States, Europe or Israel, our response would surely have been anger at the fanatics responsible and resolve not to surrender to their barbarism.
The Senator goes on to explain in calm, coherent terms why we must complete our mission in Iraq. Whether you agree or disagree with his assessment, it is clear the Senator has the ability to set politics aside for the good of our country.
Update: The Senator speaks today on the Senate Floor.
This Bad Bill Needs to be Defeated
April 26th, 2007
From today’s Omega Letter:
Contact your Congressman and ask him or her to vote AGAINST HR 1592.
And Now, the Time Is Here . . .
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2nd Timothy 4:3-4)
This morning’s Worldnetdaily headline story concerning a proposed Congressional bill piqued my interest enough to do a little independent digging into the background. I wish I hadn’t. (Sigh. Ignorance truly IS bliss.)
The bill in question is HR 1592, sponsored by Representative John Conyers of Michigan. As soon as I read who sponsored it, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Conyers has been a member of the House for something approaching 42 years. That long in an ivory tower is enough to give anybody delusions of grandeur. In Conyers’ case, it’s more a case of total disconnect.
Conyers came to Congress from Detroit at the height of the civil rights movement. Those of us mature enough to remember the Detroit race riots in the Sixties have some perspective on the conditions under which Conyers’ ascended to power.
Conyers came to Congress in 1964, as race relations had reached critical mass. The 1967 Detroit Race Riot was among the most destructive in US history, eclipsed only by the 1992 Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles.
There was a lot of hate and injustice in those days, particularly against blacks, but evidently, being in Congress is like being stuck in a time warp. Conyers spent his whole 42-odd years in Congress still fighting conditions as they existed in the 1960’s.
But 2007 is not 1967. Most of America got over it. Conyers never did.
H.R. 1592’s ’short title’ is the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.” Hate crimes legislation was necessary in 1967. The 1967 riots burned down large parts of the city, destroying more than 400 buildings. More than 2500 stores were looted.
Police made more than 7,000 arrests. Snipers shot at firefighters while they tried to fight the fires. Forty-three people died, another 467 were injured, and the dollar damage ranged from $40 to $80 million (in 1967 dollars).
Conyers attempted to calm things down personally, climbing atop the hood of a car to plead with the rioters to go home. Instead, he was pelted with rocks and bottles. One activist shouted, “Why are you defending the establishment? You are as bad as they are.”
That incident turned Conyers into an anti-hate crusader, which was a good thing, back in 1967. But Conyers (and ultimately, America) became a victim of his own successes. As existing anti-hate legislation gave way to improved race relations, Conyers was forced to find new victims of ‘hate’.
His bill expands a ‘hate crime’ to include; “prejudice, based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation gender identity or disability.”
Perpetrators of ‘hate crimes’ under the bill can be jailed for anywhere from ten years to life, depending on the victim.
As you have probably noticed, H.R. 1592 extends hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation and gender identity and includes the words “perceived or actual.”
I am all in favor of protecting people from victimization, including gays and cross dressers. But under the provisions of this particular piece of legislation, it is possible that today’s column would be a criminal offense.
Why? Because of the words, ‘perceived or actual’. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Serious
April 26th, 2007
When I first ran across the headline of a US Army member being held for aiding the enemy I thought it was a low-ranking enlisted man who was too young to understand what he did.
Instead, I find out it’s a US Army Lt. Col.!
BAGHDAD — A senior U.S. officer has been charged with nine offenses, including aiding the enemy and fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee while he commanded a military police detachment at an American detention facility near Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele was accused of giving “aid to the enemy” by providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees.
Steele was the commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention center on the western outskirts of Baghdad, when the offenses allegedly occurred between October 2005 and February, military spokesman Lt. Col. James Hutton said.
Steele was being held in Kuwait pending a grand jury investigation, Hutton said.
Steele also was charged with improperly marking classified information, failing to obey an order and failing to fulfill his obligations in the expenditure of funds, the military said.
Camp Cropper, located near the Baghdad airport, replaced the notorious Abu Ghraib prison as the main detention facility in the capital area.
I wouldn’t want to be the Lt. Col. if he gets convicted. He won’t see the light of day for many years.
The Captain Strikes Again and With Accuracy
April 26th, 2007
Captain Ed has a wonderful piece up about an editorial from David Broder about Sen. Reid.
The port side of the blogosphere rings with rage over David Broder’s Washington Post column today. Talking Points Memo has called for a “blogswarm” to shout down Broder for the unforgivable offense of pointing out that Harry Reid has been as incompetent as Alberto Gonzales:
Here’s a Washington political riddle where you fill in the blanks: As Alberto Gonzales is to the Republicans, Blank Blank is to the Democrats — a continuing embarrassment thanks to his amateurish performance.
If you answered ” Harry Reid,” give yourself an A. And join the long list of senators of both parties who are ready for these two springtime exhibitions of ineptitude to end. …[C]onsider the mental gyrations performed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as he rationalized the recent comment from his majority leader, Harry Reid, the leading light of Searchlight, Nev., that the war in Iraq “is lost.”
Broder offers more examples of Reid’s ineptitide as caucus leader. Remember when Reid’s intellectual basis for opposing George Bush was that the President was a “loser”? Brave Harry managed to wait until Bush traveled to Europe before calling him names. He called Alan Greenspan “one of the biggest political hacks” in DC, despite Greenspan’s successful management of the Fed. He insulted Bill Frist for keeping his campaign pledge to serve only two terms in office.
Go visit the Captain and read the rest.
McCain Will Apologize When Murtha Does
April 26th, 2007
I don’t even support McCain, but I find the false outrage by Congressman Murtha, demanding an apology to our troops in Iraq, to be rather hypocritical given the fact he wants to defund them and leave them twisting slowly in the wind while Congress takes its time funding their mission, which includes equipment to defend them against the IEDs he’s railing about.
To Our Readers
April 26th, 2007
If you are a first-time reader or a recent reader of our blog you will notice one thing: We are not the average blog where all you get is an echo chamber.
Today and last night you have seen some heated discussions on the politics of our nation, and we hope you participate in those discussions to give us your point of view.
We have conservative writers and one liberal, who must feel alone at times, but does a good job of pointing out what the liberals in our country believe .
We will not call anyone on this site a traitor or question anyone’s patriotism.
Unfortunately, we live in a world today that causes us to have some very strong opinions on various political topics and we invite you to join in our dialog. We will treat you with respect and ask you to do the same.
Thank you for visiting and please come back often.
Rice Signals She May Not Comply With Subpoena
April 26th, 2007
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a congressional committee and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order.
Rice said she would respond by mail to questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Bush administration’s prewar claims about Saddam Hussein seeking weapons of mass destruction, but signaled she would not appear in person.
“I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter,” she told reporters in Oslo, where she is attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
The comments were her first reaction to a subpoena issued on Wednesday by the committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Rice said she respected the oversight function of the legislative branch, but maintained she had already testified in person and under oath about claims that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa during her confirmation hearing for the job of secretary of state.
“I addressed these questions, almost the same questions, during my confirmation hearing,” she said. “This is an issue that has been answered and answered and answered.”
Rice noted that she had been serving as President Bush’s national security adviser during the period covered by the panel’s questions and stressed the administration’s position that presidential aides not confirmed by the Senate cannot be forced to testify before Congress under the doctrine of executive privilege.
“This all took place in my role as national security adviser,” she said. “There is a constitutional principle. There is a separation of powers and advisers to the president under that constitutional principle are not generally required to go and testify in Congress.
“So, I think we have to observe and uphold the constitutional principle, but I also observe and uphold the obligation of Congress to conduct its oversight role, I respect that. But I think I have more than answered these questions, and answered them directly to Congressman Waxman.”
Rice declined to respond when asked if she would absolutely refuse to testify under subpoena.
Her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said later that no final decision had been made about Rice appearing before the committee.
Waxman’s committee voted 21-10 on Wednesday to subpoena Rice despite the State Department’s insistence that the questions have already been answered and that the doctrine of executive privilege .
The congressman has complained for weeks that Rice and the State Department have failed to respond to questions about the claim that Saddam Hussein had tried to by uranium from Niger.
While Waxman is issuing subpoenas why don’t we just ask him to subpoena the president so he can find out just how he and Rove caused Hurricane Katrina? @-)
From Someone Who Knows
April 26th, 2007
This is a House Floor speech by Rep. Sam Johnson (R) Texas, who spent approximately 7 years in a prison camp in Viet Nam. The speech was given on March 23, 2007 and we all know how that vote turned out.
He knows how it feels to have Congress take funds from a war he was in and how it feels to today’s soldiers.
Take a listen to what he has to say.
More Wisdom From DJ Drummond
April 26th, 2007
DJ Drummond has a wonderful post up titled The Harry Reid School of “Governanceâ€
I am linking the last two paragraphs and urge you to go over and read the whole thing.
Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made a number of regrettable statements. Not only that any decent American would regret such sentiments, but that at some point in the future I believe the Democrats will be quite sorry Harry got hold of a microphone. For now, however, the extremists in the Democratic Party have hijacked the war and are doing their worst to drive the campaign to the nearest hole. It may be plainly said that the Democrats seriously intend to bring about U.S. casualties in Iraq by encouraging terrorist resistance, in the hope that they can use the slaughter for their personal political gain. The voice from the Left has gone full course from supporting the war and the men fighting it, to spiteful hate against everyone trying to win in Iraq or finish the job begun in 2003. There is no honorable debate among Democrats anymore on this point – they have established the defeat of the United States as their primary objective. What Democrats of honor remain, such as Senator Joe Lieberman, are silenced and suppressed, made outcasts and warned not to interfere with party objectives. Scarcely in human history has a major political party hoped such vile desires against its soldiers, and schemed such traitorous plots against the nation of their birth and heritage.
The Democrats will continue to exist as a major political party for decades to come. But by their own hand, they are committing themselves to second-tier status. Americans understand and respect traditional liberal values, but they won’t tear down their moral values to advance liberal ideals. Democrats continue to misunderstand what those moral values are; values which transcend part, which the voters expect, frankly, any serious candidate to embrace, like not undermining authority in wartime, or sticking to the issues in an election and eschewing personal attacks by the candidate or his staff, or recognizing the honor in a candidate, even an opponent. It seems that when a candidate displays these qualities, Democrats regard it as a sign of weakness rather than strength, and this badly mis-judges the American sense of honor.
