When General Petraeus goes before Congress in September to give his assessment on the situation in Iraq, it might serve him well to bring along Omar from Iraq The Model.

I will post the first and second paragraph of his most recent piece but I paid particular attention to the latter as it says in few words what I have thought so many times.

It’s almost July now, and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will present their report about the situation in Iraq, military and political, at some point in September.
I don’t know what parameters the two men are going to list statistics for in their report but I expect it to show the results of fighting al-Qaeda and other armed groups in numbers, the progress in building the ISF in numbers, also in numbers and of course the report would include the progress, if any, that our political leaders will have made by the time.

I think what matters more than the way of presentation would be how the data in the report is going to be read and afterwards interpreted into attitudes and actions.
One thing I hope the decision-makers and the media do when they read the report is to not isolate the war in Iraq from the war on terror and al-Qaeda as a whole, and at the same time put in mind the difference between war and nation-building. The latter takes much more time than winning a military conflict but requires different tools.

This is from a man who calls Iraq his home and sees first hand the struggles but also the accomplishments on a daily basis. Do we have a politician here at home or a daily newspaper who can say the same? One who understands the culture intimately and can speak on it intelligently and not only present one side of the picture. I do not believe we do.

No we see and hear of the roadside bomb or the beheadings, never of the progress, however slow it may seem. I remember not to long ago hearing the words “civil war” being bandied about constantly. Well, here is what Omar has to say about that bit of information:

For over a year the media and many officials were spooking us with the exaggerated ghost of civil war. I wonder what they have to say now! I think their silence is more telling than anything they would’ve said.

How true that statement is. After the deluge of talk shows, radio and media print on the topic, you barely hear those words spoken now. Fear mongering is what they call that and it has been used effectively to drive this Presidents numbers down and turn the American people against this war.

I would never be so foolish as to say all is well and every day is bright in a country ravaged by terror. But we must bear in mind, it is not the average citizen of Iraq that poses the problem. They are rising up and fighting. Our forces are doing their very best to stand up an Army which can defend its homeland and daily removing another person or persons who would not think twice of killing any one of us or our children and grandchildren. How difficult it must be to fight a faceless enemy.

The entire piece is well worth a read if you really want a good sense of what is happening in some areas in Iraq. I would love to see a major publication in this country print it verbatim. It is wishful thinking of course, but perhaps the people of this country would be enlightened on a different level, not just spoon fed chosen sound bites.

While Lewis I. “Scooter” Libby is still waiting to hear from the appeals court whether or not he can remain free on bail while awaiting his appeal the Bureau of Prisons has issued an inmate number to him.

For years he was known as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to President Bush. On Wednesday, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby became federal inmate No. 28301-016.
Libby, who was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity, faces 2 1/2 years in prison.

The assignment of an inmate number by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons represents another step on the road to prison. Inmate numbers stay with prisoners even after their release.

Libby, however, is hoping that an appeals court will intervene and put the sentence on hold before he is ordered to surrender.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has not indicated how quickly it will rule. Lawyers in the case said Libby had not yet been assigned to a prison or given a date to surrender.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald opposes Libby’s bid to delay his prison term. He says Libby does not have a good chance of having his conviction overturned and should begin serving prison time immediately.

Libby’s friends have asked President Bush to step in and pardon him, a request that Bush has sidestepped while the legal case drags on.

How I hope he remains free while his appeal is being heard and decided, and short of that, I hope the president will commute the prison part of his sentence and let him continue his appeal to try to clear his name.

The Senate voted 53-46 to defeat cloture on the Immigration bill. The clay pigeon is now a dead duck.

From Breitbart news:

The White House, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.
President Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information

I figured this would go to the courts to decide just as it did when Nixon was president and everything was being subpoeaned by Congress.

We’ll see how this pans out.

I am often conflicted on the issue of the death penalty, however, this is one time I would gladly stand with the Kurds and witness the final moments in the lives of these truly evil men.

‘Chemical Ali’ to be hanged in Kurdistan

Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and two other regime officials will probably be hanged in Kurdistan if the appeals court upholds their death sentences, an Iraqi official said Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information to the media, said no final decision had been taken but the executions would probably take place in either Irbil or Halabja.

Also sentenced to death were Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces.

They were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in “Operation Anfal,” a 1987-88 crackdown on Iranian-backed Kurdish rebels during the final years of the Iran-Iraq war.

The prosecution said up to 180,000 Kurds — including women and children — died in chemical weapons attacks, artillery barrages and mass deportations.

The political process in Iraq may be painfully slower that we expected or would have preferred, but the judicial branch of their government is advancing with lightning speed and rendering quick and just punishment.

Imagine, 180,000 of your own people brutally murdered or deported by these thugs. If this conviction holds (which most seem to think is a given), the Kurds may finally have the revenge they deserve for this sadistic behavior once and for all.

Yesterday the question was asked what is a conservative and what is a liberal.

I do not claim to speak for all conservatives and I won’t even attempt to speak for liberals because I have never been a liberal by my definition, which may be wrong. I’ll leave that definition to Ayschlay or Guss to give us.

I have stated I believe I’m more of a moderate than a conservative and maybe that’s because my politics have evolved over the years.

I remember working for the failing Reagan campaign in NC in 1976, and I was running with the big crowd then. Former US Attorney, the mayor of our city etc. Anyone who was anyone in the local Republican party I knew on a first-name basis because they liked a statement I made at the Republican caucus.

I was young then and when I asked what a conservative was I was met with “Do you believe this? Do you believe that?” When I agreed with all the positions I was told then I was a conservative.

I believe in limited government. I would very much like to see term limits put on our legislators as they seem particularly wont to get too big for their breeches lately and run roughshod over all of us.

I believe judges should interpret the Constitution as written and the laws as written and not make new law out of whole cloth. An example would be the so-called “right to privacy” in Roe v Wade.

I believe if the Constitution is silent on an issue it should revert to the states to decide individually what their laws will be and not have foreign law decide what will be the law of the land.

I believe lower taxes help our economy and don’t hurt it. Tax receipts are higher when the tax rate is low because the small business owner (the largest group of employers in the country) can keep more people working. Since small business owners usually pay the personal income tax rate, if the taxes go up he either has to raise his prices and lose customers or lay someone off to keep his prices where they are. Either way someone loses a job.

I believe it should be mandated by a Constitutional amendment that we have a balanced budget.

I believe we have the right and the responsibility to raise our children as we see fit as long as we are not abusing them physically or emotionally.

I believe if our schools have to teach kids about Islam, Hinduism etc. they should also be able to touch on Christianity without trying to convert anyone. That should be up to the family.

I believe in a strong and well-equipped military that can fight two wars at a time if necessary to protect our freedoms.

Those are my conservative beliefs and it may not be a comprehensive list.

On my liberal side I am very strongly in favor of assistance to those who really can’t work or get help from rich relatives.

People who are mentally or physically incapable of caring for themselves by getting a job should be provided for by our tax dollars since LBJs Great Society, for all intents and purposes, did away with family and charity assistance for these people.

For parents who don’t have the skills to work I believe we should support them until they have gotten training and had time to find a job and then let them off the rolls after a reasonable time even if they haven’t found work.

If we were to take able-bodied people off the welfare rolls and keep only those who are actually disabled, I think we should keep the same budget so we can give the truly needy more than a stipend to live on each month. Not enough for a new car every couple of years but enough so they aren’t trying to figure out where their next meal is coming from at the end of the month.

I believe these people should also be mandated to take classes that teach money management.

So, when all is said and done I’m a conservative on many things, but a liberal on caring for people. I guess that makes me a moderate, and judging by the ones on blogs who are calling themselves conservatives or liberals right now, I’m happy being a moderate.

To all those “conservatives” who proudly cast their votes for President Bush twice and are now calling him names because he supports the immigration bill (as proposed it’s a bad bill), you can take heart because it seems some of the senators you are also bashing and have declared war on are not going to support the next cloture motion.

The Senate immigration bill’s chances of passage seemed in doubt late this afternoon as several lawmakers signaled that they were undecided about supporting the legislation.

The bill is in more danger “than I thought a few hours ago,” Senator Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, told Bloomberg News. His comments came after the Senate voted down several attempts to make the immigration bill stricter, including one that would have barred illegal immigrants from a chance for eventual citizenship.

But the bill’s very fate was in doubt as senators who voted Tuesday to allow the bill to go forward said today that they were either now against allowing a vote on final passage or were inclined that way.

The wavering senators were Richard Burr of North Carolina, Christopher Bond of Missouri, John Ensign of Nevada and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, all Republicans, and Jim Webb and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, according to Bloomberg News.

The stances of those six are crucial, since all voted Tuesday to allow the debate to proceed. That cloture motion got 64 “yes” votes, or four more than necessary under Senate rules.

Another cloture motion is scheduled for Thursday, and if it does not get the required 60 votes, immigration legislation will probably be shelved for the foreseeable future.

If just five of these six senators vote against cloture the bill is dead. If all six and more vote against cloture the bill is dead.

If, by some miracle the bill passes the Senate, I have heard that Pelosi has said she won’t even bring it to the floor of the House unless she has at least 60 Republican votes and the Republicans are pretty well lined up against it in the House.

I don’t have a link to the Pelosi story as I heard it on the radio on my way home from a doctor’s appointment, but I honestly do not expect this bill to go anywhere in the Senate.

This is what happens when a bill is agreed upon by a group of Senators without the benefit of a committee hearing where nothing is done in secret. At least it’s not supposed to be done in secret.

So, for all the conservatives who think the bill is too easy on the illegals and all the liberals who think the bill is too tough on the illegals, don’t let your blood pressure rise until you see the final vote.

To see more of the sausage-making process go here and you will read basically the same thing with a bit more information.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings and she’s not even warming up yet.