J's Cafe Nette

Archive for July 6th, 2007

As for your gift, well these 1,100 citizens were polled and they would like to see you and the Vice President impeached.

Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.
The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.

The study by the private New Hampshire-based ARG canvassed 1,100 Americans by telephone July 3-5 and had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points. The findings are available on ARG’s Internet site

Here are the poll results. (You have to scroll down a bit)

These were primarily registered voters vs. likely voters..interesting.

Oh well, feeling as I do about polls, this falls in to the same category for me as the others..not very reliable. More importantly, it has been a pleasure to have a President who does not test to see which way the wind is blowing to decide how to govern.

While it is always nice to be the popular person in the room, it is much harder to be the one who has to often make unpopular decisions. I for one admire the majority of those decisions and admire the man who made them.

Happy 61st and may you enjoy many more.

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Professor Reynolds has not only the link to a Michael Yon’s latest update, but also a personal email he received from Michael.

A favorite paragraph of mine in this latest dispatch:

Most Iraqis I talk with acknowledge that if it was ever about the oil, it’s not now. Not mostly anyway. It clearly would have been cheaper just to buy the oil or invade somewhere easier that has more. Similarly, most Iraqis seem now to realize that we really don’t want to stay here, and that many of us can’t wait to get back home. They realize that we are not resolved to stay, but are impatient but to drive down to Kuwait and sail away. And when they consider the Americans who actually deal with Iraqis every day, the Iraqis can no longer deny that we really do want them to succeed. But we want them to succeed without us. We want to see their streets are clean and safe, their grass is green, and their birds are singing. We want to see that on television. Not in person. We don’t want to be here. We tell them that every day. It finally has settled in that we are telling the truth.

After reading both the Professor and Michael I ventured over to Power Line to read their latest. A post from today linked back to one they published on July 3.

We’ve written about the fact that the wire services employ stringers in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, who are of doubtful reliability at best. Worse, these stringers sometimes have a political agenda. As a result, the “news” that the Associated Press reports as fact has sometimes turned out to be based on little more than rumor, or to be fabricated altogether.

The latest example comes from Bob Owens, who sums up the story at Pajamas Media. On June 28, the AP reported that 20 decapitated bodies had been found in a village near Salman Pak, southeast of Baghdad. If you read the fine print, though, it turned out that the story was based on reports from two anonymous “police officers”–one from Baghdad and one from Kut, some 75 miles from the scene of the alleged atrocity. It was apparent on the face of the AP story that these officers’ claims were hearsay, at best.

Owens details how the story was re-told in subtly different ways by news outlets that picked up the AP account. The Washington Post, for example, “actively obfuscated the distant locations of the anonymous police sources, and instead merely allowed that the came from ’separate commands.’ The Post account also rewrote the story in such a way that it appears that there were three anonymous police sources.”

Owens was no doubt reminded of the infamous “Jamil Hussein,” the Baghdad policeman (if such he was) who long served the AP as a “source” for events all over Iraq, some of which never happened. So Owens decided to investigate by contacting the Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) Public Affairs office, and liaisons with the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT) Public Affairs Office, to ask what they knew of this incident. The upshot was a definitive statement by those agencies that the beheading story was “completely false and fabricated by unknown sources.”

Interestingly, reading the above article led me to another post at Instapundit where the suspicions many have were confirmed by one of todays journalists.

A journalist whose name you’d recognize emails:

Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., – can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

As I read the balance of the email, I found myself admiring this person for admitting the faults of the MSM.

For now, I will stick to those who I tend to believe. The boots on the ground, the military blogs and Michael Yon.

Thanks Professor Reynolds for the link and welcome Instapundit readers.

Thanks also to Eric and the readers at Classical Values.

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Were Republican senators vindictive enough to block the concert after he testified? I don’t know.
It seems like it’s going to go on anyway and amazingly enough with the help of a Native American.

Al Gore announced Friday a surprise Live Earth concert in Washington, foiling Senate Republicans who blocked Gore’s attempt to bring his global warming extravaganza to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
The former vice president said the all-day “Mother Earth” concert would be held on the National Mall at the National Museum of the American Indian—about two blocks from the Capitol—as part of Saturday’s concert series focused on climate change. The headliners are Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

“Global warming naysayers in the political world have not been able to have their way, because this will—despite their best efforts—be held on the Mall,” Gore told The Associated Press.

The “Mother Earth” show had been previously planned, but Gore announced Friday that it would be part of the Live Earth series. The concert will also feature films, music, dancing and guest speakers, including scientists and cultural leaders from the American Indian community.

“There is no more important matter before us than the question of how to live sustainably on the Earth,” said Tim Johnson, acting director of the American Indian museum and a descendant of the Mohawk tribe.

There are eight other Live Earth concerts scheduled Saturday, starting in Australia and continuing to London, New Jersey, Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil and Germany.

Earlier this year, Republican leaders in the Senate refused Gore’s request to host one of the concerts on the Capitol grounds facing the Washington Monument. The denial came after Gore testified before House and Senate panels in March about what he calls a “true planetary emergency.”

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The Appeals Court has dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging President Bush’s eavesdropping program.

From the AP via Fox News:

CINCINNATI — A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging President Bush’s domestic spying program, saying the plaintiffs had no standing to sue.

The 2-1 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel was not on the legality of the surveillance program. But it vacated an order by a lower court in Detroit last Augist that the post-911 warrantless surveillance aimed at uncovering terrorist activity was unconstitutional, violating rights to privacy and free speech and the separation of powers.

The American Civil Liberties Union led the suit on behalf of other groups including lawyers, journalists and scholars it says have been handicapped in doing their jobs by the government monitoring.

The case will be sent back to the U.S. District judge in Michigan for dismissal.

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Is it any wonder the public has low esteem for this Congress?

The administration has not said when or if it will respond. Spokesman Scott Stanzel said Thursday the White House has received a many requests for information since Democrats took control of Congress in January and has turned over 200,000 pages of documents.

“They’ve launched over 300 investigations, had over 350 requests for documents and interviews and they have had over 600 oversight hearings in just about 100 days,” Stanzel said.

Democrats were dubious of the figures but did not offer their own.

Then do a count, Democrats, and let’s come to a figure we can all agree on.

All that’s being done now is tying the Executive Branch up while searching for documents. Do ya suppose this is the purpose of all these investigations?

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From the Senator who was found to be a plagiarizer in his last campaign for president, comes the unforgettable and hateful words that President Bush is “brain dead.”

And we wonder why there is no respect for the president when people in positions of power say stupid things like this.

DES MOINES — Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat running for president, is a man of strong opinions. During a campaign event in a Des Moines backyard today, Mr. Biden had some choice words for President Bush and two of the Republicans running for the White House.

“This guy is brain dead,” Mr. Biden said to surprised applause and laughter from the crowd. “I know I’ll be quoted, I’ll be killed for that.”

“This is a guy who is on the balls of his heels, [In gym class I was always told to run on the balls of my feet, which were near the toes, but balls of his heels? Bush has cajones, but they're not in his heels. Let's say it this way: He clanks when he walks. Admin] here’s a guy who is lower off in the polls than any president in modern history [lower off in the polls? How about lower in the polls, but then remember Jimmy Carter] and he goes ahead and he does something that just flies in the face of the sensibilities of the American people.”

A few minutes later, Mr. Biden turned his sights on Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and a Republican running for president. “I can hardly wait to debate Rudy Giuliani if he is their nominee,” he said. “Because I will eat his lunch. [How about if you just take his lunch money? Or clean his clock? But eat his lunch? Admin] The next time I hear a Republican talk about us being tough on terror – give me a break!” [You have to get the nomination first, Biden. Admin.].

Finally, Mr. Biden’s target was Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Republican running for president. “I found Romney’s statements yesterday profound – crazy — when he talked about going to war with Iran,” he said. “Why are we talking about going to war with Iran?”

This is from the NY Times, far from a right-leaning Republican newspaper, which calls itself the Newspaper of Record with all the news that’s fit to print.

This jerk (and I do not use this term lightly) got a big har-har from the crowd and is receiving accolades for saying it from most of the commenters on the newspaper story.

Biden is setting the bar low for the next president and nothing will be off limits, whether it be a Republican or a Democrat, so if it’s a Democrat, don’t complain when you hear prominent people question the intelligence of the next Democratic president.

You respect the office if not the person holding it. Period. End. Of. Story.

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I guess not everyone hates reporters.

In exchange for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, Britain told the Hamas terror group through mediators it would free from jail an extremist sheik accused of serving as al-Qaida’s spiritual adviser in Europe, Palestinian sources involved in the negotiations claimed to WND.

The sheik, Abu Qatada, is accused among other things of advising 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Qatada’s sermons were found among the possessions of 9/11 operational leader Mohamed Atta.

The Palestinian sources involved in the Johnston negotiations claimed the British government pledged through a third-party mediator to release Abu Qatada after six months so the release wouldn’t appear connected to Johnston’s freedom.

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Pat Leahy might say he is going to stick to what Biden said but let’s wait and see. This is a very interesting time to be an observer of politics.

Some Republicans are upset that the White House has nominated only 25 people to fill the 47 vacancies now on the federal judiciary. Not to worry. If history is any guide, President Bush can nominate as many people as he wants, but most of them will not don the black robes anytime soon.

As we head into the administration’s final 18 months, it appears that, with the Democrats running the Senate, Bush, who has put 278 district and appeals court judges on the bench, has virtually no chance of besting Bill Clinton’s370 appointments to those courts — about 43 percent of the total 853 judges.

Only an average of 51.5 judges have been confirmed in the last year of recent presidencies — Jimmy Carter through Clinton — including an average of nine confirmed for the more important federal appellate courts.

If that average holds, Bush will fall well short of Clinton’s total, and he may be hard-pressed to get the 11 he needs to match Clinton’s 65 appeals court appointments. (By the way, Clinton reached his total with the Senate in GOP hands for six of his eight years.)

When the Senate left town in December 2000, there were 67 judicial vacancies. Clinton had nominated 41 people for those jobs, but they were stalled. The Senate confirmed only 62 judges, including for the appellate courts, during the final 15 months of Clinton’s presidency.

It’s hard to predict with certainty what the Democrats will do in the waning Bush months. For example, the Democratic- controlled Senate in 1988, the last year of Bush I’s term, confirmed a generous 66 of his nominees.

That was essentially because then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) seemed to have this notion that the judiciary should be above crass political calculations. He was confirming Bush I’s nominees almost on the eve of the presidential election.

NOTE: Contrary to a 2000 Loop column about this matter, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) assured us, shortly after the column, that he sided with Biden’s policy. (Some corrections take a while.)

Since then, the bitter fights over judgeships have hardened battle lines. And Leahy, now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has sharply criticized the administration’s nominees and the increased politicization of the process.

Story

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Abandon ship. This could be starting something horrible, in the eyes of the administration.

White House efforts to keep congressional Republicans united over the Iraq war suffered another major defection yesterday as Sen. Pete V. Domenici (N.M.) broke with President Bush and called for an immediate change in U.S. strategy that could end combat operations by spring.

The six-term lawmaker, party loyalist and former staunch war supporter represents one of the most significant GOP losses to date. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Albuquerque, Domenici said he began to question his stance on Iraq late last month, after several conversations with the family members of dead soldiers from his home state, and as it became clear that Iraqi leaders are making little progress toward national reconciliation.

“We cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress,” Domenici said. “I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home.”

Story

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This story was released in February. What a wonderful thing to do.

Project Compassion (www.heropaintings.com), a humanitarian organization which provides gallery-quality oil portraits of fallen Americans in uniform to their next of kin at no cost, announced today that the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has awarded its Commander-in-Chief’s Gold Medal of Merit Award for 2007 to Project Compassion. Stated the VFW’s letter notifying Project Compassion of this honor: “This award is presented to individuals to recognize exceptional service rendered to their country, community and mankind on a national or intertational level.”

Commander-in-Chief Gary Kurpius will recognize Kaziah Hancock, Founding Artist and President of Project Compassion on behalf of veterans and “all those serving in uniform” at the Business Session of its annual National Community Service/Legislative Conference Monday, March 5, 2007 in Washington, D.C.

The VFW honor comes on the heels of a similar major award from the American Legion Auxiliary, the largest patriotic women’s service organization in the world, with 900,000 members, which will present its 2007 Public Service Award to Ms. Hancock immediately following the VFW event the same day at its own annual convention, also in Washington, D.C.

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Interesting facts from the past.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff testified Thursday he believes prosecutors of billionaire financier Marc Rich “misconstrued the facts and the law” when they went after Rich on tax evasion charges.

The testimony from Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who represented Rich dating back to 1985 but stopped working for him in the spring of 2000, came during a contentious, hours-long House committee hearing into former President Bill Clinton’s eleventh-hour pardons.

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An outsider? The more I read the more I wonder if this guy is the man I thought he was.

The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight — asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system — he telephoned Nixon’s lawyer.
Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, “At That Point in Time,” Thompson said he acted with “no authority” in divulging the committee’s knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon’s resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson’s actions.

“Thompson was a mole for the White House,” Armstrong said in an interview. “Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was.”

Asked about the matter this week, Thompson — who is preparing to run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination — responded via e-mail without addressing the specific charge of being a Nixon mole: “I’m glad all of this has finally caused someone to read my Watergate book, even though it’s taken them over thirty years.”

The view of Thompson as a Nixon mole is strikingly at odds with the former Tennessee senator’s longtime image as an independent-minded prosecutor who helped bring down the president he admired. Indeed, the website of Thompson’s presidential exploratory committee boasts that he “gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office.” It is an image that has been solidified by Thompson’s portrayal of a tough-talking prosecutor in the television series “Law and Order.”

But the story of his role in the Nixon case helps put in perspective Thompson’s recent stance as one of the most outspoken proponents of pardoning I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Just as Thompson once staunchly defended Nixon, Thompson urged a pardon for Libby, who was convicted in March of obstructing justice in the investigation into who leaked a CIA operative’s name.

Thompson declared in a June 6 radio commentary that Libby’s conviction was a “shocking injustice . . . created and enabled by federal officials.” Bush on Monday commuted Libby’s 30-month sentence, stopping short of a pardon.

The intensity of Thompson’s remarks about Libby is reminiscent of how he initially felt about Nixon. Few Republicans were stronger believers in Nixon during the early days of Watergate.

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What happened? What have the republicans done to bring this on themselves?

Since 1968, the Republican Party has repeatedly capitalized on controversial Democratic stands to win over swing voters – stands on civil rights, women’s rights, busing, affirmative action, gay rights, crime and the use of force.

In the current election cycle, the shoe is on the other foot. The swing electorate appears, for the moment, to be leaning Democratic.

“The story of this period is that independents now line up closer to the Democrats than to Republicans,” said Andy Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. “Independents are so down on Bush, so down on the war, that that is a real problem for these Republican candidates once they get past arguing with each other.”

A major survey [pdf] seeking to identify characteristics of independent voters, conducted by the Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University, found that unaligned voters view the Democratic Party favorably by a 55-41 margin, and the Republican Party unfavorably, 55-41. Independents were asked which party they prefer on 10 different issues, and they chose the Democrats on nine issues, including healthcare, 48-20; the situation in Iraq, 44-28; global warming, 49-21; and on such social issues as abortion and gay marriage, 43-26. The only issue on which independents preferred Republicans was “the U.S. campaign against terrorism,” 39 GOP, 30 Democrat.

“The Republican Party is fragmented, and it really poses a problem,” said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster, currently unaffiliated with any candidate, who recently conducted a study [pdf] comparing the GOP electorate of 1997 to that of 2007. Fabrizio found, furthermore, that the median age of Republican voters has risen substantially over the past 10 years: in 1997, 28 percent were over 55; in 2007, 41 percent were. The percentage of Republicans between the age of 18 and 34 has dropped from 25 to 17, and those between 34 and 55 dropped from 44 percent to 40 percent. This suggests that, at least in the short run, Republican ranks face the threat of depletion.

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