With Dan Rather’s announcement that he is suing CBS and Viacom over his dismissal from CBS, new life has been given to the Rathergate TANG report.

Mary Mapes has been writing at Huffington Post (I don’t read it) and I found this one piece of her quote to be quite interesting:

What was different in our case was the brand new and bruising power of the conservative blogosphere, particularly the extremists among them. They formed a tightly knit community of keyboard assault artists who saw themselves as avenging angels of the right, determined to root out and decimate anything they believed to be disruptive to their worldview.

Thanks to Captain Ed Morrissey for checking HuffPo and reporting on it. That’s where I got this quote.

I found the quote to be interesting because I have noticed something in the blogosphere.

The conservative or right wing bloggers (use your favorite term) have their blogs set up to have comments and trackbacks and are willing to share their information as long as they get credit for the original post.

It is hard to find a liberal or left-wing blog (use your favorite term) that allows trackbacks, although they do have plenty of comments. The difference is they delete any opposing views from their comments and almost always require the reader to subscribe and wait for a password to make a comment.

It’s something that has really dawned on me in the past week while helping Guss learn how to do trackbacks on his blog. There are no trackback codes to many of the liberal blogs and information is not shared easily.

To have Mary Mapes say the conservative blogosphere blew this story apart is indeed a compliment to the bloggers on the right, even if she didn’t mean it to be one.

Right Wing News sent out a questionnaire to 240 right/center bloggers asking 7 questions ranging from their opinions of the two major parties’ positions on the military to the presidential candidates.

50 blogs responded.

I’m not going to give the entire post, but I am going to give you a couple of the questions and answers to them:

6) If your preferred candidate doesn’t win the GOP nomination, will you

A) vote Republican anyway: 44 — 96%
B) vote Democrat, stay home, or vote for a third party? 2 — 4%

7) If Hillary Clinton turns out to be the Democratic nominee, which candidate do you think would stand the best chance of defeating her?

Sam Brownback
John Cox
Newt Gingrich: 2 — 4%
Rudy Giuliani: 24 — 50%
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter: 1 — 2%
Alan Keyes
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney: 1 — 2%
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson: 20 — 42%

Go over and see the other questions and the responses to them. It’s all very interesting.

Hat Tip to Sister Toldjah.

Sometimes I just think this world is going to hell in a handbasket, and I long for the day when I will be in God’s Eternal Kingdom and no longer have to worry about what’s going on in this world.

I feel that God has begun to withdraw His blessing from our own country and yet I pray for the sake of the believers He will not completely withdraw His blessing from us.

We turn our heads and look the other way on sin that God declared is sin from the beginning of our awareness of Him. We try to justify it as being a sign of modern times and modern thinking, but if God said it was wrong a million years ago it’s still wrong today.

We allow our unborn to be killed in utero because it’s the woman’s body. Guess what? Our bodies are God’s and not ours.

Yet, because we are human, we constantly sin. That’s why we should go to Him daily confessing our sins in order to be sanctified by Him. Sanctification is not something you can grab onto and keep unless you treat your mind and body as God wants you to treat it. It does not affect your salvation, but we are to be as pure as possible before our Lord. That’s why we pray for forgiveness of our sins, and we do it daily.

Our bodies are not our own and when people realize that maybe we can get back on track.

Unfortunately I just see us getting worse with demands of same-sex marriage, pedophilia, doing anything that is pleasurable to us and nothing that is pleasing to God, our Creator.

I have felt strongly about these issues for a long time.

Kimsch from Musing Minds is having some gastrointestinal distress that has been going on for over a week now.

The doctors are stumped and I know from talking to her she has been in a lot of pain and discomfort.

I ask you to pray for her if you feel so inclined, that the Lord will put His healing hand on her and restore her health.

Kimsch is a very good friend who has done the design of this blog and I care for her very much on a personal level too.

I was distressed to read that Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon wants to cede part of control of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

“The government does not have a majority (to support) Haim Ramon’s opinions on anything to do with Jerusalem,” Pensioners Party Chairman Rafi Eitan said Tuesday following the exposure of the vice premier’s letter calling for the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of joint sovereignty over the city’s holy sites.

I totally agree with that statement.

Where does this man get off thinking he can give away one grain of sand of the land given to the Jews by God Almighty Himself? He holds the deed to that property and Jesus even instructed us to pray for peace in Jerusalem, the city He loves so much.

There will never be real peace in that city until Jesus sets foot on it again, but praying for the peace in Jerusalem is something I do daily.

Israelis shed their blood and lost their sons and daughters in battles brought against them when they recaptured the land that had been taken from them for 2000 years.

Since the election of Olmert we are seeing a policy which is disturbing in that he seems willing to bend over backwards to do the bidding of the Palestinians, all in the name of a peace that will never come.

The Palestinians and all Muslims are sworn to destroy Israel. Not just destroy it, but push the people into the sea.

Now it seems members of the government are doing their level best to see to it the Palestinians get their way.

I’m not an Israeli citizen so I have no say in their internal affairs, but I can say I hope someone who is stronger against the threats to Israel will get elected and soon.

I have read reports Olmert is even considering granting the right of return to Palestinians who left Israel of their own accord when the state of Israel was re-created.

These people or their ancestors were given the opportunity in 1948 to remain in their homes on their property and become a part of Israel.

They can be elected to the Knesset and enjoy full citizenship. That’s for those who decided to stay. The others left and gave up any claim to the land when they did.

If they were to get the right of return to Israel it wouldn’t be long before they would take over the government and run the Jews into the sea.

I don’t see God allowing that to happen.

When Hillary Clinton rolled out her new HillaryCare program she was asked if her plan included illegal immigrants.

The response of her campaign?

Senior policy adviser Laurie Rubiner–while acknowledging that undocumented immigrants are a “huge issue” in this country–said, “That’s one we’re going to have to think through a little bit.”

“We have not dealt with every single detail with this plan,” Rubiner continued.

When asked if it would be safe to assume that the Democratic frontrunner, at this point, has no position on coverage for illegal immigrants advisers answered “yes” and said the plan does not “at this point” deal with that issue.

To believe this one has to, in Sen. Clinton’s own words, have a “willing suspension of disbelief.”

As I read the latest campaign quotes from Elizabeth Edwards I wondered why it is she’s the one talking and not her husband.

In the article referenced, she’s complaining that HillaryCare is the same as JohnCare. Either way it should be unacceptable to U.S. voters, but I wonder why it is she’s the one who goes on the attack.

Then I realized she attacks the women, ie Ann Coulter, Hillary Clinton and any other woman who may stand in the way of her husband’s hopeless campaign for the presidency.

Rick Lazio made the big “mistake” of walking over to Hillary’s podium during a senatorial debate to offer her a pen and a pledge to sign. Hillary proceeded to act as though she were afraid for her life.

John must have learned from that and made a decision to have his wife do the dirty work against Hillary instead of him. As closely as Mr. and Mrs. Edwards seem to work in this campaign are we to presume we will have another co-presidency in the unlikely event he gets elected?

Food for thought, huh?

Just 36 hours after a suicide watch was lifted on assistant US Attorney John D.R. Atchison he tried to hang himself with a sheet in his jail cell.

Atchison is the assistant prosecutor from the western district of Florida who allegedly flew to Detroit in order to have sex with a five year old girl.

One of the other inmates notified guards he was trying to hang himself and he was rescued before hurting himself.

US Marshals have moved him to a different jail since that incident.

The sad part, apart from this man having a penchant for sex with little girls, is he is married and the father of three children. He was active in his community and has brought disgrace upon his wife and family for something they didn’t do.

President Bush speaks on the Moveon.org ad and the Democrats.

Well said Mr. President.

It seems as though the Clinton campaign continues to have difficulties with those “bundled” contributions:

When Hillary Rodham Clinton held an intimate fund-raising event at her Washington home in late March, Pamela Layton donated $4,600, the maximum allowed by law, to Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.

But the 37-year-old Ms. Layton says she and her husband were reimbursed by her husband’s boss for the donations. “It wasn’t personal money. It was all corporate money,” Mrs. Layton said outside her home here. “I don’t even like Hillary. I’m a Republican.”

The boss is William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising “bundler” for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Layton’s gift was one of more than a dozen donations that night from people with Republican ties or no history of political giving. Mr. Danielczyk and his family, employees and friends donated a total of $120,000 to Mrs. Clinton in the days around the fund-raiser.

Of particular interest :

Other Republican voters who contributed the maximum amount to Mrs. Clinton at this event included Mr. Danielczyk’s mother, sister, personal assistant and a half-dozen employees or their spouses. Most of the donors had never made a political donation before contributing $4,600 to Mrs. Clinton, according to fund-raising records.

That certainly was not the end of the news today on monies donated to the Clinton campaign. From the WaPo:

Clinton includes on her list of “Hillraisers” — those who have committed to raising more than $100,000 for her White House bid — several financiers linked to past troubles. They include Marvin Rosen, the former Democratic National Committee finance chairman whose efforts to reward six-figure party donors with attendance at White House coffees and overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom became the focal point of Senate hearings into fundraising abuses. Rosen did not return messages left at his offices in Florida and New York.

William Stuart Price, the Oklahoma oilman also on the “Hillraiser” list, stunned a courtroom in 1995 when he detailed how his former gas company had tried to “gain influence” with the Clinton administration by providing $160,000 in money and membership in a ritzy Washington golf club to the son of a Cabinet secretary. Price, who was never accused of wrongdoing, did not return calls seeking comment.

Price’s testimony became the focal point of a criminal investigation of Ron Brown, then commerce secretary and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. The inquiry ended with the conviction of Price’s former bosses, Nora and Gene Lum, for making illegal donations.

Also on the list is former senator Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), who withdrew from a 2002 reelection campaign after being “severely admonished” by the Senate for taking lavish gifts from a businessman and contributor, David Chang. Torricelli did not return messages left at his office yesterday.

“It seems like deja vu,” said Michael Madigan, a Republican lawyer who helped lead an extensive investigation into the Clinton administration’s 1996 fundraising practices by then-Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.). “It sounds like a carbon copy of the last Clinton campaign.”

There is an excellent round-up of all things Hsu (there is a lot of news incorporated in this one post) at Suitably Flip. Of particular interest is an email which begins:

I thought you might be interested in learning that contrary to a statement by Howard Wolfson on September 10th 2007 “an estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign” this money still has not been returned – at least not to me. I know this because I was a donor who had my arm twisted to make a contribution to Hillary Clinton’s campaign on behalf of Norman Hsu and I haven’t seen a dime returned. It’s very easy to see my contribution as I completed a form which had “Hillary for President” at the top and “Contact/Code, if any: Norman Hsu” at the bottom. I made the donation through American Express making it easy to trace and easy to return.

And it goes on and on and on.

How many excuses will we expect to hear? I thought about this yesterday and think Mrs. Clinton owes OJ Simpson a lunch..first he endorses her then he knocks this funding issue right out of the pages of the papers and from tv screens.

Well that was short lived and as of today the Senator is back in the news. No, this is not going away. As a matter of fact one must wonder how large it will grow.

Courtesy of Hot Air this is a must see.

Sorry for the brevity of the posts folks, my internet connection through Comcast has been less than reliable all week.

The Senate has voted to condemn the Moveon.org ad which slandered General Petraeus. Those who voted yes are to be applauded.

I am appalled to think that a candidate running for President of the United States voted No.

Mrs. Clinton should be ashamed of herself.

This vote proves once again that Mrs. Clinton will use our good men and women as no more than pawns in some political game. She is certainly not CIC material.

If she should be elected who will she call to defend our nation, Moveon.org? A strong nation needs a strong defense which has finally begun to recover under President Bush. Another Clinton Presidency I fear will not continue in this vein.

The balance of the No votes are at the link above.

HT: Instapundit

Update: Via Captains Quarters this comment from Mitt Romney:

“Hillary Clinton had a choice. She could stand with our troop commander in Iraq, or she could stand with the libelous left wing of her party. She chose the latter. The idea that she would be a credible commander-in-chief of our armed forces requires the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Indeed.

Welcome to the Anchoress readers. Take a look around and see if you find something that catches your eye.

Usama bin Laden is reported to be releasing another of his speeches, perhaps in a few days.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as Al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by Al Qaeda around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages — including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

“Soon, God willing: [Ed note: Allah---not the real God'] Come to Jihad (holy war)’, from sheik Usama bin Laden, God protect him” the banner read. [Ed: The Devil protects his own.]

“Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Usama bin Laden,” it read.

What a coward to hide out and declare all these things while not participating in them himself.

In the meantime, his chief sandal-licker Aymen Al-Zawahiri put out an 80 minute video that shows him in a room with books. Maybe they’ve made a studio in their cave, or maybe they’ve escaped the mountainous region of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military’s July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants’ leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.

The siege “revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don’t deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (U.S. President George W.) Bush’s crucifix,” al-Zawahiri said.

“Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students … has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation,” he said.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are thought to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where many analysts believe they have rebuilt Al Qaeda’s core leadership.

The tone of Thursday’s video was triumphalist, with al-Zawahiri calling for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa and on U.N. and African peacekeepers expected to deploy in Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region.

The French and the Spanish? Gosh, I thought the French didn’t fight them and the Spaniards switched governments to get out of Iraq when one of their trains got blown up by Al Qaeda.

Folks, I truly believe this is a war between the forces of good versus the forces of evil.

Remember we didn’t do anything to them to provoke the 9/11 attacks either, no matter what people who want to appease them say.

They want the entire world to do one of two things: convert to Islam or die. Period. The only reason they are fighting is to convert the world to Islam, which they feel is their duty.

If we were to walk out of Iraq today we could count on them coming to get us again and again until they have achieved their goal. Convert or die.

Heck, we can’t even convince some people God is real and Christ died for their sins so they can have eternal life in heaven, but I’ll bet a lot of the appeasers would be more than happy to convert to Islam before dying.

We no longer have any Nathan Hales in our Congress to declare, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Some in Congress would lead the conversion effort if they thought it meant more power for them. Unfortunately, there would be no women in power and the rest of us would be in burkas if bin Laden were to get his way.

A Liberal Member of Parliament in Canada, home of the world’s greatest health care system according to some, has come to the United States to get an operation for her breast cancer.

I actually found some of the comments in the article quite interesting:

Flanagan
If I had her money, I’d receive my primary care in the States too. We have been saddled with a Stalinist, second-rate system.

The best physicians and the best equipment are in the U.S.

Joe
She joins a lengthy list of Canadians, including politicians who go to the United States to get treated.Unfortunately, the mythology that state run medicine is superior to that of the private sector, takes precedent over the health of the individual Canadian.
Best wishes Belinda.

jim
Sure she should get her treatment where she can if she is able to pay for it.

The story here isn’t about those who get treatment in the states. It’s about a liberal politician that is part of a political party that espoused the Canadian public system and vowed to ensure that no private health care was ever going to uspurp the current system. She is an MP for the party that relentlessly attacked the conservatives for their “hidden agenda” to privatize health care.

The irony and hypocracy is the story here. The rich get health care, the rest of use wait in line. All because of liberal fearmongering that does not allow for a real debate on the state of the health care system in Canada.

David F.
9,000 Canadian-trained doctors in the US. Why should we be surprised if some of the patients head there too? It’s time for the Liberal Party to acknowledge the gorilla at the dinner table and work with the Conservatives in a non-partisan way to start thinking about fundamental changes to our health care system. This means either raising taxes to Scandinavian levels, or openly allowing privatization instead of operating in the shadows and slowly cutting services one a a time. Let the NDP scream about zero compromise on socialized medicine, time for the mainstream parties to get a grip on this.

Kim
While living in the USA several years ago I found a lump in my breast. I went to the doctor the next day, she had me in for a ultrasound and mam the very next day. We are now living in Canada again, this time my doctor here found a lump, she sent me to a specialist ( 10 1/2 weeks it took), still haven’t had a mam. This Canadian system is scary, and needs to be fixed! I too if I had the money would seek treatment in the USA.

Whether you call it government-mandated universal health care or socialized medicine you see what some of the Canadian people think of what our Democratic presidential candidates are promising us.

The Democratic presidential candidates are promising universal health care, billions on bridges, universal pre-kindergarten and more funding for cancer research.

How do they plan to pay for them? By ending the present tax cuts on people in the $200,000 to $250,000 and up income range.

The problem is those cuts are in effect until 2010 and wouldn’t provide enough funds to do all they promise anyway.

Soooo, it looks like the rest of us will be declared filthy rich too and we can fund it with higher income taxes for us. How nice.

I don’t mind paying more taxes to fund cancer research. I think that’s a good idea, but mandated health care? Uh-uh.

Senate democrats tried for the umpteenth time to do a back-door retreat of troops in Iraq yesterday, and for the umpteenth time they failed.

Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a bid by Democrats to restrict troop-deployment schedules for a second time, saying it would impede the ability of President Bush and generals to wage the war in Iraq.

“The majority has brought this back in order to reduce the numbers of fully trained and combat-experienced troops available to our military commanders and thus to force an accelerated drawdown of troops and units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s be honest about this,” said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and presidential aspirant.

The troop-deployment measure, which would have required troops to get “dwell time” at home equal to time deployed overseas, died 56-44, falling four votes shy of the 60 needed to pass, according to a previous agreement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, vowed to keep pushing to end the war, even though Mr. Webb’s amendment was the lone war-related measure considered to have a chance for passage.

“We will not stop waging the hard-but-necessary fight to responsibly end the war,” he said.

OK, let’s see if we can make this clear. I’ll type slowly so maybe they can understand.

Congress has the right to declare and fund wars. The president is the Commander in Chief and has the right to decide how to deploy the troops and for how long.

If they want to end the war the only option available to them is to vote to de-fund the troops.

I learned that in ninth grade civics class. Seems pretty clear to me.

An Oregon snake collector stuck a rattlesnake in his mouth while drunk, to impress his ex-girlfriend.

Wilkinson, 23, had downed a six-pack and his ex-girlfriend asked him for a beer. He handed her one, not realizing the snake was also in his hand.

“She said, ‘Get that thing out of my face,’” Wilkinson said. “I told her it was a nice snake. ‘Nothing can happen. Watch.’”

So he stuck the snake in his mouth.

“It got a hold of my tongue,” he said.

He was having breathing problems when his ex-girlfriend drove him to the hospital. “She was the only one sober,” Wilkinson said.

En route, they spotted a police car and asked for help.

His next memory, he said, was waking up at the hospital.

Doctors could not get a breathing tube down his throat.

Dr. Richard Mullins cut a hole in Wilkinson’s neck to insert the breathing tube. Physicians started giving antivenin, moved him to intensive care and kept him sedated until the swelling went down.

I have a cousin who got bitten in the heel by a pygmie rattler when he was a teen-ager. Even though he had boots on the snake got to him. His fangs were still in the boot when it was removed.

He recently broke his knee at work and has told me this is the worst pain he has felt since he got bitten by the snake.

Maybe this guy has learned his lesson and should be glad his ex-girlfriend was there to take him to the hospital.

Mary Winkler, the preacher’s wife who was convicted of killing him, has been granted supervised visits with her daughters while a custody battle with her former in-laws still is ongoing.

Her former in-laws want to remove her parental rights and adopt the girls, ages 10, 8 and 2.

A woman who killed her minister husband with a shotgun can begin supervised visits with her three young daughters on Sept. 29, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Ron Harmon said he will draw up rules and locations for the visits within