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Political News

• Rep. John Boehner: Pelosi-Rangel really is ‘mother of all tax hikes’
• Steny’s Stoppage
• ‘Fairness’ Is Foul
• Former senator is the only Republican who gets heated about entitlement spending.
• Club for Growth Releases Seventh Presidential White Paper
  Ron Paul: The Perfect as the Enemy of the Good

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The Heritage Foundation takes a look at why Reagan refused to opt in the first time, and why he would still refuse to join:

Americans should be skeptical about a U.N. treaty that gives control over the world’s oceans to an unaccountable international bureaucracy. Reagan correctly assessed that the powers that control the U.N. General Assembly were determined to establish a treaty regime that favored underdeveloped countries at the expense of developed countries like the United States.

Reagan’s objections to LOST have been neither addressed nor resolved. In deciding whether to ratify LOST, members of the U.S. Senate may choose between two divergent approaches: Side with President Reagan in defense of U.S. national interests; or side with those who erroneously claim that the Clinton Administration resolved his objections.

The choice should be clear.

This is a bad deal. Call your representatives and make sure they know it.

Have a rough day at the office? Well, this guy killed his three daughters in a “work accident.” At least, that is what they call it when a bomb you are storing (building?) in your house in the Gaza Strip accidentally detonates:

Two teenaged Palestinian girls and one 2-year-old died yesterday in an explosion in a house in the Al-Qarara region of the southern Gaza Strip. The blast is thought to have been the result of a “work accident” after a large bomb hidden in the house exploded.

Work accident? This is a terrorist who killed his daughters. My heart goes out to the children who were hurt, but not the father who killed them.

Hat Tip: Chicago Ray

The new Bill Richardson campaign angle – the X-Files vote:

Answering questions at a townhall meeting Friday, a Dell employee asked Richardson about the 1947 incident in which many people still believe a flying saucer landed near the eastern New Mexico town.

“I’ve been in government a long time, I’ve been in the cabinet, I’ve been in the Congress and I’ve always felt that the government doesn’t tell the truth as much as it should on a lot of issues,” said Richardson, who is governor of New Mexico.

“When I was in Congress I said (to the) Department of Defense … ‘What is the data? What is the data you have?’ ”

He was told that the records were classified.

“That ticked me off,” he said, as the crowd laughed.

“What do you want me to do? You want me to open up all those files?” he asked the alien enthusiast, who answered that he did.

“I’ll work with you on that.”

That’s gotta help his chances. If he doesn’t get abducted and …. probed.

Hat Tip: Ace of Spades HQ

An Army officer blinded in Iraq has completed his first marathon since losing his sight:

It wasn’t 1st Lt. Ivan Castro’s eyesight, which he lost in Iraq more than a year ago, that knocked him off his pace yesterday at the Marine Corps Marathon. It was his sighted guides.

“His first two guides were women,” said George Mannes, who held Castro’s left arm as he crossed the finish line in 4 hours 14 minutes 10 seconds. “They both had to make bathroom stops.”

But Castro, 40, was just happy to make it to the finish line. This was only his second marathon and the first since being blinded 1 year 1 month 26 days ago. He easily rattled the number off the top of his head.

“I’ve got a standard now,” Castro said. “I’ve got a goal to beat next year. This is not the last. This is just the first. You’re going to see more of Ivan Castro.”

Castro, an Army infantry officer stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C., was blinded when his convoy was attacked while on a rooftop in Baghdad. He and two other soldiers were dodging mortars when one hit right in front of him, knocking him unconscious and instantly causing blindness in his right eye. Surgery to remove shrapnel claimed his left eye. The blast killed the other two soldiers.

“First and foremost, this was for me, to show my friends and family that I can do this,” Castro said. “It also goes to show the spirit of a U.S. Army soldier. It shows what we’re made of. Never quit, never say ‘No.’ ”

Needs to run again. This time for Senate. He’s locked up my vote.

Over at Central Ohioans Against Terrorism, they have a great post about Hezbollah, all the Americans they have killed and a Muslim U.S. Air Force vet who says they are freedom fighters. Um, I thought freedom fighters fought for freedom. Last I looked, Hezbollah wanted to enslave everyone in the shackles of radical Islam.

Central Ohio’s most vocal Muslim activists, Mahmoud El-Yousseph, has openly and repeatedly declared that “Hezbollah are freedom fighters” – the same terrorist group that has murdered hundreds of American military personnel and citizens.

Here’s a video of El-Yousseph claiming that “Hezbollah are freedom liberation fighters” at an anti-Israel rally in July 2006

You can click the link to read the article and watch the video. They did a great job covering this.

I hope they lose everything they have:

The family of a Marine killed in Iraq has sued a Baptist church for picketing their son’s funeral and is turning to the Internet to drum up support.

Albert Snyder, the father of fallen Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, took the stand this week in the Baltimore trial against the Westboro Baptist Church and testified that protesters waving signs at Matthew’s burial made him nauseous. He’d wanted a private service for his son.

“They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family,” Snyder said on the stand Wednesday. “They wanted their message heard and they didn’t care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside.”

The Snyder family’s suit against the church — whose members have picketed the funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the deaths are punishment for the country’s tolerance of homosexuality — could cost close to $100,000, the law firm representing them said. That’s why Albert Snyder is asking for the community’s help on the Web site www.matthewsnyder.org.

This is going to be a big test for the First Amendment. These scumbags do have a freedom of speech. But the family also has a right to bury their son without being harassed or verbally attacked.

These hateful, deranged morons are mentally disturbed. At least Fred Phelps is. And he has brainwashed his family and limited congregation and turned it into a cult. Fred Phelps is nothing more than a gay hating David Koresh. Look at his picture. Now look at Marshal Applewhite. Cult Leaders both. And sooner or later, protesting funerals isn’t going to be enough, and they are going to go too far. They will either kill someone or do something that results in the death of a member. Either way, the blood is on their hands.

I may have to reconsider on Fred. I liked him to start with, but his talk about subsidizing ethanol made me cool to him. This kind of talk, however, can make me warm back up quick, fast and in a hurry:

In the hyperpartisan atmosphere of the 2008 presidential campaign, the topic of entitlement programs is also a matter of dispute between parties. Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R) of Tennessee, the most impassioned candidate on entitlement spending, suggests that it’s the nation’s most important domestic problem – and, alone among the top-tier Republican candidates, is willing to take the risky step of discussing cuts in benefits.

Ok, Fred. That’s a good start. But what are the specifics? What are the cuts?

Thompson intends to unveil a plan for entitlement reform in the coming weeks, according to his spokesman, but he has already been floating ideas, such as slowing the rate of Social Security benefit increases – a move that would, in effect, cut benefits. On Medicare, he suggests increasing fees for upper-income beneficiaries. To imply such moves puts Thompson in danger of touching the so-called “third rail” of politics – and he acknowledged that risk in a speech last month he gave to The Club For Growth.

Let’s hear it for Fred. He is taking a big risk here talking about cutting benefits, but a lot of fiscal conservatives are going to like that kind of talk. I know I do. Let’s hear more of it. And let’s hear of getting some big cuts on the table. The Department of Education is a good start. Or the Department of Energy, which produces no energy. Wasn’t that started to reduce our dependancy on foreign oil? How’s that coming along after throwing billions of dollars at the problem?

If Fred continues down this path, he’s probably got my vote. But it’s still early and this is a marathon, not a sprint.

So much for the full work week:

Shortly after winning a majority last year, Democrats triumphantly declared that they would put Congress back to work, promising an “end to the two-day workweek.” And indeed, the House has clocked more time in Washington this year than in any other session since 1995, when Republicans, newly in control, sought to make a similar point.

But 10 months into the session, with their legislative agenda often in gridlock with the Bush administration and a big election year looming, the Democrats are now planning a lighter schedule when the 110th Congress begins its second year in mid-January.

The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, told fellow Democrats this week that the House would not be in session next year on Fridays, except in June for work on appropriations bills.

Explaining that decision to reporters, Mr. Hoyer said, “I do intend to have more time for members to work in their districts and to be close to their families.”

His comments drew snickers from Republicans, who are quite happy to share their view that the American people did not get much value for all the extra time lawmakers spent in Washington.

Snickers from Republicans, outrage and disbelief from the constituents who are tired of this do nothing bunch of knuckleheads.

How about instead of taking Fridays off, we have Congress hold a mandatory meeting in the House and Senate. They have to bring pencils, paper and a copy of the Constitution. Then, Mark Levin will give a series of lessons.

No talking in class libs. And you RINOs keep your cake-holes shut too. As a matter of fact, no talking unless called on by the teacher. From what I’ve seen, you folks have a lot to learn.

Homeland Security is apparently going to look the other way as New York gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants:

The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver’s licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.

Maybe I’m just stupid, but what is the point of making them “super-secure” if you are just handing them out to illegal immigrants anyway? Is it so the illegal aliens don’t fall victim to identity theft? How ridiculous!

New York is the fourth state to reach such an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.

The deal comes about one month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license.

So…angry…

Why do we even have borders? What the hell is going on in this country? Border patrol agents are in jail and invaders are getting driver’s licenses? This isn’t right. Not right at all.

The government produces no money. Remember that. Anything they spend comes directly from your pocket. So look at this rich, smug, smiling clown. Government isn’t big enough or intrusive enough for him. He feels it needs to be bigger. MUCH bigger:

Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, says the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. He also pledged to start a government-funded public higher education program called “College for Everyone.”

Not to mention creating a centralized government-run health care mess, I mean system. And not one mention of a strong military or a focus on national defense.

Now, getting back to spending. How does Sen. Edwards plan to pay for that? He expects you to sacrifice:

At every stop, Edwards said, he tells voters he’ll ask them to sacrifice. Asked to describe what he means, he described his plan for increases in capital gains taxes, saying taxes on “wealth income” should be in line with those on work income.

“I think if we want to fund the things that I think are important to share in prosperity, then people who have done well in this country, including me, have more of a responsibility to give back,” he said. Later, he added: “There are no free meals.”

Moron. Of course there are no free meals. That’s part of the reason health care is so expensive. Look into it. And let’s not hijack a libertarian slogan to justify socialist programs. That’s wrong on so many levels.

Also, Mister I-Wanna-Be-President, tell me which of those things the federal government is supposed to do? Better yet, tell me which of the Founding Fathers would feel those we things the Federal government should do?

Hmm? What’s that? Right. The federal government has no such authority or role and none of the Founding Fathers would endorse such a role.

There is not a Democratic candidate that understands this. Not one. And the bad thing is the so-called conservative side is almost as bad. Not so much in the creating a bigger government department, but subsidies and nanny-staters have infiltrated the Republicans.

Give me someone dedicated to shrinking the federal government and limiting their role in my life. People would get along a lot better if government would get out of the way and stop trying to help us. It is doing more harm than good.

G.I. Joe wears the face of Medal of Honor winner Mitchell Paige. His story is Marine Corps legend. When Hasbro called to ask if they could place his face on the toy, he said on one condition: He always remain a United States Marine.

Now Paramount wants to make G.I. Joe part of a global organization:

Hollywood now proposes that in a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line, Joe’s — well, “G.I.” — identity needs to be replaced by membership in an “international force based in Brussels.” The IGN Entertainment news site reports Paramount is considering replacing our “real American hero” with “Action Man,” member of an “international operations team.”

Paramount will simply turn Joe’s name into an acronym.

Now some of you may be thinking that this is only a toy. It’s no big deal, but try and say that after learning the story of Mitchel Paige:

It’s hard today to envision — or, for the dwindling few, to remember — what the world looked like on Oct. 25, 1942 — 65 years ago.

The U.S. Navy was not the most powerful fighting force in the Pacific. Not by a long shot. So the Navy basically dumped a few thousand lonely American Marines on the beach at Guadalcanal and high-tailed it out of there.

(You old swabbies can hold the letters. I’ve written elsewhere about the way Bull Halsey rolled the dice on the night of Nov. 13, 1942, violating the stern War College edict against committing capital ships in restricted waters and instead dispatching into the Slot his last two remaining fast battleships, the South Dakota and the Washington, escorted by the only four destroyers with enough fuel in their bunkers to get them there and back. By 11 p.m., with the fire control systems on the South Dakota malfunctioning, with the crews of those American destroyers cheering her on as they treaded water in an inky sea full of flaming wreckage, “At that moment Washington was the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet,” writes naval historian David Lippman. “If this one ship did not stop 14 Japanese ships right then and there, America might lose the war. …” At midnight precisely, facing those impossible odds, the battleship Washington opened up with her 16-inch guns. If you’re reading this in English, you should be able to figure out how she did.)

But the Washington’s one-sided battle with the Kirishima was still weeks in the future. On Oct. 25, Mitchell Paige was back on the God-forsaken malarial jungle island of Guadalcanal.

On Guadalcanal, the Marines struggled to complete an airfield that could threaten the Japanese route to Australia. Admiral Yamamoto knew how dangerous that was. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven the supporting U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully emplacing their four water-cooled .30-caliber Brownings on that hillside, 65 years ago this week — manning their section of the thin khaki line that was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault of the night of Oct. 25, 1942 — it’s unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 armed and motivated attackers?

But by the time the night was over, “The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men,” historian Lippman reports. “The 16th (Japanese) Regiment’s losses are uncounted, but the 164th’s burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies. … The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low.”

You’ve already figured out where the Japanese focused their attack, haven’t you? Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige’s platoon. Every one. As the night of endless attacks wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

The citation for Paige’s Medal of Honor picks up the tale: “When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire.”

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the belt-fed gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley was the first to discover how many able-bodied United States Marines it takes to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat.

On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.

The hill had held, because on the hill remained the minimum number of able-bodied United States Marines necessary to hold the position.

And that’s where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one ever heard of, called Guadalcanal.

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel’s face on some kid’s doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.

But they weren’t. That’s his mug, on the little Marine they call “G.I. Joe.” At least, it has been up till now.

Mitchell Paige’s only condition? That G.I. Joe must always remain a United States Marine.

The well written piece was penned by Vin Suprynowicz, and can be read in full here.

Howard Dean, official mascot of the Democrat party, shared his simplistic leftist view of the world in this week’s Democrat radio address. Apparently, some Americans have a big appetite for baloney.

“The Republican leaders have made their choice. They want to stay in Iraq and deny our kids health care,” Dean said in the party’s weekly radio address.

He said Republicans support significant borrowing to continue wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but won’t support the legislation to increase spending for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. [source]

For anyone who got sucked in by the watered down line of crap Howard Dean is trying to feed us all, let me set you straight. The Federal Government’s job is to fight wars and protect our borders. The Federal Government’s job is NOT to pay for your kid’s health insurance.

For Howard Dean to come out and say the Republicans like war, but don’t like children is nothing put pure propaganda.

Dean also offered his prayers to those affected by the California wildfires and thanked firefighters, the National Guard and others who are lending a hand.

Prayers? The liberal loonies aren’t gonna like that. Maybe it’s time to go back into your stable Howard, you jackass.

David Ignatius has written a great article on Real Clear Politics that gives a little more insight into what’s happening between the United States and Iran right now.

Many Arabs argue that the Iranians actually want America to attack. Politically, that would help the hard-liners rally support. And militarily, it would lure the United States onto a battlefield where its immense firepower wouldn’t do much good. The Iranians could withdraw into the maze of their homeland and keep firing off their missiles — exacting damage on the West’s economy and, most important, its will to fight.

That’s the lesson for Muslim warriors of the Iraq and Lebanon wars: Draw your adversaries deep into terrain that you control; taunt them into starting a war they can’t finish. I’m told that the Syrian military, for example, is now changing its doctrine to fight an asymmetric guerrilla war against Israel that it can win, Hezbollah-style, rather than a conventional war it would certainly lose.

Behind the scenes in Tehran, another drama is playing out, as rivals jockey for control of the Islamic Republic. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes the most noise, so people wrongly tend to assume he’s in control. In fact, he faces growing resistance, starting with former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Sources tell me that Rafsanjani’s allies have been advising officials in Europe and the Middle East that Ahmadinejad is weak and vulnerable. The hard-liners have counterattacked by installing a new head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps who has written on revitalizing the Islamic revolution worldwide. In another dangerous move, the Guard’s militant al-Quds Force was recently given responsibility for defending much of Iran’s coastline.

This is definitely worth a read.

Here’s another example of the success our brave military men and women are having in Afghanistan.

U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region, officials said.

Also Saturday, suicide bomber wearing an Afghan security uniform detonated his explosives at the entrance to a combined U.S.-Afghan base in the east of the country, killing four Afghan soldiers and a civilian, officials said.

The battle near Musa Qala in Helmand province — the world’s largest poppy growing region — is at least the fifth major fight in the area since September 1. The five battles have killed more than 250 Taliban fighters, a possible sign that U.S. or British forces could be trying to wrest the area back from Taliban militants.

The latest fight began when Taliban fighters attacked a combined U.S. coalition and Afghan patrol with rockets and gunfire, prompting the combined force to call in attack aircraft, which resulted in “almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed,” the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement early Sunday.

The coalition said that four bombs were dropped on a trench line filled with Taliban fighters, resulting in most of the deaths. [source]

To me at least, the war in Iraq doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the “war on terror”. But in Afghanistan, our soldiers are working hard to prevent the Taliban from retaking the country. This is good and noble work.

Our hats are off to the fine Americans who are doing this vital and difficult job. God bless you guys.