Karl Rove, WSJ Here's a short taste of a long article, emphasizing a couple of points no one else is emphasizing very much right now.
. . . State and local Democrats are realizing the toxicity of their probable national ticket. Democrats running in special congressional races recently in Louisiana and Mississippi positioned themselves as pro-life, pro-gun social conservatives and disavowed Mr. Obama. The Louisiana Democrat won his race on Saturday and said he "has not endorsed any national politician." The Mississippi Democrat is facing a runoff on May 13 and specifically denied that Mr. Obama had endorsed his campaign. Not exactly profiles in unity. . . .
- Almost everything we think we know right now will be revised and even overturned during the next six months. This has been a race in which conventional wisdom has often been proven wrong. The improbable or thought-to-be impossible has happened with regularity. It has created a boom market for punditry and opinion offering, and one of the grandest possible spectacles for political junkies in decades. Hold on to your hat. It's going to be one heck of a ride through Nov. 4.
Go read the rest.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/08/2008 06:31 ||
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"Democrats running in special congressional races recently in Louisiana and Mississippi positioned themselves as pro-life, pro-gun social conservative."
Every one of them - every last one - is a damned liar.
The minute they get into office they will vote to ban guns, raise taxes, marginalize all but the most exsanguinated and emasculated forms of Christianity, promote leftist indoctrination in the schools, etc.
They are operating under the Bill Clinton model of how to get elected - pretend to be authentically American, and when elected, govern as a collectivist/cultural Marxist.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/08/2008 20:43 Comments ||
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On April 18, there was a commemorative ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of our Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 17 Americans and 25 Foreign Service nationals, with the loss of almost all our Mideast operatives.
Ten contractors employed at the Embassy plus 10 visa applicants and passers-by also were killed, with many more seriously injured. This was an unprovoked and evil act. Robert Dillon, our ambassador in Beirut at that time, notes that we believed the terrorists were members of a Shia family from the Bekaa Valley under the direction of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). We know the IRGC does not "freelance". Their orders emanated from the then Supreme leader the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Later this year, we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the devastating terrorist bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. In this case, we have proof positive of where the orders originated. We know the orders came from the Iranian Foreign Ministry to the Iranian ambassador in Damascus. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lambreth ruled Iran was responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing of the barracks. During the trial a National Security Agency-intercepted message was paraphrased in which the Iranian ambassador received instructions from Tehran to call into his office Hussein Musawi, leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal in Lebanon and gave him orders to concentrate their attacks on the Multi-National Force (MNF) but to take a "spectacular" action against the U.S. Marines. We know the results: 241 of our finest military personnel were killed along with scores seriously injured.
Our response was to move the U.S. Marines offshore. The Iranians could not have hoped for a better response. We cut and ran, at least that's the way Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organizations viewed our retreat. With no retaliation, we told the world terrorism works and cemented America's weak image in the Arab world.
The sad fact is that the Marine barracks bombing could have been prevented. We had the information almost four weeks prior to the attack. The failure to retaliate was monumental. To those who said we had no clear target they were wrong. We had the terrorist's site identified. We had the planes loaded but orders to carry out the attack never came. In the words of Vice Adm. Jerry Tuttle, then the 6th Fleet strike force commander, this would have been a "chip shot." Had we carried out the attack, we would have changed the course of events we still live with today.
It is clear from recent testimony by Gen. David Petraeus to the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iran continues to wage war against the United States by fueling the violence in Iraq through support of proxies (just as in Beirut), like special militia groups. They are funded, trained, armed and directed by an arm of the IRGC, the Quads Force, with help from the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Gen. Petraeus added that these groups are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians. Further, the death toll to American soldiers and Iraqis by Iranian-supplied improvised roadside bombs (IEDs) is appalling.
From the Carter administration forward to the current administration, we have always found excuses not to strike Iran, even when faced with undeniable proof. We have never had a stain on our flag like the rogue Iranian regime has continuously imposed on us.
It is more than time to remove that stain and restore our honor for those members of our military and diplomats who paid the ultimate price in carrying out U.S. policy.
Iran is a target-rich country. We could start by destroying the terrorist training sites, IRGC headquarters, and IED bomb-making factory. Should that not get them to cease meddling in Iraq, we can ratchet it up quickly to more lucrative targets including their developing nuclear weapon infrastructure.
As former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said, we must have sufficient cause to take military action. If the 241 casualties we suffered in the Marine barracks bombing were not sufficient enough, we have the thousands of American military personnel, embassy personnel and innocent civilians who paid the ultimate price. Many of these casualties can be directly attributed to Iran.
I believe we have sufficient cause to take action. Let's not be intimated by higher gas prices, the economy or the upcoming presidential elections. The restoration of our honor is long overdue.
James Lyons, U.S. Navy retired admiral, was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations, and deputy chief of naval operations, where he was principal adviser on all Joint Chiefs of Staff matters.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2008 09:17 ||
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So let the Iranians die.......with honor.
Posted by: Elminetle Oppressor of the Geats8425 ||
05/08/2008 14:00 Comments ||
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Or as is attributed to General George S. Patton: "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, declared in an audiotape released on April 21 that Lebanon would be a pivotal battleground in the war against "the crusaders and the Jews," including UN peacekeepers stationed in the South. "There have been three attacks on UN troops in the South since the [expanded] deployment in 2006," says Andrea Tenenti from the press office of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
In June 2007, six peacekeepers from the Spanish contingent were killed in a car bombing in South Lebanon, an attack that was celebrated by Zawahri. An assault on Tanzanian soldiers took place along the Litani River in July of the same year, and a roadside bomb exploded near a UN vehicle before a Lebanese Army checkpoint at the entrance to Sidon in January, wounding two peacekeepers.
Although no specific group has been formally accused of the crimes, the attacks have been attributed to Sunni fundamentalists, various movements of which have been around in Lebanon since the 1980s. According to a report by the Saban Center at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, Sunni militancy in Lebanon merged with Salafism - a movement built on the belief that Islam's purest form was practiced during the time of the Prophet Mohammad - when local and foreign Salafist leaders penetrated the generally nonviolent Lebanese Islamist community. "Since its awakening, Salafist militancy in Lebanon was largely defensive and reflected the perceived severity of local crisis conditions," says the report.
Today, Salafist recruits include individuals brainwashed into militancy, ordinary outlaws as well as alienated individuals with deep economic and political grievances, says the report.
Palestinian refugee camps have proven the most common breeding ground for some forms of Islamist militancy. However, the report claims that such groups are relatively weak, a situation largely attributed to systematic security crackdowns by Lebanese authorities, large-scale foreign aggression against Lebanon, and violent clashes among rival Islamist groups.
Sunni Islamist activity has nonetheless been on the rise over the last few years. The brutal 2000 conflict between a group of Islamists and the Lebanese Army in the northern region of Dinniyeh heralded a new dawn of extremism. Most recently, the Lebanese Army fought a bloody three-month battle against the militant Fatah al-Islam group at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli in 2007.
Fears of yet another Islamist uprising have been stoked since the latest message from Osama bin Laden's deputy was aired, as it called for rejection of Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 2006 July war between Lebanon and Israel. To monitor the shaky truce between Lebanon and its southern neighbor, UNIFIL's troop strength was increased from less than 2,000 to more than 13,000. "We take all threats very seriously," says Tenenti, adding that most threats against UNIFIL are video messages posted on the net or sent to the media. "We have been on high alert for some time."
UNIFIL has beefed up the number of patrols currently controlling the region south of the Litani to about 300 or so per day. The spokesperson underlines that UNIFIL maintains excellent relations with the local population, providing the people with medical and other services.
According to a high-ranking Lebanese security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, what makes Zawahri's message particularly relevant to Lebanon is his call for transforming the country into a new theater of operations for extremists. However, the officer maintains that the factionalization of the country would greatly limit the ability of fundamentalist groups to freely maneuver on Lebanese soil. "Lebanon has been historically considered by Al-Qaeda as a land of logistic support and not one of jihad," the officer says. "Its pluralistic social structure, consisting of various religious communities, allows for a more tolerant approach to religious practice."
Moreover, the officer stresses that the 2007 victory of the Lebanese Army against Fatah al-Islam, which is allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda, was a hard blow to extremist groups, and reduced the chances of another conflict. "This [defeat] will undoubtedly make them [terrorist groups] wary of plotting any new attacks," he says.
The source says Lebanese security forces have been able to curb the steady flow of militants from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in the South to Iraq in recent months. The refugee enclave, known to host some groups with links to Al-Qaeda, is also home to rival extremist factions.
In addition, the officer says, Hizbullah's status as a Shiite organization has not prevented it from having influence over certain Sunni factions in the Palestinian camps, and it has used this to shift their support away from Al-Qaeda, further weakening the group's power in the area. "Al-Qaeda has never adopted a formal hierarchy of power. It is usually comprised of different groups united by shared beliefs and a common enemy," the source says.
According to the officer, Lebanese security forces have been able to thwart the efforts and arrest members of at least five terrorist cells in the Ain al-Helweh area, each of which consisted of five or six people.
The potential for Al-Qaeda-style violence remains closely linked to the issue of armed Palestinians in Lebanon, as militant groups are a violent reality in the country's many camps. But the security officer says that the sphere of Al-Qaeda's influence will always be contained. "The very nature of society in Lebanon," he concludes, "plays against its ability to answer the call of Zawahri."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
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They don't need AQ, they've got Hezbollah, that's enough.
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During the 20-year period that Senator McClintock noted, the number of California residents jumped from about 23 million people to 33 million. Today, the figure is closer to 38 million, and it could top 45 million by 2020.
This is the problem (and don't even get me started on the number of them who are here illegally). I know it's not entirely true but it often seems that everybody in the whole, wide world wants to live in Southern California. Well, they can't.
But that doesn't stop developers and their pet politicians from trying to convince us that we need to accommodate endless growth. They keep telling us there is a "housing crisis". Well, just because some illegal alien has to share an apartment with two or three other families of illegal aliens doesn't mean that I have a housing crisis. Just because some developer wants to keep his cash flow going by slapping up some massive new housing tract doesn't mean I have a housing crisis.
During the 20-year period that Senator McClintock noted, the quality of life in this vast megalopolis has deteriorated significantly. It isn't just the energy. It's the freeways, the schools, the hospitals, the waste dumps and the water. Yeah, the weather's nice. But there is more to your quality of life than weather. I say this in all seriousness to anyone who is considering moving here: Don't.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/08/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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Saw the state off at the Tehachapi Mountains and give it a shove.
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Caliphornia's biggest problem is all the people who elect its legislators. What the legislators do is only a manifestation of the idiocy of the populace. And, unfortunately, this is another trend that started in Caliphland and is moving east. PA is just CA 15 years ago.
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NET > The CA City of VALLEJO has reportedly declared formal bankruptcy, as did ORANGE COUNTY years before. Other CA cities-towns are anticipated to do same or be "on the brink"???
...The next president will be a person just as enamored of what Gene Healy calls situational constitutionalism as the current one, and probably with an even more galaxy-sized sense of his (or her) own importance, and of his entitlement to the fruits of our labor to fund whatever world-saving project he has in mind. The fault is not in them, after all, it's in us. Look at who weve chosen! A republic, if you can keep it. What a pity we couldnt.
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"Beginning in late spring of 2007 with two broad, varied rafts of capable candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, we have somehow ended up with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain."
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My main reason for posting this is because, for me, it provided a missing piece to understanding Dr Rice's general approach to Arab-Israeli conflict. to wit Hence also the transformation of a proper respect for the presidents office to a style of groveling adulation more appropriate to the court of an oriental despot. Healy offers a particularly stomach-turning example.
Robert Draper, a journalist granted unique access to [George W.] Bush in 2006 and 2007 to write the president's biography, notes that in every cabinet meeting since White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten took over for Andy Card in 2006, Bolten has begun by looking at Bush and saying, "Thank you for the privilege of serving today." At no point, it seems, did Bush thank Bolten for his deference and then tell him to cut it out.
Also, I liked turned first to the sixth of the books seven chapters: Money: The Forbidden Issue in American Politics, hoping one more time to grasp Dr. Pauls program for our monetary system. It all seems quite logical as you proceed through the chapter, but if I had to stand up and explain it to you an hour later, I would not be able to.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
