Jim Webb's New Book Coming Soon: Doo Doo Economics

Gas prices are too high so what does Senator Jim Webb (X) VA want to do? Tax Big Oil so they can pass it on to the consumer and raise prices some more.

When Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., announced a bill for a windfall-profits tax on oil companies, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., signed on as a co-sponsor and appeared at a news conference with Casey and other freshmen Democratic senators.

Casey's proposed 50 percent tax on profits would apply when oil prices rise past $50 per barrel. The revenue would help low-income families pay for costs of transportation. Casey said his bill also would repeal tax loopholes and breaks granted by energy legislation signed into law in 2005.

"When we went into Iraq, oil was $24 a barrel; today it's $66 a barrel," Webb said. "It can be safely said the profits these oil companies are making now are a result of our policies in the Middle East."

The Casey bill "recoups some of the skyrocketing corporate profits of the big oil companies, invests in alternative energy sources and eases the burden of low-income Virginians at the pump." inRich.com

Just how is that revenue going to make it into the gas tanks of the poor in Virginia? It sounds like another luscious government program in the making.

Actually, it sounds more like someone had a brain fart. Again.

Since I can't trust the GOP Congress to stop this on their own...

From factfind on the forums at gunthing.com

Contact Congress about “Citizenship Promotion Act of 2007” (S. 795, H.R.1379)
This bill, proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), would authorize $80 million for grants to help permanent resident aliens become citizens, especially as grants for lawyers representing legally aliens. If a background check for a citizenship application cannot be completed in 90 days, a series of reports are required for EACH application, to be submitted to 4 different congressional committees. Naturalization tests are weakened, so that the English language proficiency is reduced to knowing a few words, and various factors can be used to excuse poor performance. Besides creating a job-security fund for immigration lawyers, it freezes the fees applicants must pay, and requires Congress to appropriate whatever the difference is between the fees and the actual costs of the program.
Read about it here at the CAIR legislative link—of course, they are supporting it: http://capwiz.com/cair/issues/bills/?bill=9681966&size=full
Please email (usually an online form), fax, phone or send a letter to your Senators asking them to oppose S.795, and to your Representatives asking them to oppose H.R. 1379). Your Congressional contacts are here: http://www.congress.org

What he said

Dear Republican Congresscritter:
We have been yelling and screaming at you people for the last 6 plus years, and our voices are getting raspy and hoarse. I, personally, am sick and tired of it. I'm considering writing about Texas sunsets and our hummingbird migration patterns just to recapture some inner peace given you respond to us about as well as what I get when I tell my rooster to stop crowing so darned early in the morning.

He keeps running his head to an audience of no one, and you guys are accomplishing about as much - those of you actually SAYING anything at least.

If it weren't for the fact that I can't find a Democrat I like coupled with my complete INABILITY to NOT vote, you guys might have already pushed me that far. If only you cared...

We scolded you about spending; you spent more.We rattled you about expansion of Government; you grew it.We threatened you about immigration; you offered us "guest workers."We warned you about pork and earmarks; you wanted a bridge in Alaska.We admonished you for letting the Left take down our Commander in Chief during a war; SOME of you voted against him.Some of US punished you by staying home in November; you lost.
And now, you stare at your belly buttons as your dominion takes us back 30 years to a time when losing was considered a "just dessert" and a political advantage and hundreds of thousands of deaths will again be on our hands.
You've even decided, in your infinite wisdom, that if you knock 10Billion off the Bush request, and throw it to the Left for MORE pork, you can get a compromise that takes surrender off the table. What are you people doing up there with my money?
Those of you that remain in that Ivory Tower of Power that IS Washington need to get over yourselves, and get back to doing what you SEEM to do best; when in the Minority, fight like you MEAN to become the Majority...and fight as if you MEAN to win. Actually BEING mean might help a smidgeon as well.

...You are in the minority now, and yet you CONTINUE to roll over and play dead. What is up with that?
Reid: "The War is LOST"...YOU?
Crickets...
Murtha: "Soldiers are Liars"...You?
More crickets.
Pelosi, Obey, Biden, Billary, Kucinich...the list is (expletive removed in deference to the posting guidelines) endless...You? Always, always, ALWAYS the same. We're tired of this guys and gals...REALLY tired.
Read the whole thing AND the comments.
Sometimes this is exactly the wayI feel. Our side needs to grow a pair and fight. This isn't a game.

"There’s ruling by inspiration, and there’s ruling by fear."

AcademicElephant from RedState.com is on the ground in Iraq. His April 28th post quotes a young army specialist.

The way I see it, there are two ways to rule people. There’s ruling by inspiration, and there’s ruling by fear. It’s harder to achieve inspiration, but if you can get there in the long run it’s easier because you inspire people to take initiative to do things for themselves. Ruling by fear is easier until that day that people stand up to you, and all your power goes away.

We’re trying to help the Iraqis find their inspiration. The insurgents are trying to rule by fear. They want to terrify people into thinking that their children are not safe, so that they stay at home and don’t get used to this new life under democracy. They want to attack the things we build, like schools, so that the people see them as temporary. We can give them, but they want people to believe that they’ll come along and take them away.

I’d rather be on the side of inspiration.

Out of the Long War will come a new generation of great leaders for America. This young soldier may well be one of them.

The Emperor rebutts David Broder's column

David Broder, that "consevative"? columnist, pointed out that the Emperor has no clothes.

Now, get ready. Put down your coffee. You know how much that hurts when you snort it through your nose while laughing. The Democratic Caucus wrote a complaint editorial letter to the Washington Post. Check out the title. Emphasis throughout has been added.


Sen. Reid's Fine Leadership

We, the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, contest the attack on Sen. Harry Reid's leadership by David S. Broder in his April 26 column, "The Democrats' Gonzales."
In contrast to Mr. Broder's insinuations, we believe Mr. Reid is an extraordinary leader who has effectively guided the new Democratic majority through these first few months with skill and aplomb.
(and these are the people in charge of the Senate while we're at war? bwhahaha!)
The Democratic caucus is diverse, and Mr. Reid has worked tirelessly to make sure that the views of each member are heard and represented. No one ideology dominates the caucus, so that a consensus can be reached and unity achieved. It is hard to imagine a better model for leadership.
( I'd say that these people have no imagination but look at the creative ways they spin. They definitely have an intense fantasy life.)

Because Mr. Reid has the support of members of the caucus, is a good listener (hasn't he heard a word that anyone has said?) and has an amazing ability to synthesize views and bring people together, (that would be in anger at him) the Senate has accomplished a great deal during his time as majority leader. Armed with his years of service in the Senate and with a mastery of procedure, Mr. Reid has led the chamber with a slim majority and a minority that is, at times, determined to stop legislation with which it disagrees.
(Counting nonbinding resolutions, he has passed....? Stopping legislation? I thought the Dems were in the majority.)
In the first 100 days alone, we made great strides under his leadership on long-neglected legislation concerning stem cell research, the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations and the minimum wage, to name three. (And that's all that you can name. Minimum wage....THAT'S an important issue during wartime.) In addition, under Mr. Reid's leadership, we have fulfilled our obligation, left uncompleted by last year's Republican-led Senate, (Wasn't that blocked by, um, the liberals)to fund the federal government.(PORK, PORK, PORK) He has accomplished all of this in the face of stiff opposition and with a commitment to giving ideas full opportunity for debate.(You think that the secretary that wrote this would understand that people WITH ideas debate. Ideas don't debate.)
Finally, in this age of scripted politicians speaking only to their base (Well they got one right.) or claiming that they "don't recall" (see MANY politicians, including Senators)anything, the fact that Mr. Reid speaks his mind should be applauded, not derided. His brand of straight talk is honest, comes from the heart and speaks directly to the people.
(This I agree with. He IS honestly, and speaking directly, about surrender to terrorism.)

THE MEMBERS
OF THE SENATE
DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS
(SURRENDER MONKEYS)

Caption this!

Couldn't resist. If I can dish it out, I should be able to take it. Have at it!

Cargosquid's Crib

Welcome to Kuwait Naval Base. Actually you can get Google map pics of this place too.

I thought that I would show you where I live. If you look at the middle picture, at the guard tower in the corner of the walled compound, I live in the blue building 2nd from the bottom, near the wall. BTW, that wall is also known as the "death wall". Saddam's soldiers used the inside of this wall as a firing squad area and shot all of the Kuwaiti Navy officers in the corner of the compound. The beach is open, but no swimming. (no OSHA/EPA) Or sunbathing. We do have a pool for that, though. Its also visible in the left pic, all the way to the left. The white buildings towards the water from the barracks are the dining facility, MWR, showers, and heads.

Water is to the East of the camp. I work at the port of Ash Shuabia (SPOD) about 30 miles north of KNB.

Oh no! A President with ties to BIG OIL!

Via, BlueCrabBoulevard:
To all of the moonbats that continue to rant about the Bush ties to big oil...here's YOUR buddy. Remember the START of high oil prices...the 70's.....

Who would'a thunk that Carter was in tight with Big Oil? And you can't be bigger oil than this: Saudi Arabia. Oh, but I thought it was the Carlysle group that was secretly running the world through ties with Saudi Arabia. And he's not being "outed" by a conservative. That is, unless Alan Dershowitz has come to his senses.

"Recent disclosures of Carter's extensive financial connections to Arab oil money, particularly from Saudi Arabia, had deeply shaken my belief in his integrity. When I was first told that he received a monetary reward in the name of Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, and kept the money, even after Harvard returned money from the same source because of its anti-Semitic history, I simply did not believe it. How could a man of such apparent integrity enrich himself with dirty money from so dirty a source?
...The Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, a think-tank funded by the Shiekh and run by his son, hosted speakers who called Jews "the enemies of all nations," attributed the assassination of John Kennedy to Israel and the Mossad and the 9/11 attacks to the United States' own military, and stated that the Holocaust was a "fable." (They also hosted a speech by Jimmy Carter.) To its credit, Harvard turned the money back. To his discredit, Carter did not. "

And it gets worse.
As BlueCrab says: No wonder Michel Moore and Jimmuh were so buddy buddy.

In the past, I thought that Jimmy Carter was just a weak President. Now I see how corrupt he has been and continues to be. He has never met a dictator that he dislikes. And the current Democratic party has returned to using him as a spokesman. He should be shunned. Unless of course the Democrats don't mind being associated with a corrupt, anti-semitic bigot.

Students for Concealed Carry

The terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech is still fresh in our minds. Discussion of the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" questions will continue for years. These students don't want to wait for years. They are taking charge of the problem of being defenseless and organizing. Check them out.

If Congress won't listen to us, Maybe they'll listen to an Iraqi

but I doubt it. Omar Fadhil lays it out bluntly. He is mystified as to why the Democrats want to place everyone in danger and ruin the reputation of the US for decades to come.

Why Are the Democrats Doing This?
Instead of trying to come up with ideas to help they try to halt the sincere effort to stabilize Iraq and rescue the Middle East from a catastrophe.I am Iraqi and to me the possible consequences of this vote are terrifying. Just as we began to see signs of progress in my country the Democrats come and say ‘well, it’s not worth it, so it’s time to leave’.Evidently to them my life and the lives of twenty five million Iraqis are not worth trying for and they shouldn’t expect us to be grateful for this.For four years everybody made mistakes; the administration made mistakes and admitted them and my people and leaders made mistakes as well and we regret them.But now we have a fresh start; a new strategy with new ideas and tactics reached after studying previous mistakes and designed to reverse the setbacks we witnessed in the course of this war.This strategy although its tools are not fully deployed yet is showing promising signs of progress.General Petraeus said yesterday that things will get tougher before they get easier in Iraq and this is the kind of fact-based realistic assessment of the situation which politicians should listen to when they discuss the war thousands of miles away.We must give this effort the chance it deserves and provide all the support and constructive critique, not the ‘war is lost’ empty rhetoric

He also has more to say about recent developments in Baghdad that you won't find in the news. Isn't that a surprise?

IMPEACH THEM - UPDATE

This is a bit of live blogging. As posted previously on the UCV blog Richmond Weekend: IMPEACH THEM!, Richmond Moonbats are gathered in Byrd Park by Fountain (Boat) Lake to spell Impeach for their friends on other planets.

Justanobody, Patriot and Home Front Defender of Our Troops, just called in a brief report. She has shown up wearing a big fuzzy Victory hat and carrying a sign that says:
BUSH/CHENEY 'O8 BY COUP IF NECESSARY. Too funny.

As we spoke, a female moonbat walked over to a group of policemen and while talking to them pointed at Justanobody.

Within seconds, Justanobody was surrounded by moonbats. Bear in mind, she is one woman, barely 5' tall. I could hear moonbats loudly questioning her, "What side are you on?" and "What do you mean by "Coup"?", proving a conviction I have long held that the left has no sense of humor.

Justanobody then ended the phone call to devote her full attention to giving them what-for.

UPDATE:The moonbats waited until about 1:00 p.m., presumably for the anticipated 400 bodies to show up. When the crowd swelled to 25, including children and photographers, they unfurled their IMPEACH! banner on a hill and sat on it to hold it down as it was a bit gusty. After a photo shoot, they quickly began to pack up.

Meanwhile at the Park entrance, Justanobody, was enjoying the many honks, grins and thumbs up her sign elicited. She reports a few motorists gave her the leftist I.Q. sign, insulted the Commander In Chief or gave her the dreaded thumbs down much to her amusement.

This lady is having way too much fun.

Being A Senator is Child's Play...

... if you're dumber than a rock.

Senator Jim Webb (X) VA, explaining why he no longer thinks setting a withdrawal date for removing our Troops from Iraq is a bad thing:
"There will be very little motivation for al-Qaida to continue in Iraq once we have left."

H/T: The right-wing liberal & The Ward View

For F22strike

Here's something that F22strike is trying to defeat.

Democrats and the politics of fear

Ever since the 1960s the Democrats have won about ninety percent of the black vote in presidential elections. Sometimes it's less, when John Kerry got 88 percent of the black vote in 2004. Sometimes it's right on the button, when Al Gore got 90 percent in 2000.
How do you get 90 percent of anyone to vote for one side or the other?

You have to make them afraid.

After the high-toned years of the civil-rights struggle ended in a stunning victory African Americans began to develop an authentic politics of their own. It was not the high-toned politics of the civil-rights movement. It was more like the Irish machine politics of the nineteenth century, a politics of patronage and of racial identity, and it quickly became as corrupt as the politics of Boss Tweed and Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.
Perhaps in the years immediately after the civil-rights revolution Democrats were embarrassed by this Fall from the Garden of Eden. Clearly they are not embarrassed any more. Ninety percent of the black vote ain't beanbag, after all.

But it does take constant fear-mongering. It was one thing in 1970 to keep blacks in a frenzy of fear about the return of Bull Connor. After forty years of rising prosperity it takes more.


Read the rest.

Real men still around

This man may not live in Virginia but I had to tell you about him.
Heck, if my daughter was old enough, I'd let him date her.

...Travis VanKuren was walking to his car at the Wal-Mart in Springettsbury Township at 7 p.m. last Wednesday when he saw a man and a woman struggling in the parking lot.


VanKuren, ...., took a closer look and made eye contact with the woman involved in the fight.
"She looked over at me and started screaming for help," VanKuren said. The woman also screamed "help" at two other people in the parking lot who looked at her and walked away.

VanKuren didn't.

Instead, he decided to help, and police say what he did next saved a 42-year-old Manchester Township woman from a man who was impersonating a police officer and intended to kidnap and rape her.


VanKuren is 17 years old. He is a slim 5 ft 9 in tall junior in high school. He is also a Marine JROTC cadet. OORAH!

For concretebob

(I had this funny set up to go, but those qoutes from the Dems have anything like this beat.)

Rules of Combat

USMC

1. Bring a weapon. Preferably, bring at least two. Bring all of your friends that have weapons. Bring their friends who have weapons.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
3. Only hits count. Close doesn't count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough, nor using cover correctly.
5. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.)
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a big weapon and a friend with a big weapon.
7. In ten year nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived and who didn't.
8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.
9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting is more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the weapon.
10. Use a weapon that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket."
11. Someday someone may kill you with your own weapon, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
12. In combat, there are no rules, always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
13. Have a plan.
14. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work.
15. Use cover or concealment as much as possible. The visible target should be in FRONT of YOUR weapon.
16. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
17. Don't drop your guard.
18. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees.
19. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them).
20. Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.
21. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
23. Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
24. Your number one Option for Personal Security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
25. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with a ".4."

ARMY

1. See USMC Rules for combat
2. Add 60 to 90 days
3. Hope the Marines already destroyed all meaningful resistance

NAVY
1. Spend three weeks getting somewhere
2. Adopt an aggressive offshore posture
3. Send in the Marines
4. Drink Coffee
5. Bring back the Marines

AIR FORCE
1. Kiss the spouse good-bye
2. Drive to the flight line
3. Fly to target area, drop bombs, fly back.
4. Pop in at the club for a couple with the guys
5. Go home, BBQ some burgers and drink some more beer

Democratic Debates: Best Quote of the Night

Newsmax has some quotes from the Democratic debates last night. All the them are pretty funny (in a sad sort of way) but this one is the best to me:

MIKE GRAVEL: "We have no important enemies. What we need to do is to begin to deal with the rest of the world as equals. And we don't do that. We spend more as a nation on defense than all the rest of the world put together. Who are we afraid of?"

You can't get a bigger "pre-9/11" mindset than that.

My second favorite in Newsmax's list is this one by Chris "Democrat Klansman Robert Byrd was right on everything he said at anytime in our histroy" Dodd:

"I believe that civil unions are appropriate and proper. I don't support same-sex marriage. And the distinction there I think is one of more of what's available, what the traditions are, and the _ over the years. But, basically, that's a distinction I make. Strongly support those civil unions."

If anybody ever figures out exactly what he is saying here, let me know. This political bi-polarism at it's best.

Check out the rest of the quotes.

Overall, I wouldn't let this crew captain a rubber duck in the worlds smallest bath tub.

The Iraqi campaign has no connection to the GWOT?

Has someone told Al Queada and the Taliban?

From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is orchestrating militants' operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior commander of Afghan Islamist group Taliban said in remarks broadcast on Wednesday.
Bin Laden has not made any video statements for many months raising speculation that he might have died.
"He is drawing plans in Iraq and Afghanistan ... Praise God he is alive," Mullah Dadullah told Al Jazeera television.

Richmond Weekend: IMPEACH THEM!

Yeah, that's the ticket! Impeach all democrat/ics!!! Smokin' Joe Lieberman excepted.

Richmond VA's moonbat community is calling on "Earthlings" to attend their impeachment event tomorrow. I am so tempted.

Rain writes "A non-partisan coalition of Richmonders will be forming a human mural, near Carytown. Earthlings will lay side by side in a large mural that will be read by the universe, helicopters and airplanes. We will display the words "Impeach Them". The organizer of this event, Rain Burroughs, states this event non-partisan because she has been collecting the signatures calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney and the signers have identified themselves as republicans, democrats, greens, socialists, libertarians, anarchists and undecided. Come at noon to Fountain Lake, Byrd Park, on April 28th to be a part of this historic peaceful assembly." You can sign up for this event here, or call Rain at ***-***-****.

Wooden ships and Pickled? men

On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 115,000 pounds of black powder and 79,000 gallons of rum.

On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 688,300 gallons of rum.

Three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard rum.

By this time, Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here, her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 13,000 gallons aboard and headed for home.

On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, and no whiskey.
She did, however, still carry her crew of 475 officers and men and 18,600 gallons of water.

The math is quite enlightening: Length of cruise: 181 days; Booze consumption: 1.26 gallons per man per day (this DOES NOT include the unknown quantity of rum captured from the 12 English merchant vessels in November).

LOGISTICS LESSON LEARNED: Don’t load up with too much water.

Evaporation, I swear!

Naval historians note that the reenlistment rate from this cruise was 92%.

Rules for dating my daughter

I think that this could apply to anyone's daughter, but I feel it fits conservatives best.
Thank God that my daughter is only six. I have more time to take care of the boys......

Rules for dating a military daughter

Rule One: If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.
Rule Two:You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.
Rule Three: I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose his compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.
Rule Four: I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.
Rule Five: It is usually understood that in order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."
Rule Six: I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.
Rule Seven: As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?
Rule Eight: The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka - zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which features chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.
Rule Nine: Do not lie to me. On issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.
Rule Ten: Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a Vehicle Borne IED. When my Anthrax starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car - there is no need for you to come inside or kiss her goodnight. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

Good news for the Haditha Marines

I've seen information on various websites from Newsmax.com to Strategypage.com that classified info has come to light exonerating the Marines accused of war crimes in Haditha.
The story is still developing.

When a soldier comes home

Please see this photo essay at strategypage.com. It takes a while to get through the 21 photos, but, its worth it. This is why I say that I am not a hero and the guys in the front lines are.

Stop reading this and go to Wizbang and see Lieberman's speech

This is the best speech denouncing the Democrats I've seen yet.
Go Senator Lieberman! Join the GOP! Fire Reid! You know you want to! Heck, you can't be any more liberal than Chafee or Snowe.

Paper beats, well, everything....

More good info from outsidethewire.

The US is not just making things up as it goes along ( though it seems that way) in the Iraqi campaign. There are actual historical precedents that we can use to conduct operations. Make no mistake, however, all historical data of counter-insurgency points towards a long and difficult war.
Here's the first step in winning one.

How To Beat An Insurgency

48 hours without sleep.

24 hours without food.

6 hours with little water.

It was the most successful mission I had ever been on. Insurgencies are not beat with hammer and anvil clearing operations. They are not beat with presence patrols conducted from the confines of humvees that resemble bank vaults or Bradly fighting vehicles or Strykers.
Insurgencies are beat with a piece of paper: A Census Form.

Message From Lt. Ala

Need anything more be said?

Written by JD Johannes
Tuesday, 24 April 2007

I had just finished shooting a range with a group of Iraqi Sergeants when their Commanding Officer, Lt. Ala took hold of my right hand and pulled me close to him.
He had something important to tell me.

When I first met Lt. Ala his first words "Enta used to Marine."

Somehow he was able to pick the remnants of Marine out in me.
As I drifted in and out of Camp Habbaniyah shooting footage of the Jenude at basic training and the Sergeants at the advance weapons courses, he would always make it a point to say hello and to strike up a conversation with me.
Today, one of the Aareefs was sick so I took his place shooting hammered pairs, hammered pair failure drills and controlled pairs along side the Iraqi soldiers.
At the end of the range, I was walking back to the truck. The soldiers were showing off their targets, the Lt. asked to see mine. I shot better than most of his men, but he expected as much from a former Marine.
After inspecting my shot groups he took my hand and pulled me close.

"Thank you for being here. Thank you. You are a reporter? Tell America how much we appreciate Marines. Tell the people thank you and that we want the Marines, the Army here to help us."

As he looked at me, the gravity on his face not that of a 1st Lieutenant, but of a man who was a field grade officer in the former regime, who grew up in a country constantly at war and in tyranny. Lt. Ala joined the army under Sadaam because it was one of the few ways for a man to support his family.

He joined the new Iraqi Army because he wants a life for his family that is better than one of war. He fought the Americans twice, lost both times and says we offer a better life for Iraq than the terrorists.

"Tell America that the Iraqi Army is growing. We are getting stronger. Tell them thank you."

He then pulled me closer and air kissed me on the cheeks.
I am thankful for men like Lt. Ala.

The Democrat Follies on Parade: Their First Debate

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- In an early debut of the debates that will help shape the crowded contest for the White House, all eight declared Democratic presidential candidates will climb onto the stage in a college auditorium Thursday to face questions before a national television audience.This exceptionally early debate for the Democrats at a historically black state university in Orangeburg, S.C., to be followed by a May 3 face-off for Republicans at the Reagan Library in California, is the first of many debates in the months leading to the initial voting in January.
The debate in South Carolina—site of the first southern primary in January—is in part a test of whether any of the Democratic candidates is viable in the Old South. But it's also a contest for a key party constituency in a state where African-Americans could account for more than half of the voters in the Democratic primary.While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is the apparent early favorite among Democrats nationally, she and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois are splitting the greatest share of support among black voters in South Carolina, with 40 percent supporting or leaning toward Clinton and 35 percent backing Obama.A recent survey for a South Carolina television station taken by pollster Peter Hart found Clinton and Obama virtually tied, followed by former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a South Carolina native who won the 2004 primary.That places a burden on all three to hold their ground in the 90-minute debate, which starts at 6 p.m. CDT and will be moderated by Brian Williams of NBC News and shown on MSNBC nationally. Chris Matthews of MSNBC will moderate the GOP debate next week.

And, of course, there is the usual talk centered around race and racial symbolism:

“While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is the apparent early favorite among Democrats nationally, she and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois are splitting the greatest share of support among black voters in South Carolina, with 40 percent supporting or leaning toward Clinton and 35 percent backing Obama.”

*****

The competition between Clinton and Obama for the African-American vote nationally also places a burden on Edwards, a wealthy trial lawyer and son of mill workers from South Carolina who has based his campaigns on bridging the gap between the rich and poor.Trailing Clinton and Obama among black voters surveyed here, "clearly Edwards has the most to lose," said Dave Woodard, professor of political science at Clemson University and director of the Palmetto Poll."The thing I'm really watching is to see how Obama does," Woodard said. "Half the vote in the Democratic primary will be African-American. They will be very mobilized by this. I really think Obama is the phenomenon, Clinton is second and Edwards is third."

*****

“’The biggest issue in South Carolina is always race,’ says Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia lawyer and former chairman of the state Democratic Party.”

*****
“Whether or not the moderator of Thursday night's debate raises the [Confederate] flag issue, observers say, the candidates are likely to pursue it on their own. The debate will take place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on the campus of South Carolina State University, scene of a notorious police shooting of students in the 1960s.”

Anyway, any serious conservative political writer/blogger and campaign managers should have their recorders going; there are bound to be some great comments coming out of these people. Tonight will give you all the extreme left quotes you can handle.

Here's An Example of REAL Torture and Oppression

In case anyone was wondering what REAL torture and political oppression looked like here it is:

A leading Zimbabwe opposition activist who was badly beaten during a bloody crackdown on dissent appealed for international help securing the release of 28 other critics of President Robert Mugabe still in police custody.
Five of the 28 are "in very bad state," barely able to move or eat, said Grace Kwinjeh, whose lawyers arranged for her to get treatment in South Africa, where she was hospitalized for five weeks.
"I really thank God that I'm lucky to be out here to be able to tell my story. But ... I can't tell my story without bringing to attention Zimbabweans who are being attacked every day," she told a news conference Wednesday at the U.N. Correspondents Association.
Kwinjeh was one of dozens of opposition figures, including main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who were badly beaten by police after their arrest at a March 11 meeting that police said violated Mugabe's ban on political protest. The activists say it was only a prayer meeting.
Kwinjeh said she was still receiving treatment for injuries suffered from blows delivered with an iron bar.
The bruised and bloodied activists were released to the custody of their lawyers after an international outcry, but Kwinjeh said 28 have since been rearrested and again subjected to treatment she described as torture.
Mugabe's opponents blame the 83-year-old leader for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and inflation of 1,600 percent — the highest in the world. They have demanded the ouster of Mugabe, Zimbabwe's only ruler since independence from Britain in 1980.
At independence celebrations last week, Mugabe called the Movement for Democratic Change "shameless local puppets" in a conspiracy by Britain to remove him.

One item of special note is that the Open Society Institute which organized the news conference for the “opposition activist” is funded by none other than billionaire loony tune and prominent Bush-hater George Soros. Soros, who compared George W. Bush to Hitler, spent millions of dollars in a failed attempt to help unseat Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

So this activist defined “tortured” as being beaten with an ‘iron bar” requiring five weeks of recuperation in a hospital. All this for breaking Mugabe’s “ban on political protest” in a country he rules that has “repression, corruption, acute food shortages” and quadruple digit inflation.

No political opponents of George W. Bush has been taken into custody and beaten with an iron bar. While supporting this activist may be a humane thing, it also leads one to doubt the sanity of the left – especially Soros – when George W. Bush has done nothing even close to what conspiracy-touting dictator Robert Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe.

If you have children of a certain age.....

A Father Daughter Talk
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for the distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, and she expressed her feelings openly.
One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and more welfare programs. In the middle of her heartfelt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school.
She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.
Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Mary.” She replied, “Mary is barely getting by”, she continued, “all she has is barely a 2.0 GPA” adding, “and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies.” But to explain further she continued emotionally, “But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn’t even show up for classes because she is too hung over.”
Her father then asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0.” He continued, “That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA.”
The daughter visibly shocked by the father’s suggestion angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!”
The father slowly smiled and said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”

Ed Husain - Former Islamist speaks out

Former Islamist discovers reality

During our first two months in Jeddah, Faye and I relished our new and luxurious lifestyle: a shiny jeep, two swimming pools, domestic help, and a tax-free salary. The luxury of living in a modern city with a developed infrastructure cocooned me from the frightful reality of life in Saudi Arabia.
My goatee beard and good Arabic ensured that I could pass for an Arab.
But looking like a young Saudi was not enough: I had to act Saudi, be Saudi. And here I failed.
My first clash with Saudi culture came when, being driven around in a bulletproof jeep, I saw African women in black abayas tending to the rubbish bins outside restaurants, residences and other busy places.
“Why are there so many black cleaners on the streets?” I asked the driver. The driver laughed. “They’re not cleaners. They are scavengers; women who collect cardboard from all across Jeddah and then sell it. They also collect bottles, drink cans, bags.”
“You don’t find it objectionable that poor immigrant women work in such undignified and unhygienic conditions on the streets?”
“Believe me, there are worse jobs women can do.”
Though it grieves me to admit it, the driver was right. In Saudi Arabia women indeed did do worse jobs. Many of the African women lived in an area of Jeddah known as Karantina, a slum full of poverty, prostitution and disease.
A visit to Karantina, a perversion of the term “quarantine”, was one of the worst of my life. Thousands of people who had been living in Saudi Arabia for decades, but without passports, had been deemed “illegal” by the government and, quite literally, abandoned under a flyover.
A non-Saudi black student I had met at the British Council accompanied me. “Last week a woman gave birth here,” he said, pointing to a ramshackle cardboard shanty. Disturbed, I now realised that the materials I had seen those women carrying were not always for sale but for shelter.
I had never expected to see such naked poverty in Saudi Arabia.
At that moment it dawned on me that Britain, my home, had given refuge to thousands of black Africans from Somalia and Sudan: I had seen them in their droves in Whitechapel. They prayed, had their own mosques, were free and were given government housing.
Many Muslims enjoyed a better lifestyle in non-Muslim Britain than they did in Muslim Saudi Arabia. At that moment I longed to be home again.
All my talk of ummah seemed so juvenile now. It was only in the comfort of Britain that Islamists could come out with such radical utopian slogans as one government, one ever expanding country, for one Muslim nation. The racist reality of the Arab psyche would never accept black and white people as equal.
Standing in Karantina that day, I reminisced and marvelled over what I previously considered as wrong: mixed-race, mixed-religion marriages. The students to whom I described life in modern multi-ethnic Britain could not comprehend that such a world of freedom, away from “normal” Saudi racism, could exist.
Racism was an integral part of Saudi society. My students often used the word “nigger” to describe black people. Even dark-skinned Arabs were considered inferior to their lighter-skinned cousins. I was living in the world’s most avowedly Muslim country, yet I found it anything but. I was appalled by the imposition of Wahhabism in the public realm, something I had implicitly sought as an Islamist.
Part of this local culture consisted of public institutions being segregated and women banned from driving on the grounds that it would give rise to “licentiousness”. I was repeatedly astounded at the stares Faye got from Saudi men and I from Saudi women.
Faye was not immodest in her dress. Out of respect for local custom, she wore the long black abaya and covered her hair in a black scarf. In all the years I had known my wife, never had I seen her appear so dull. Yet on two occasions she was accosted by passing Saudi youths from their cars. On another occasion a man pulled up beside our car and offered her his phone number.
In supermarkets I only had to be away from Faye for five minutes and Saudi men would hiss or whisper obscenities as they walked past. When Faye discussed her experiences with local women at the British Council they said: “Welcome to Saudi Arabia.”
After a month in Jeddah I heard from an Asian taxi driver about a Filipino worker who had brought his new bride to live with him in Jeddah. After visiting the Balad shopping district the couple caught a taxi home. Some way through their journey the Saudi driver complained that the car was not working properly and perhaps the man could help push it. The passenger obliged. Within seconds the Saudi driver had sped off with the man’s wife in his car and, months later, there was still no clue as to her whereabouts.
We had heard stories of the abduction of women from taxis by sex-deprived Saudi youths. At a Saudi friend’s wedding at a luxurious hotel in Jeddah, women dared not step out of their hotel rooms and walk to the banqueting hall for fear of abduction by the bodyguards of a Saudi prince who also happened to be staying there.
Why had the veil and segregation not prevented such behaviour? My Saudi acquaintances, many of them university graduates, argued strongly that, on the contrary, it was the veil and other social norms that were responsible for such widespread sexual frustration among Saudi youth.
At work the British Council introduced free internet access for educational purposes. Within days the students had downloaded the most obscene pornography from sites banned in Saudi Arabia, but easily accessed via the British Council’s satellite connection. Segregation of the sexes, made worse by the veil, had spawned a culture of pent-up sexual frustration that expressed itself in the unhealthiest ways.
Using Bluetooth technology on mobile phones, strangers sent pornographic clips to one another. Many of the clips were recordings of homosexual acts between Saudis and many featured young Saudis in orgies in Lebanon and Egypt. The obsession with sex in Saudi Arabia had reached worrying levels: rape and abuse of both sexes occurred frequently, some cases even reaching the usually censored national press.
My students told me about the day in March 2002 when the Muttawa [the religious police] had forbidden firefighters in Mecca from entering a blazing school building because the girls inside were not wearing veils. Consequently 15 young women burnt to death, but Wahhabism held its head high, claiming that God’s law had been maintained.
As a young Islamist, I organised events at college and in the local community that were strictly segregated and I believed in it. Living in Saudi Arabia, I could see the logical outcome of such segregation.
In my Islamist days we relished stating that Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases were the result of the moral degeneracy of the West. Large numbers of Islamists in Britain hounded prostitutes in Brick Lane and flippantly quoted divorce and abortion rates in Britain. The implication was that Muslim morality was superior. Now, more than ever, I was convinced that this too was Islamist propaganda, designed to undermine the West and inject false confidence in Muslim minds.
I worried whether my observations were idiosyncratic, the musings of a wandering mind. I discussed my troubles with other British Muslims working at the British Council. Jamal, who was of a Wahhabi bent, fully agreed with what I observed and went further. “Ed, my wife wore the veil back home in Britain and even there she did not get as many stares as she gets when we go out here.” Another British Muslim had gone as far as tinting his car windows black in order to prevent young Saudis gaping at his wife.
The problems of Saudi Arabia were not limited to racism and sexual frustration.
In contemporary Wahhabism there are two broad factions. One is publicly supportive of the House of Saud, and will endorse any policy decision reached by the Saudi government and provide scriptural justification for it. The second believes that the House of Saud should be forcibly removed and the Wahhabi clerics take charge. Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are from the second school.
In Mecca, Medina and Jeddah I met young men with angry faces from Europe, students at various Wahhabi seminaries. They reminded me of my extremist days.
They were candid in discussing their frustrations with Saudi Arabia. The country was not sufficiently Islamic; it had strayed from the teachings of Wahhabism. They were firmly on the side of the monarchy and the clerics who supported it. Soon they were to return to the West, well versed in Arabic, fully indoctrinated by Wahhabism, to become imams in British mosques.
By the summer of 2005 Faye and I had only eight weeks left in Saudi Arabia before we would return home to London. Thursday, July 7, was the beginning of the Saudi weekend. Faye and I were due to lunch with Sultan, a Saudi banker who was financial adviser to four government ministers. I wanted to gauge what he and his wife, Faye’s student, thought about life inside the land of their birth.
On television that morning we watched the developing story of a power cut on the London Underground. As the cameras focused on King’s Cross, Edgware Road, Aldgate and Russell Square, I looked on with a mixture of interest and homesickness. Soon the power-cut story turned into shell-shocked reportage of a series of terrorist bombings.
My initial suspicion was that the perpetrators were Saudis. My experience of them, their virulence towards my non-Muslim friends, their hate-filled textbooks, made me think that Bin Laden’s Saudi soldiers had now targeted my home town. It never crossed my mind that the rhetoric of jihad introduced to Britain by Hizb ut-Tahrir could have anything to do with such horror.
My sister avoided the suicide attack on Aldgate station by four minutes. On the previous day London had won the Olympic bid. At the British Council we had celebrated along with the nation that was now in mourning.
The G8 summit in Scotland had also been derailed by events further south. The summit, thanks largely to the combined efforts of Tony Blair and Bob Geldof, had been set to tackle poverty in Africa. Now it was forced to address Islamist terrorism; Arab grievances had hijacked the agenda again.
The fact that hundreds of children die in Africa every day would be of no relevance to a committed Islamist. In the extremist mind the plight of the tiny Palestinian nation is more important than the deaths of millions of black Africans. Let them die, they’re not Muslims, would be the unspoken line of argument. As an Islamist it was only the suffering of Muslims that had moved me. Now human suffering mattered to me, regardless of religion.
Faye and I were glued to the television for hours. Watching fellow Londoners come out of Tube stations injured and mortified, but facing the world with a defiant sense of dignity, made me feel proud to be British.
We met Sultan and his wife at an Indian restaurant near the British Council. Sultan was in his early thirties and his wife in her late twenties. They had travelled widely and seemed much more liberal than most Saudis I had met. Behind a makeshift partition, the restaurant surroundings were considered private and his wife, to my amazement, removed her veil.
We discussed our travels.
Sultan spoke fondly of his time in London, particularly his placement at Coutts as a trainee banker. We then moved on to the subject uppermost in my mind, the terrorist attacks on London. My host did not really seem to care. He expressed no real sympathy or shock, despite speaking so warmly of his time in London.
“I suppose they will say Bin Laden was behind the attacks. They blamed us for 9/11,” he said.
Keen to take him up on his comment, I asked him: “Based on your education in Saudi Arabian schools, do you think there is a connection between the form of Islam children are taught here and the action of 15 Saudi men on September 11?”
Without thinking, his immediate response was, ‘No. No, because Saudis were not behind 9/11. The plane hijackers were not Saudi men. One thousand two hundred and forty-six Jews were absent from work on that day and there is the proof that they, the Jews, were behind the killings. Not Saudis.”
It was the first time I heard so precise a number of Jewish absentees. I sat there pondering on the pan-Arab denial of the truth, a refusal to accept that the Wahhabi jihadi terrorism festering in their midst had inflicted calamities on the entire world.
In my class the following Sunday, the beginning of the Saudi working week, were nearly 60 Saudis. Only one mentioned the London bombings.
“Was your family harmed?” he asked.
“My sister missed an explosion by four minutes but otherwise they’re all fine, thank you.”
The student, before a full class, sighed and said: “There are no benefits in terrorism. Why do people kill innocents?”
Two others quickly gave him his answer in Arabic: “There are benefits. They will feel how we feel.”
I was livid. “Excuse me?” I said. “Who will know how it feels?”
“We don’t mean you, teacher,” said one. “We are talking about people in England. You are here. They need to know how Iraqis and Palestinians feel.”
“The British people have been bombed by the IRA for years,” I retorted. “Londoners were bombed by Hitler during the blitz. The largest demonstrations against the war in Iraq were in London. People in Britain don’t need to be taught what it feels like to be bombed.”
Several students nodded in agreement. The argumentative ones became quiet. Were they convinced by what I had said? It was difficult to tell.
Two weeks after the terrorist attacks in London another Saudi student raised his hand and asked: “Teacher, how can I go to London?”
“Much depends on your reason for going to Britain. Do you want to study or just be a tourist?”
“Teacher, I want to go London next month. I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!”
“What?” I exclaimed. Another student raised both hands and shouted: “Me too! Me too!”
Other students applauded those who had just articulated what many of them were thinking. I was incandescent. In protest I walked out of the classroom to a chorus of jeering and catcalls.
My time in Saudi Arabia bolstered my conviction that an austere form of Islam (Wahhabism) married to a politicised Islam (Islamism) is wreaking havoc in the world. This anger-ridden ideology, an ideology I once advocated, is not only a threat to Islam and Muslims, but to the entire civilised world.
I vowed, in my own limited way, to fight those who had hijacked my faith, defamed my prophet and killed thousands of my own people: the human race. I was encouraged when Tony Blair announced on August 5, 2005, plans to proscribe an array of Islamist organisations that operated in Britain, foremost among them Hizb ut-Tahrir.
At the time I was impressed by Blair’s resolve. The Hizb should have been outlawed a decade ago and so spared many of us so much misery. Sadly the legislation was shelved last year amid fears that a ban would only add to the group’s attraction, so it remains both legal and active today. But it is not too late.
© Ed Husain 2007

Have a nice day

HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

1. Open a new file in your computer.

2. Name it "Hillary Rodham Clinton."

3. Send it to the trash.

4. Empty the trash.

5. Your PC will ask you, "Do you really want to get rid of Hillary Rodham Clinton?"

6. Firmly Click "Yes."

7. Feel better.

PS: Next week we'll do Nancy Pelosi.

Fascism in 10 easy steps. Just not in America.

From our friends at bluecrabboulevard comes this entry:

"Fascist America in 10 easy steps . That is the title of a breathless story (or fairy tale) in the Guardian written by Naomi Wolf. Oh, do take the time to read it, what follows will make much more sense if you wade about in the fever swamp for a moment. But Naomi did present a little blueprint that fits something else that is going on in the world. Therefore, we here in the Crabitat have decided to reinterpret the list Ms. Wolf so graciously projected: "
They use her list to show the "enviromentalist agenda" brilliantly. Go see it.

Here's mine. Does this enemy sound familiar? I wonder why so few others see it.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
Any "dissident" coreligionist, or "non-believer"
Isreal, America, Western Civilization
2. Create a gulag
Persecution of any different religion
3. Develop a thug caste
The religious police
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
Adherance to a philosophy that dictates that OTHERS must follow MY belief.
5. Harass citizens' groups
See #3.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
Any of their law enforcement. Imprisonment of any "dissident"
7. Target key individuals
Any moderate or writer/blogger/academic......
8. Control the press
Our press willing goes along with their faux news and photos
9. Dissent equals treason
See 4.
10. Suspend the rule of law
Rule by fatwa/imam

Simple. I'm(update- no longer) planning a longer entry later that fisks her entire arguement. It would just take way to much space.

Lizards n Kids - 101

Since my last few posts have been (mostly) serious, (and if Rosie isn't serious, who is?) here is something completely different. Stolen, uh, borrowed from the humor forum at gunthing.com

LIZARDS AND KIDS - 101

If you have raised kids (or been one), and gone through the pet syndrome, including toilet flush burials for dead goldfish, the story below will have you laughing out loud!
Just after dinner one night, my son came up to tell me there was “something wrong” with one of the two lizards he holds prisoner in his room.
“He’s just lying there looking sick,” he told me. “I’m serious, Dad. Can you help?”
I put my best lizard-healer expression on my face and followed him into his bedroom. One of the little lizards was indeed lying on his back, looking stressed. I immediately knew what to do. “Honey,” I called, “come look at the lizard!”
“Oh, my gosh!” my wife exclaimed. “She’s having babies.”
“What?” my son demanded. “But their names are Bert and Ernie, Mom!” I was equally outraged.
“Hey, how can that be? I thought we said we didn’t want them to reproduce,” I said accusingly to my wife.
“Well, what do you want me to do, post a sign in their cage?” she inquired (I think she actually said this sarcastically!).
“No, but you were supposed to get two boys!” I reminded her, (in my most loving, calm, sweet voice, while gritting my teeth).
“Yeah, Bert and Ernie!” my son agreed.
“Well, it’s just a little hard to tell on some guys, you know,” she informed me (again with the sarcasm!).
By now the rest of the family had gathered to see what was going on. I shrugged, deciding to make the best of it.
“Kids, this is going to be a wondrous experience,” I announced. “We’re about to witness the miracle of birth.”
“Oh, gross!” they shrieked.
“Well, isn’t THAT just great? What are we going to do with a litter of tiny little lizard babies?” my wife wanted to know.
We peered at the patient. After much struggling, what looked like a tiny foot would appear briefly, vanishing a scant second later.
“We don’t appear to be making much progress,” I noted.
“It’s breech,” my wife whispered, horrified.
“Do something, Dad!” my son urged.
“Okay, okay.” Squeamishly, I reached in and grabbed the foot when it next appeared, giving it a gentle tug.
It disappeared. I tried several more times with the same results.
“Should I call 911?” my eldest daughter wanted to know. “Maybe they could talk us through the trauma.” (You see a pattern here with the females in my house?) “Let’s get Ernie to the vet,” I said grimly. We drove to the vet with my son holding the cage in his lap. “Breathe, Ernie, breathe,” he urged.
“I don’t think lizards do Lamaze,” his mother noted to him. (Women can be so cruel to their own young. I mean what she does to me is one thing, but this boy is of her womb, for God’s sake.).
The vet took Ernie back to the examining room and peered at the little animal through a magnifying glass.
“What do you think, Doc, a C-section?” I suggested scientifically.
“Oh, very interesting,” he murmured. “Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, may I speak to you privately for a moment?”
I gulped, nodding for my son to step outside.
“Is Ernie going to be okay?” my wife asked.
“Oh, perfectly,” the vet assured us. “This lizard is not in labor. In fact, that isn’t EVER going to happen.
“Ernie is a boy. You see, Ernie is a young male. And occasionally, as they come into maturity, like most male species, they um . . . um . . .masturbate. “Just the way he did, lying on his back.” He blushed, glancing at my wife.
We were silent, absorbing this.
“So, Ernie’s just… just… excited?” my wife offered.
“Exactly,” the vet replied, relieved that we understood.
More silence. Then my vicious, cruel wife started to giggle. And giggle And then even laugh loudly.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded, knowing, but not believing that the woman I married would commit the upcoming affront to my flawless manliness.
Tears were now running down her face. “It’s just… that… I’m picturing you pulling on its… its… teeny little.....” She gasped for more air to bellow in laughter once more.
“That’s enough,” I warned. We thanked the vet and hurriedly bundled the lizard and our son back into the car. He was glad everything was going to be okay.
“I know Ernie’s really thankful for what you did, Dad,” he told me.
“Oh, you have NO idea,” my wife agreed, collapsing with laughter.
Two lizards: $140.
One cage: $50.
Trip to the vet: $30.
Memory of your husband pulling on a lizard’s winkie: Priceless!

Moral of the story: Pay attention in biology class -

lizards lay eggs

Apparently, not all Europeans are appeasers

Posted on the member forum at gunthing.com by factfind (registration needed only if commenting.)
It's so good I had to post the whole thing.

"HERE IS A GERMAN EDITORIAL "
"If any of you still feel that this war on terror is a mistake, here is an opinion from an unexpected source It’s fascinating that this should come out of Europe. Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT, Germany’s largest daily paper, against the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat.
This is a must-read by all Americans. History may well certify its correctness. "

EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, “Europe - your family name is appeasement.” It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head because it’s so terribly true.

Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives,
as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too
long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.

Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany,
then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades, inhuman suppressive,
murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.

Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we
had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated,
and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world,
into Europe yet again, and do our work for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement, camouflaged
behind the fuzzy word “equidistance,” now countenances suicide bombings in Israel
by fundamentalist Palestinians.

Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam’s
torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement,
has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush… Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics
of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.

And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere?
By suggesting that we really should have a “Muslim Holiday” in Germany?

I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government,
and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State “Muslim Holiday” will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One cannot help but recall Britain’s Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolph Hitler and declaring European “Peace in our time”.

What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization’s utter destruction.

It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by “tolerance” a nd “accommodation” but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement:
Reagan and Bush.

His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.

In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner,
instead of defending liberal society’s values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China.

On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those “arrogant Americans”,
as the World Champions of “tolerance”, which even (Germany’s Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we’re so moral? I fear it’s more because we’re so materialistic, so devoid of a
moral compass. For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt,
and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.

While we criticize the “capitalistic robber barons” of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We’d rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation.. Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to “reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive”.

These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her
last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor’s house.

Appeasement?

Europe, thy name is Cowardice

Jefferson would be ashamed, no, outraged!

For those of you that wonder if Obama would be better than Clinton"
From moonbattery.com
Obamahas a plan for confronting the worldwide Islamic terror movement that did not begin or end with September 11.
The plan does not involve fighting terrorists. Osama Obama wants US troops to retreat from Iraq within a year, handing that strategically vital country over to our worst enemies, with a virtual guarantee that its oil revenues will be used to finance terror strikes against our homeland.
Instead, Obama's plan calls for paying the regimes that harbor terrorists to be nice. He has promised to double foreign aid to $50 billion by 2012 if Americans should be so viciously self-destructive as to elect him. Apparently he thinks that if you pour enough money into corrupt Arab regimes that want us wiped off the map, helping to finance their weapons programs and the dissemination of militant Islamic propaganda, they will be so grateful that they will wait until after they've destroyed Israel before they come after us.
There is some precedent to Obama's idea. In the 18th Century, we paid off Islamic rulers to keep Muslim pirates from looting our ships and enslaving our citizens. But Thomas Jefferson got tired of paying tribute to a bunch of thugs and sent in the Marines.
Since the war in Iraq began, prominent Democrats have said whatever they could think of to break our country's morale. But no treasonous statement from Harry Reid or Jack Murtha could be as heartbreaking in its effect as being forced to imagine Barack Obama in the office once held by Thomas Jefferson.


Obama, spelled differently, but sounds like Reid.

RUN DAMN IT! Its time to Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way!

Fred Thompson is talking Federalism. He isn't even in the race. If he's not trying to attract the conservative base, if he's not running, he needs to stop teasing the base. He's taking the air away from conservatives already in the race. This is the first time I've seen a candidate discuss actual federalism and its importance to a free society. And anyone that can vote 1-99 on a principle is ok in my book.

"Everyone in Washington embraces Federalism until it comes to someone's pet project designed to appeal to the voters. Then, oftentimes, even the most ardent Federalist throws in with the "Washington solution" crowd. I fought this for eight years in the Senate. I remember one vote (I believe it was 99 to one) when mine was the only vote cast for Federalism. The bill would have created a federal good Samaritan law. "
....even some of my conservative colleagues (as well as writers) get caught up in the desire to federalize an issue if they could help a "good guy" or stick it to a "bad guy."
....Adhering to basic principles that have served our country well is much too important.

Wouldn't it be refreshing to vote FOR someone?

Don't you DARE question their patriotism!

Can't say it any better. Thinking of running for office just so I can yell at them EVERY DAY!

It Depends What the Meaning of "Support" Is
By David Limbaugh

(Some choice cuts. Go read the rest.)
Early on in the Iraq war I watched in disbelief as Democrats, one by one, then group by group, with malice aforethought, fraudulently accused President Bush of something they knew to be false.....
....they accused our commander in chief of lying us into war -- thus savaging his reputation and that of the United States before the entire world ......
...Democrats branded Bush as a unilateralist, flagrantly ignoring that he had desperately tried to bring as many nations as he could into the coalition and did succeed in convincing a significant number.
.....On into the war, Democrats couldn't bad mouth our progress often and loudly enough. For example, they proclaimed, quite gleefully, that the Iraqi people did not greet us as liberators, but occupiers.....
Though Democrats have always maintained, counter-logically, that they supported the troops even while they were busy Sheehanizing the war, they couldn't help but reveal their true colors on many occasions.....
Despite these precedent-breaking acts of disloyalty, the Democrats weren't finished outdoing themselves. Nancy Pelosi proved that when she went to Syria......Surely, we thought, the very leader of the entire House of Representatives wouldn't go that far and contradict and undermine, so overtly, the official foreign policy of the United States. We were wrong.
.....Just when we thought they couldn't stoop lower, we witnessed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's latest disgrace, telling the world, including our troops, that we have lost the war in Iraq.
It's hard to tell anymore whether the Democrats' deplorable actions are motivated more by their psychological predisposition against recognizing evil in the world (except among American political conservatives), or their raw quest for power. But perhaps Sen. Reid's recent statement to reporters sheds some light on the question.

"We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war," said Reid. "Sen. Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding."

Enough said.

I say it again!
REID MUST GO!

Soldiers' Angels

Just wanted to bring to everyone's attention an amazing group.

"The Soldiers' Angels was started by a self-described ordinary mother of an ordinary young man turned hero, Sgt. Brandon Varn. Brandon was deployed in Iraq and has since honorably completed his mission and has returned back to his proud and loving family.
In the summer of 2003, he wrote home expressing his concern that some soldiers did not receive any mail or support from home. Being a caring and loving mother, she decided not to allow a situation like that to continue. She contacted a few friends and extended family to ask if they would write to a soldier or two. Within a few short months, Soldiers' Angels went from a mother writing a few extra letters to an Internet Community with thousands of angels worldwide."

Well, they've done something else wonderful for Virginia:

04/17/07
Soldiers’ Angels’ donates $10,000.00 to Virginia Tech ROTC Cadet Endowment Fund

...."In honor of the students and professors who died in this tragic event and the sacrifices made by the Virginia Tech Corp of Cadets for our country, Soldiers’ Angels is giving $10, 000.00 to the Virginia Tech Army ROTC Alumni Endowment Fund. Soldiers’ Angels challenges the nation to double this amount by logging onto http://www.armyrotc.vt.edu/ or by sending donations to Virginia Tech Army ROTC, Account # 872289, 226 Military Building, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
The donation you make will help the Virginia Tech Cadet Corp continue on so that it may live up to its motto of “UT PROSIM” - That I may move Forward. "

If you would like more information about this topic or to schedule an interview with Patti Patton-Bader, please call Don Mackay at (615)676-0239.

This just says : CAPTION THIS!

15th most dangerous city in the US

Would you have guessed RICHMOND? WTF? I know its probably rated per population, but, still, 15th!? Richmond, according to this site is listed as more dangerous than D.C. and Atlanta! Maybe Atlanta, but D.C.?

I think some questions need to be asked of "His Honor, the Mayor" and the Police.

The criteria is based on: "NOTE: Cities with 75,000+ population. The rankings are based on a city's rate for six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft."

New York, Chicago, and NEW ORLEANS are not among the cities listed as most dangerous. Either this data is old, or wrong. (In my honest, uniformed opinion)
METHODOLGY

Thought from England on preventing more shootings. Actually its not what you think.

The theories of gun control in Great Britain tend towards draconian and useless. Simply put, hand guns are bad, do not own one. And heaven forbid you use a weapon to defend yourself.

That said, this article was a nice suprise.

"There are lessons to be learned from the Virginia Tech massacre", says Alexander Cockburn.
Arm teachers and students.
There have been the usual howls from the anti-gun lobby, but it's all hot air. America is not about to dump the Second Amendment giving people the right to bear arms.
A better idea would be for appropriately screened teachers and maybe student monitors to carry weapons.
Ban anti-depressants. What should be banned from campuses are not weapons but prescriptions for anti-depressants.
(The article describes how shooters at other schools were on anti-depressants)
Cho Seung-hui was on a prescription drug. The likelihood of it being an anti-depressant is high, since campus doctors dispense prescriptions for them like confetti.

He has more. Definitely a different take, and no gun control/confiscation mentioned.

Schools and Self Defense

Classically Liberal examines what happens when weapons, schools, and the media mix.

It took place at a university in Virginia. A student with a grudge, an immigrant, pulled a gun and went on a shooting spree. It wasn’t Virginia Tech at all. It was the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, not far away.

Many students heard the shots. Two who did were Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges. Mikael was outside the school having just returned to campus from lunch when he heard the shots. Tracy was inside attending class. Both immediately ran to their cars. Each had a handgun locked in the vehicle.
There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.You wouldn’t know much about that though. Do you wonder why?

Cavalry Sergeant's Message to the media (AP)

Check out this message, Harry.

A Wealth of info

The largest problem in the GWOT is getting our various messages out. The GOP, Democrats, Military, Executive Branch, even Al Queda, you name it, someone has a message. Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette explains about Message Control. Please read and pass on this very informative piece.
The heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan are getting their messages out, slowly, but surely. Heck some of the bloggers even offer barbecue to the troops searching the house....
Congress is so worried about the troops that they are adding the story of Pvt Lynch (remember her) into the Tillman case. Remember the Pentagon telling the press not to jump to conclusions? I bet that the press will not be held accountable for their messages.
Here's an in depth look at the strategy of the surge. At least the blogs are getting that message across.
Rep. (D) Moran has a message too:
But for antiwar activists, it's not enough. Many Democratic lawmakers say they are flooded with calls from constituents urging them to live up to their campaign promises on the war.
Rep. James Moran (D) of Virginia met over breakfast recently with 30 constituents at the Table Talk Restaurant in Alexandria, Va. They wanted to know why he had voted to support funds for another year of war, after campaigning to end it.
"It's a shame I had to disappoint the people who voted for me, because they are the ones who count in the end. But it was the most definitive statement against this war that the Congress has yet had.... It went as far as we could possibly go and still get 218 votes [for passage]," he says.
The post-veto vote on war funds will be even harder, he predicts. "It will come back and pass as a clean supplemental, but not with my vote."
Rep. (D) Moran's OTHER constituents don't feel so important: January 2006:

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan........I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization........"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

In response, soldiers that have sworn to defend against any enemies foreign and domestic are getting their messages out, including Appeals for Courage.

And Senator Lieberman (I) (bwahaha) Ct. has his own message in response to the defeatism coming from is fellow Senators: ..... "With all due respect, I strongly disagree. Senator Reid's statement is not based on military facts on the ground in Iraq and does not advance our cause there........Al Qaeda's strategy for victory in Iraq is clear. They are trying to murder as many innocent civilians as possible in an effort to reignite sectarian fighting and drive us to retreat from Iraq........We should not surrender in the face of barbarism."

And lastly, Michelle Malkin has set up a way for the messages of the Veterans to reach Surrender Harry.
More here.