Romney's Speech on Religion
December 6, 2007
Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, gave a speech Thursday about his views on religious tolerance and how faith would inform his presidency if elected. Here's the full text of his remarks, as prepared for delivery.

"Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.

"It is an honor to be here today. This is an inspiring place because of you and the First Lady and because of the film exhibited across the way in the Presidential library. For those who have not seen it, it shows the President as a young pilot, shot down during the Second World War, being rescued from his life-raft by the crew of an American submarine. It is a moving reminder that when America has faced challenge and peril, Americans rise to the occasion, willing to risk their very lives to defend freedom and preserve our nation. We are in your debt. Thank you, Mr. President.

"Mr. President, your generation rose to the occasion, first to defeat Fascism and then to vanquish the Soviet Union. You left us, your children, a free and strong America. It is why we call yours the greatest generation. It is now my generation's turn. How we respond to today's challenges will define our generation. And it will determine what kind of America we will leave our children, and theirs.

"America faces a new generation of challenges. Radical violent Islam seeks to destroy us. An emerging China endeavors to surpass our economic leadership. And we are troubled at home by government overspending, overuse of foreign oil, and the breakdown of the family.

"Over the last year, we have embarked on a national debate on how best to preserve American leadership. Today, I wish to address a topic which I believe is fundamental to America's greatness: our religious liberty. I will also offer perspectives on how my own faith would inform my Presidency, if I were elected.

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In John Adams' words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people.'

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.

"Given our grand tradition of religious tolerance and liberty, some wonder whether there are any questions regarding an aspiring candidate's religion that are appropriate. I believe there are. And I will answer them today.

"Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for president, not a Catholic running for president. Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith.

"Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.

"As governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution -- and of course, I would not do so as President. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.

"As a young man, Lincoln described what he called America's 'political religion' -- the commitment to defend the rule of law and the Constitution. When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.

"There are some for whom these commitments are not enough. They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers -- I will be true to them and to my beliefs.

"Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience.

Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.

"There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.

"There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.

"I believe that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God. And in every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims. As I travel across the country and see our towns and cities, I am always moved by the many houses of worship with their steeples, all pointing to heaven, reminding us of the source of life's blessings.

"It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter -- on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.

"We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong.

"The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation 'Under God' and in God, we do indeed trust.

"We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders -- in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from 'the God who gave us liberty.'

"Nor would I separate us from our religious heritage. Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: does he share these American values: the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another, and a steadfast commitment to liberty?

"They are not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common. They are the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet and stand as a nation, united.

"We believe that every single human being is a child of God -- we are all part of the human family. The conviction of the inherent and inalienable worth of every life is still the most revolutionary political proposition ever advanced. John Adams put it that we are 'thrown into the world all equal and alike.'

"The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or race or nationality.

"Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America's sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century's terrible wars – no land from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America's resolve in the defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.

"These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements. I am moved by the Lord's words: 'For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me...'

"My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency.

"Today's generations of Americans have always known religious liberty. Perhaps we forget the long and arduous path our nation's forbearers took to achieve it. They came here from England to seek freedom of religion. But upon finding it for themselves, they at first denied it to others. Because of their diverse beliefs, Ann Hutchinson was exiled from Massachusetts Bay, a banished Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, and two centuries later, Brigham Young set out for the West. Americans were unable to accommodate their commitment to their own faith with an appreciation for the convictions of others to different faiths. In this, they were very much like those of the European nations they had left.

"It was in Philadelphia that our founding fathers defined a revolutionary vision of liberty, grounded on self evident truths about the equality of all, and the inalienable rights with which each is endowed by his Creator.

"We cherish these sacred rights, and secure them in our Constitutional order. Foremost do we protect religious liberty, not as a matter of policy but as a matter of right. There will be no established church, and we are guaranteed the free exercise of our religion.

"I'm not sure that we fully appreciate the profound implications of our tradition of religious liberty. I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired … so grand … so empty. Raised up over generations, long ago, so many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe's churches. And though you will find many people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away.

"Infinitely worse is the other extreme, the creed of conversion by conquest: violent Jihad, murder as martyrdom... killing Christians, Jews, and Muslims with equal indifference. These radical Islamists do their preaching not by reason or example, but in the coercion of minds and the shedding of blood. We face no greater danger today than theocratic tyranny, and the boundless suffering these states and groups could inflict if given the chance.

"The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.

"In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion -- rather, we welcome our nation's symphony of faith.

"Recall the early days of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, during the fall of 1774. With Boston occupied by British troops, there were rumors of imminent hostilities and fears of an impending war. In this time of peril, someone suggested that they pray. But there were objections. 'They were too divided in religious sentiments', what with Episcopalians and Quakers, Anabaptists and Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Catholics.

"Then Sam Adams rose, and said he would hear a prayer from anyone of piety and good character, as long as they were a patriot.

"And so together they prayed, and together they fought, and together, by the grace of God ... they founded this great nation.

"In that spirit, let us give thanks to the divine 'author of liberty.' And together, let us pray that this land may always be blessed, 'with freedom's holy light.'

"God bless the United States of America."

Yesterday, while campaigning for his wife, Bill said that he was never for the the war in Iraq.
The question is, Can the Clintons ever tell the truth about what they have said or done?



Clinton defends successor's push for war
Says Bush 'couldn't responsibly ignore' chance Iraq had WMDs
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Posted: 7:55 AM EDT (1155 GMT)


(CNN) -- Former President Clinton has revealed that he continues to support President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq but chastised the administration over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," Clinton said in a Time magazine interview that will hit newsstands Monday, a day before the publication of his book "My Life."
Clinton, who was interviewed Thursday, said he did not believe that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil or for imperialist reasons but out of a genuine belief that large quantities of weapons of mass destruction remained unaccounted for.
Noting that Bush had to be "reeling" in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush's first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining "chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material."
"That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for," Clinton said in reference to Iraq and the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.
"So I thought the president had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, 'Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process.' You couldn't responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks," Clinton said.
Pressed on whether the Iraq war was worth the cost to the United States, Clinton said he would not have undertaken the war until after U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix "finished his job."
Weapons inspectors led by Blix scoured Iraq for three and a half months before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 but left after President Bush issued an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the country.
"I want it to have been worth it, even though I didn't agree with the timing of the attack," Clinton said.
Clinton blamed the Abu Ghraib prison abuses on poorly trained National Guard personnel and higher-ups in the Bush administration.
The former president said he was not surprised by the abuses committed by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib but that he was surprised by their extent.
"There is no excuse for that," Clinton said.
Clinton blamed the abuses on the higher echelons of the Bush administration.
"The more we learn about it, the more it seems that some people fairly high up, at least, thought that this was the way it ought to be done," he said.
Implying that the United States should lead by example, Clinton said of the abuses, "No. 1, we can't pull stunts like that, and No. 2, when we do, whoever is responsible has to pay."

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairsof cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalryof schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition,and there is great danger that our people will lose our independenceof thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, andsink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects hisgovernment to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribewhen his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulateevery act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the mannerin which he may seek future admission to paradise." ---MarkTwain (http://PatriotPost.US/histdocs/quotes/twain.asp)

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this groundthat 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution,nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to thepeople.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawnaround the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless fieldof power, not longer susceptible of any definition." ---ThomasJefferson

(http://PatriotPost.US/fqd/)

Texas Homeland Security Chief: 'Terrorists Crossed Border' -- MSM Ignores News
By Warner Todd Huston September 19, 2007 - 03:53 ET
On Sept. 13th, Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw announced in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission that Texas authorities had apprehended terrorist suspects who were sneaking across the Mexico/U.S. border. Shouldn't such a report be running through the MSM like wildfire? Yet, the MSM seems to be ignoring this explosive report with only local Texas news sources, a few Jihad watchers and bloggers having picked up the Director's statements.
The AP did have a report, shockingly enough, but few other MSM services seem to have found it as of yet... even though the story is about a week old.

DALLAS - Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.


via Newsbusters.org

http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoon.asp

(CNN) -- Iran wants "peace and friendship for all," the country's president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the Natanz nuclear facility in April.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it "an invader" and saying it "cannot continue its life."
Asked if Iran had launched a proxy war in Iraq -- something the U.S. ambassador and top military commander there both asserted this week -- Ahmadinejad said the United States is merely seeking a scapegoat for its failing campaign in Iraq.
"Forces have come into Iraq and destroyed the security, and many people are killed," the Iranian president told Britain's ITN during an interview in the garden of the Iranian presidential palace in Tehran.
"And there are some claims that may seem very funny and ridiculous. Those who have lots of weaponry and warfare and thousands of soldiers -- if they are defeated, they blame others. There is no way to escape for peace."
Iranians do not believe in war and consider it a "last resort," he said.

Memorializing 9/11 is more vital than ever, as the emotion and sense of purpose that swept over this country in 2001 dissipate. But PJM’s David Rusin writes that remembering the events in sadness is not enough. We must also remain angry.
read it here

HILLARY'S DIRTY MONEY
The campaign of Hillary Clinton, the presidential candidate just endorsed byCommunist dictator Fidel Castro, turned over $23,000 in campaign donations tocharity this week after learning that the donor of the money, Norman Hsu,has a warrant out for his arrest that dates back to the 1990s. Hsu wasarrested in 1991 for collecting $1 million from investors for a contractthat didn't exist. (Hsu's lawyer says his client doesn't recall pleading nocontest to grand theft, or being obliged to serve three years' prison time. Howconvenient.) While he's been on the lam, Hsu has been one of Clinton's biggestfundraisers and contributors. The FEC reports Hsu has given $119,000 since2004, but there is sure to be much more money with his fingerprints on it.The Wall Street Journal found that Hsu might have been circumventinglegal limits by donating cash under other names. A family living in a"working-class" neighborhood outside of San Francisco has donated $45,000 toClinton in the last two years. The level of their donations clearly does notmatch the 64-year-old father's $49,000 annual income as a letter carrier. (Itreminds one of Al Gore's "no controlling legal authority" trip to a Buddhisttemple in 1996, at which he raked in plenty of cash laundered by one JohnHuang.) Documents are likely to prove that Hsu, who once listed that modesthouse as an address, donated the money under the family name.Clinton, a shrewd campaigner in every respect, promptly threw some of Hsu'smoney out the window after the Journal broke the story, but there is likelyplenty more to be found. Expect the Clinton machine to go into overdriveworking to sweep another scandal under the rug.
http://PatriotShop.US/

"Hillary Clinton doesn't have to prove she's a man. She has to prove she's
a woman. She doesn't have to prove to people that she's tough enough or
aggressive enough to be commander in chief. She doesn't have to show she could
and would wage a war. She has to prove she has normal human warmth, a normal
amount of give, of good nature, that she is not, at bottom, grimly combative
and rather dark. This is the woman credited with starting and naming the War
Room. Her staff has nicknamed her 'The Warrior.' Get in her way and she'd
squish you like a bug. This has been her reputation for 20 years. And it is
her big problem. People want a president to be strong but not hard... Back
[in 1992], when the Clintons were newly famous, their consultants were alarmed
to find the American people did not believe Hillary was a mother. They thought
she was a person with breasts in a suit. She had a briefcase and a latte and
was late for the meeting, but no way did she have a child... The Sopranos
video the Clintons made and released this week was smart and well done... It
addressed yet again the likability problem, but from a new angle... The
film jokingly acknowledges what the Clintons well know: that a certain
portion of the voting population sees them as... well, as gangsterish. As
dark, and dishonest to a degree more extreme than is usual even in political
figures. By putting these perceptions so colorfully on the table, they make fun
of them. And they invite their foes to go too far, at just the right moment,
a year before the 2008 presidential race really begins."
---Peggy Noonan

Father of the Iranian revolution
By MICHAEL D. EVANS

We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini.

read the rest of the article here

"Fellow Americans, our duty is before us. Let us go forward, determined to
serve selflessly a vision of man with God, government for people, and humanity
at peace. For it is now our task to tend and preserve, through the darkest and
coldest nights, that 'sacred fire of liberty' that President Washington spoke
of two centuries ago, a fire that... remains a beacon to all the oppressed
of the world, shining forth from this kindly, pleasant, greening land we
call America." ---Ronald Reagan (http://Reagan2020.US/)

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come
from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history
of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of
governmental power, not the increase of it." ---Woodrow Wilson

I think Fred Thompson won the debate last night!
And he wasn't even there!

Otherwise, Guiliani did very well.

Where's the fence?

Were on our way!
For the tenth year in a row the kids, Bonnie and I are going.

Democrats Hide Pet Projects From Voters

Jun 3 05:08 AM US/Eastern By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks"—lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

Via Breitbart.com

YES!

Fifty percent of adults would not vote for Clinton

By Kelly McCormack

March 27, 2007

Half of voting-age Americans say they would not vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) if she became the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, according to a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday. More than one in five Democrats that participated in the survey said they would not vote for Clinton. Overall, 36 percent say they would vote for the former first lady and 11 percent are unsure of their top choice. Forty-eight percent of Independent voters also said that they would choose another candidate over Clinton, the poll, which surveyed 2,223 potential voters, states. Fifty-six percent of men said that they would not vote for Clinton, while 45 percent of women said that she would not be their pick. In addition, 69 percent of those 62 and older said that they would not vote for Clinton. Nearly half of the respondents said that they dislike Clinton’s political opinions and Clinton as a person. Fifty-two percent of people also said that “she does not appear to connect with people on a personal level.”

via-Harris poll

John Edwards Tells Hollywood All Candidates and Wifes Called—Except Bill and Hillary Clinton

At a Hollywood fundraiser Friday night, John Edwards told donors that he and wife Elizabeth heard personally from every candidate and their spouse after their press conference -- except the Clintons. "He said Hillary and Bill didn't call but all the others did with messages of support. He repeated the story to each table," an attendee told me. I'm told that a member of Hillary Clinton's team sent an email afterwards to at least one politico "claiming her staff had been repeatedly trying to make calls to the Edwards but hadn't gotten through." So the politico emailed back the Edwards' home phone number.

via- the Hillary project

British Forces Held By Iran

Updated: 13:28, Friday March 23, 2007

The Government is demanding the "immediate and safe return" of 15 British sailors and Marines seized by Iranian forces.

They were taking part in a routine operation boarding merchant ships in Iraqi territorial waters when they were taken captive by Iranian naval vessels.




The left thinks we need to talk more.

Headline
In the proud tradition of Thomas Payne and Martin Luther, today's blogs and even Youtube have taken their place.
The 'media' and liberal politicians say that this "viral" political talk is somehow bad (read; they have lost control of it) This little video is great! It expresses an idea many of us have but would never be said in the main stream media (even on the supposed conservative Fox News)

George Orwell wrote,

“The pamphlet is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and ‘high-brow’ than is ever possible in a newspaper or I most kinds of periodicals. At the same time, since the pamphlet is always short and unbound, it can be produced much more quickly than a book, and in principle, at any rate, can reach a bigger public. Above all, the pamphlet does not have to follow any prescribed pattern. It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of ‘reportage.’ All that is required of it is that it shall be topical, polemical, and short.”

via-liberty and culture

How The NYT Covered Reno’s Firing Of All US Attorneys

via-Sweet & Lightness

Early Leads in the Nominating Process

With the nominating conventions more than 17 months away, what, if anything, do these early polls mean for would-be nominees? A look back at nearly 50 years of early primary polls suggests that Republican front-runners are often a good bet to capture the nomination, but the picture is more mixed for leading Democrats.

In seven open Republican contests since 1960, the early front-runners held on to win the party nod six times.¹ By contrast, early Democratic poll leaders won four out of eight open contests between 1960 and 2004. In early 2003, Sen. John Kerry was tied with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, but fell behind Gen. Wesley Clark and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean at different times later in the year before eventually getting the final nod from Democrats.

Unfortunately for Republican aspirants in this cycle, no candidate can benefit from the GOP's traditional early leader tenacity for the simple reason that no single frontrunner has been established. Until recently, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain had been running neck-in-neck in Republican horse race polls. Although recent nationwide polls show Giuliani slightly outpacing McCain among likely GOP primary voters, some election watchers are skeptical about Giuliani's chances, given his relatively liberal views on social issues.

On the other hand, the Democratic front-runner, Clinton as of now, need not necessarily be daunted by historical precedent, whatever other challenges she may face in the months to come. At least two of the Democrats who did not win the nomination withdrew from the race for reasons other than lagging support in the polls. One decided against a run (New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1992); one withdrew in the face of scandal (Sen. Gary Hart in 1988).

via-pew research center

via-http://PatriotPost.US/subscribe/humor.

A radically common-sense idea

One Congressman is hoping to blaze a trail back to America's roots -- the U.S. Constitution

By Jeff Emanuel

Last week, as was noted here on RedState at the time, conservative Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ), as he has every session since the 104^th Congress, introduced his Enumerated Powers Act in the House of Representatives. This legislation would, in his words, "require Members of Congress to include an explicit statement of Constitutional authority into each bill that is introduced.

In other words, he says, "It would hold Congress accountable for its actions."

via-redstate

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs
of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry
of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition,
and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence
of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and
sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his
government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe
when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate
every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner
in which he may seek future admission to paradise." ---Mark
Twain

Their words count.
this is from '89

The Democrats say that the economy is horrible, no one can find jobs, people are miserable and they need the government to do something! (read-raise taxes)


The truth;

Unemployment Rate Drops to 4.5%...

Trade deficit shrinks to $59.1B...

"the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability."

James Madison

Hillary is by far the most pandering, fake, phony, unchristian person in the world.
Listen to this and then be honest with yourself.
Does she sound sincere?

Met a Guy who recently came back from Iraq.
He brought back some videos
Of what they do over there,
Stuff you don't see on the MSM
Our guys are highly trained, responsible and very careful in what they do




Here is a training film
It shows just how intense the training of our men is.

Why confront Islamism?

Why confront Islamism? Because if we don't it will continue to get more extreme. This is not Islamophobia, as many Muslims and their apologists protest. A phobia is a baseless irrational fear. Detestation of Islamism, the violent form of Islam, is based on irrefutable facts and it is not only rational, it is ethically imperative.

It is a virtue to take action to oppose the hateful, a vice to ignore it. It is a virtue to hate tyranny, misogyny, discriminations of all sorts, oppression, and all manners of violations of the legitimate rights of individual and peoples. Islamism is a mutation of Islam into a terrible menace. It is religious fascism, a destroyer of liberty and much of what free people cherish. Therefore, it must be confronted.

read the rest at American Thinker

Urgent

On Wednesday, we launched an important petition to

"Stop Albert Gore
and Reject the UN's Global Warming Treaty."

Gore is re-energizing the
movement advocating Kyoto compliance -- the biggest UN power-grab in
history.

I urge you to sign this petition now, please. We already have over
30,000 electronic signatures. We want to deliver 100,000 signatures to
the Senate by the time Al Gore reaches the podium at this Sunday's
Academy Awards.

It takes only 20 seconds to sign online, link to:
http://PatriotPetitions.US/StopGore

"His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible
I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of
friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was
indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great
man."

---Thomas Jefferson about George Washington





















These two quotes from George Washington which best embody his
dedication to liberty and God. The first from his First Inaugural
Address, 30 April 1789, and the second from his Farewell Address,
19 September 1796.

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny
of the republican model of government, are justly considered as
deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted
to the hands of the American People."

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In
vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should
labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness---these
firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens."

World War III roundup

Coordinated Attacks Kill 8 in Thailand

4 Police Killed in Afghan Bomb Attack

Attacks kill 30 in Iraq, mourners gunned down

String of Bombings Kill 15 in Baghdad

At Least 29 Bombs Explode in Thailand

Suspected ringleader of Madrid attacks wo not answer questions from...

Saudi al- Qaida wing urges attacks on oil facilities

Nigerian Muslim Convicts in Legal Limbo

Egypt arrests 80 Brotherhood Islamists in sweeps

French Muslim convert on trial for Australia plot

Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power




By MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID ROHDE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.



via-The New York Times (so take this with a grain of salt)

New wage boost puts squeeze on teenage workers across Arizona

Employers are cutting back hours, laying off young staffers

Chad Graham
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.

That's certainly not the case under the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.

Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.
advertisement


And teens are among the first workers to go.

Companies maintain the new wage was raised to $6.75 per hour from $5.15 per hour to help the breadwinners in working-poor families. Teens typically have other means of support.

Mark Messner, owner of Pepi's Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.

"I've had to go to some of my kids and say, 'Look, my payroll just increased 13 percent,' " he said. " 'Sorry, I don't have any hours for you.' "

via-AZcentral.com

The Left hated him as much as they hate Bush now!


Soviet monument to make way for Reagan


Opponents of Poland's former communist regime reportedly want to pay a posthumous homage to US President Ronald Reagan by erecting his statue in the place of a Soviet-era monument.

In an open letter to the mayor of the southwestern city of Katowice, the former anti-regime activists said that the staunchly anti-communist Reagan had been a "symbol of liberty," the Polish news agency PAP reported.

As a result, they said, he deserved to become the centrepiece of the city's Freedom Square, replacing a monument to the Soviet troops who drove out the occupying Nazis in 1945.

They also said that they wanted the site to be rebaptised "Ronald Reagan Freedom Square."

City hall spokesman Waldemar Bojarun said that Katowice's councillors would consider the issue.

Bojarun said that he had "enormous respect" for Reagan.

However, he said, the proposal could cost an estimated 500,000 zlotys (128,000 euros, 168,000 dollars) and the city had "other pressing needs."

There are already separate plans to erect a statue in memory of Reagan in the centre of the Polish capital, Warsaw, which would be paid-for from private funds.

Reagan, who dubbed the Soviet Union an "evil empire," is widely credited by Poles with having driven communism to the wall.

The conservative Republican made fighting communism the cornerstone of his 1980-1988 presidency, and backed Poland's Solidarity trade union after it went underground when the regime declared martial law in 1981.

Reagan died in June 2004 at the age of 93.


via- Brietbart

War powers

article 2 section 2
The president shall be the commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.....

The Democrats think they run everything in Washington right now.
They are discussing the direction of the war, Should we surge? or not?
Well, as usual, they hate the constitution! They have no respect for it.


Federalist paper #74
Alexander Hamilton wrote;

The President of the United States is to be "commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States WHEN CALLED INTO THE ACTUAL SERVICE of the United States." The propriety of this provision is so evident in itself, and it is, at the same time, so consonant to the precedents of the State constitutions in general, that little need be said to explain or enforce it. Even those of them which have, in other respects, coupled the chief magistrate with a council, have for the most part concentrated the military authority in him alone. Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

Global warming hoax update

Bad News for Global Warming Alarmists



It's been a bad year for Global Warming Alarmists. Researchers are finding more and more evidence of natural warming events in the earth's past, events that were far more rapid and dramatic than first thought. Several scientists, disgusted with the media's refusal to carry their mesage accurately, have begun writing letters and books. Even the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has long been the most vocal supporter of climate alarmism, has finished its Fourth Assessment report, which lowers worst case estimates sharply, and cuts in half long-term predictions for sea level rise. Evidence of the beneficial aspects of continues to mount, with arctic seal populations increasing, longer growing seasons, and less extreme temperature swings.

Is it any wonder environmentalists are getting even more emotional in the debate? In public, they state they simply want "truth to out," but the reality is a bit different. Recently, Weather Channel host Heidi Cullen made a strong bid to silence the opposition, calling for the removal of AMS certification for meteorologists who challenged the belief in catastrophic human-induced global warming. In it, she compared global warming denial to "going on air and saying that hurricanes rotate clockwise," apparently herself unaware that in the southern hemisphere hurricanes do indeed rotate in this direction. Cullen's statement immediately provoked outrage from meteorologists around the nation, with one of them angrily proclaiming, "I don't know a single meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype."
via-Daily tech

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE ANTI WAR LEFT?
This makes me sick.

"That poll about Iraq...
came out last week and it posed various
questions about whether folks
thought the 'surge' was a good idea
or not. Including the following:
'Do you personally want the
Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?'
And here's how the American people answered:
63 percent said yes,
22 percent said no,
15 percent said they didn't know.
Let me see if I understand that.
For four years, regardless of this
or that position on the merits of the war,
almost everybody has claimed to 'support our troops.'
Some of us have always thought
that 'supporting the troops' while not supporting
them in their mission is not entirely credible.
But here we have 37 percent of
the American people actually urging defeat on them.
They 'support our troops' by wanting them to lose.
This isn't a question about
whether you think the plan will work,
but whether you want it to work.

And nearly 40 percent of respondents either don't know or
are actively rooting for failure...

What were the numbers like for D-Day?"
---Mark Steyn

What Thomas Jefferson learned
from the Muslim book of jihad



By Ted Sampley
U.S. Veteran Dispatch
January 2007

Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran, the Muslim book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States during his ceremonial swearing-in.
Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's swearing-in photo opportunity drew more media than they had ever seen in the history of the U.S. House. Ellison represents the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota.
The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book.

It once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of America's founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book Section of the Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson books archived in the library.
Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in college, said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a visionary like Jefferson" believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.
There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.
Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal villages had a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off as many of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred "booty" of only young women and children could be collected.
Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as concubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to create eunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East. Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major African slave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived after the surgery.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the
"Dey of Algiers"--an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.
Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors.
Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted matters settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy.
In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers" ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress' vote to appease.
During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey's ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.
In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise."
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
Not long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American Marines and many of America's best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast.
The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the desert from Egypt into Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all American slaves.
During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States, crumbling as a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.
Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn, with the line, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the land as on the sea."
It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war" was the only way to put an end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.



via- Sean Bell (no- not the one who was shot by the cops)

Jimmy Carter:
"Too many Jews" on Holocaust council
Former president also rejected Christian
historian because name sounded 'too Jewish'

TEL AVIV – Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, the council's former executive director, told WND in an exclusive interview.

Freedman, who served on the council during Carter's term as president, also revealed a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter's office because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish."



He has gone truly mad.......



The First value is antisemitism?

I was not aware that hating Jews was an American value.

via-worldnetdaily

The state of our union


Some highlights of the speech.

This rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour – when decisions are hard and courage is tested. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies – and the wisdom to face them together.

----------------------------------------------------

For all of us in this room, there is no higher responsibility than to protect the people of this country from danger. Five years have come and gone since we saw the scenes and felt the sorrow that terrorists can cause. We have had time to take stock of our situation. We have added many critical protections to guard the homeland. We know with certainty that the horrors of that September morning were just a glimpse of what the terrorists intend for us – unless we stop them.

--------------------------------------------------------

Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to plan and carry out new attacks on our country. By killing and terrorizing Americans, they want to force our country to retreat from the world and abandon the cause of liberty. They would then be free to impose their will and spread their totalitarian ideology. Listen to this warning from the late terrorist Zarqawi: “We will sacrifice our blood and bodies to put an end to your dreams, and what is coming is even worse.” And Osama bin Laden declared: “Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.”

---------------------------------------------------------


This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

-----------------------------------------------------------

For America, this is a nightmare scenario. For the enemy, this is the objective. Chaos is their greatest ally in this struggle. And out of chaos in Iraq, would emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens... new recruits ... new resources ... and an even greater determination to harm America. To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 11th and invite tragedy. And ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East ... to succeed in Iraq ... and to spare the American people from this danger.

This is where matters stand tonight, in the here and now. I have spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you have made. We went into this largely united – in our assumptions, and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq – and I ask you to give it a chance to work. And I ask you to support our troops in the field – and those on their way.

------------------------------------------------------

Global Warming Hype Update

A broad spectrum of ideas is the last thing Al Gore wants. He recently canceled an interview with Denmark’s largest newspaper Jyllands-Posten, apparently because the paper would also publish the views of global warming skeptic Bjorn Lomborg.

Avoiding contradictory views is a priority for Gore, who is standing on thinner ice than any polar bear. His grand scheme to remake human civilization would make the average person 30% poorer by 2100, and cost $553 TRILLION over the next century. People might start to wonder if it’s worth it, once they consider that Gore’s threatened 20-foot rise in sea level is exaggerated by a factor of 20, that his tale of global warming causing malaria in Nairobi is simply a lie, that only 2% of Antarctica has actually gotten warmer over the last 35 years, that global warming would save 10 times more lives than it would end in the UK, and that the computer models they use to invent scary scenarios could just as easily prove that the world is turning into a lump of Velveeta.

via- The wide awakes

In the past three-hundred fifty hours of the Democrats first one hundred hours, we have seen them scrap rules designed to prevent entrenched committee chairmen, rules designed to make it more difficult to raise taxes, place back in charge of committees men who caused the public outcries of the early nineties, and generally rub in the noses of the American people all those acts that caused the people to throw them out in 1994. One would not be surprised to soon learn about a check kiting scandal.

So it should come as no surprise that the Democrats are set to redo one of their worst acts -- not because it is bad per se, but because it so manifestly flies in the face of the clear meaning of the Constitution that we must wonder if the Democrats really even care about the Constitution. Under a proposal put forward by Majority Leader Hoyer, the Democrats are set to allow delegates from American territories to vote on legislation on the floor of the House.

To quote Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution,

" The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states "

This is Con Law 101 -- the word "state" has a peculiar and special meaning. Delegates from territories of the United States do not meet the qualifications to be a Representative.

The last time the Democrats tried this same maneuver, in 1993, the New York Times called it a "shameless political tyranny," citing the same section of the Constitution we just cited for why it is a bad idea.

Democrat Contradictions on the War in Iraq

By Congressman Jeb Hensarling


Earlier today, I called on Speaker Pelosi and Democrat leaders in Congress to clarify contradictions in regard to their position on the war in Iraq. Specifically, I was speaking about their resolution that states: “it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating the United States military force presence in Iraq.”

Just last week, Speaker Pelosi told ABC News that Democrats will not cut off funding for America’s troops. Now, her Democrat majority is declaring that President Bush’s plan to move forward in Iraq is "not in the interests of the United States." How can the Democrat majority choose to fund something that they believe is against the interests of the United States? If they do not support America’s mission in Iraq and choose to attack it publicly, they should at least have the conviction to vote that way. Second, as the majority in Congress, they must offer a plan that they feel IS in the interest of the United States.

As the majority party, they control the votes and they must offer something more than just political criticism of the President. That is not to say that the President is above criticism - he is not. People have legitimate questions and concerns about our future in Iraq, and we must address them.

But right now, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat majority in both chambers of Congress are telling families of American servicemen and women that "we don’t believe this will work, but we will send your children to Iraq anyway." I believe that military families deserve better, our troops deserve better, and frankly you deserve better.

There is no doubt that a lot of good people have different feelings about the proper way forward in Iraq. And there is no doubt that we all have the right to discuss those feelings and ideas. But to move forward, I think that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat majority must explain these contradictions that send mixed messages not only to our nation, our military and our allies - but our enemies as well.

Global warming hoax update


Climate scientists feeling the heat
As public debate deals in absolutes, some experts fear predictions 'have created a monster'

Climate scientists might be expected to bask in the spotlight after their decades of toil. The general public now cares about greenhouse gases, and with a new Democratic-led Congress, federal action on climate change may be at hand.

Problem is, global warming may not have caused Hurricane Katrina, and last summer's heat waves were equaled and, in many cases, surpassed by heat in the 1930s.

In their efforts to capture the public's attention, then, have climate scientists oversold global warming? It's probably not a majority view, but a few climate scientists are beginning to question whether some dire predictions push the science too far.

"Some of us are wondering if we have created a monster," says Kevin Vranes, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado.

Vranes, who is not considered a global warming skeptic by his peers, came to this conclusion after attending an American Geophysical Union meeting last month. Vranes says he detected "tension" among scientists, notably because projections of the future climate carry uncertainties — a point that hasn't been fully communicated to the public.

The science of climate change often is expressed publicly in unambiguous terms.

For example, last summer, Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, told the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "I think we understand the mechanisms of CO2 and climate better than we do of what causes lung cancer. ... In fact, it is fair to say that global warming may be the most carefully and fully studied scientific topic in human history."

Vranes says, "When I hear things like that, I go crazy."

via-Houston Chronicle

"I'm in, and I'm in to win,"

Bill sure looks thrilled about it!

It's all Bush's fault!

Thanks mostly to political environment, we’ve all been mired in a debate over whether Iraq is in a state of civil war or not. What should be a cold assessment of truth on the ground in Iraq has, like every single aspect of the war, become politicized. If you describe the situation in Iraq as a “civil war,” it’s taken as an implied or direct criticism of President Bush more than your opinion of the actual state of play in Iraq. If you resist calling it a “civil war,” you’re usually seen as an apologist for the Bush administration and its policies.

Why everything has to revolve around Bush is a mystery to me. Making everything about him trivializes the war and personalizes it to the point that real policy debate becomes impossible. It makes our politics petty and hinders our ability to see reality for what it is and learn to adjust to it. It’s childish, but it’s where we are as a country.

read on here- HotAir

So much for the new tone!

They are so bitter and hateful.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a critique the White House labeled as "poisonous," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged Friday that President Bush is wading too deeply into Iraq and said it should not be "an obligation of the American people in perpetuity."

Pelosi said Bush "has dug a hole so deep he can't even see the light on this. It's a tragedy. It's a stark blunder."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino retorted that Pelosi's comments were "poisonous," referring to the portion of Pelosi's statement that asserted Bush is rushing new troops there and betting that Congress won't cut off funds once they're in battle.

"It's certainly not in keeping with the bipartisan spirit and civility that the Democrats pledged and that we looked forward to," Perino said. "Speaker Pelosi was arguing in essence that the president is putting young men and women in harm's way for tactical political reasons. She's questioning his motivations rather than questioning his policies."

Have they ever even read the constitution?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic leaders in Congress lobbed a warning shot Friday at the White House not to launch an attack against Iran without first seeking approval from lawmakers.

"The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the National Press Club.

I believe in the constitution. I believe that our founding fathers knew what they were doing.
I do not believe in an evolving "living" constitution.
The president is the commander in chief.
The founding fathers knew that you could not conduct foriegn policy and make decisions about war by committee.
The Democrats treat the constitution like a list of suggestions.
THe constitution is not a suicide pact and Even Bush is throwing it out the window.
THe judiciary has no power when it comes to intercepting enemy communications during wartime. The 4th admendment has nothing to do with the conduct of the president during wartime.

The Great Global Warming Hoax Update

"I've always loved self-described experts. A person named Dr. Heidi Cullen that apparently hauls in a paycheck from cable TV's the 'Weather Channel' caused quite a stir by suggesting that any meteorologist that disagrees with her personal stance on global warming should be stripped by the American Meteorological Society of their Seal of Approval. "

via-The National Ledger

This is the left taking another jackbooted step toward fascism.
Anyone who disagrees with them must be muzzled, banned, arrested, impeached and made fun of. Al Gore refuses to appear with any scientist who disagrees with him. they cannot debate the issue because they have huge holes (bigger than the one in the ozone which is getting smaller!) in their argument. And now Nancy Pelosi is going to form another committee to look like they actually care.

Must-watch dispatches on UK Mosques...

If you think that the war against the west is something
that Bush invented or caused, this should open your eyes.

This investigation into Britain's mosques, by Channel 4's respected Dispatches programme,has revealed worrying evidence of just how rife Islamic extremism is among Muslim preachers.

The undercover TV inquiry, conducted over ten months, reveals some religious clerics urging their congregations to start preparing for jihad (holy war) against infidels or non-Muslims. Another is caught on camera telling families to hit their daughters for not covering their heads with the veil or hijab.

via-conservative blog therapy

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’... I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character... And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Historian Shelby Steele observes, “There is an awful lot of conservative sentiment in black America, but at the moment, the party line is ruthlessly enforced.” Indeed, those who followed Martin Luther King when he was speaking of freedom, like Jesse Jackson, tolerate no dissension from their liberal ranks now. They have abandoned King’s dream, and aligned themselves with political and social agendas obsessed with color at the expense of character.

Black conservatives of national stature, like Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powel, Ward Connerly, Michael Steele, Jesse Lee Peterson, Alan Keyes, Don Scoggins, Alvin Williams, Ken Blackwell, Thomas Sowell, Star Parker and Walter Williams are routinely castigated by Jackson, et al., as “Uncle Toms” and “puppets.” Yet these are the men and women following the call of King.