Posted 1:29 AM by Steve
Conservatives were right in the Cold War -- so right that liberals are pretending they were with us all along -- and they are right about Iraq. It is leftists who need to account for their consistently disgraceful positions throughout the Cold War and into the War on Terror.

-- Liberals have never admitted their error in misjudging the Communists, even after the slaughter of 2,000,000 Cambodians when we exited Indochina. Worse, they've even rewritten history to include themselves as Cold Warriors. Today, they are at it again with an equal degree of sanctimony and a comparable dearth of credibility.

-- Liberals were more contemptuous of Cold Warriors than they were of the Soviets; today, they are more contemptuous of President Bush and conservatives than Saddam Hussein.

-- As such they protested in the streets against America (then and now), but not against the murderous Soviet or Iraqi regimes.

-- Their anti-war protests were not just about the Vietnam War, and they're not just about Iraq. In both cases they have decried and despised America for everything from its "materialism" to its "militarism."

-- The protestors of yesteryear denied sympathy for the Communists, all the while romanticizing Soviet life and Castro's Cuba. Today, they insist they have contempt for the "despicable" Saddam, yet appear utterly unwilling to back up those words with action.

-- In the sixties, they leveled outlandish, conspiracy-based allegations that America was in it for South Vietnam's minerals. Today, they say it's the Iraqi oil fields, even though we had those for the taking in 1991 and allowed Saddam to keep them.

Posted 1:08 PM by Steve
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stewart Mill-

I certainly believe while war is an "ugly" thing there are things that are much worse. One of those things is abuse of children. In Maine, that is exactly what is happening where a few horrible, disgusting teachers are foisting their views upon students who look to them for instruction, not proselytism.

Reading the news stories about children of servicemen and women being made to feel bad about their parents activities made my blood boil. These children should be honored and respected by their teachers and peers for their parent's patriotic service to the country.

We live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by people with guns. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 which firmly dispelled any false sense of security for the American people, The United States is left with a greater responsibility than the "anti-war crowd" can possibly fathom. A responsibility to maintain peace and order in a chaotic, violent world of vastly differing philosophies. The protesters weep for Iraq and curse the power of the United States military. They have that luxury. They have the luxury of calling for peace ignorant of the fact that war in Iraq, while tragic, will save lives. And the existence of the military, while grotesque and incomprehensible to them, saves lives... They don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places they don't talk about at protests or NEA meetings, they want the United States military on that wall. They NEED the United States military on that wall.

The military uses words like honor, code, loyalty... They use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. Protesters and these teachers in Maine use them as a punchline. The administration has neither the time nor the inclination to explain it's actions to people who rise and sleep under the blanket of the very freedom which it provides, then question the manner in which the administration provides it!

Instead of criticism how about saying, "Thank you for my protecting my family and loved ones"? Otherwise, I suggest the protesters and the teachers in Maine pick up a weapon and stand a post.

Posted 11:24 AM by Steve
This is from a column by Cal Thomas of Townhall.com and Fox News:

Under the old rules of debate, a spokesperson for one side of an issue would state a position and the opposing side would state its position. Rebuttals and surrebuttals would follow. The audience, or a panel of judges, would then declare a winner based on which side better presented the facts.

Those days are gone as feelings - not facts - are all that matter now.

Perhaps that is why the level of invective directed at President Bush has reached fever pitch. Each time his opponents have raised the bar for justifying war with Iraq, the president has followed their advice. When they raised it again, he met their new requests. Does this earn him points with his detractors? Far from it.

The president was told by his critics he should not act unilaterally. So he asked other nations to join in a "coalition of the willing. " About three dozen have offered either direct or indirect support. Critics said the president should get congressional approval. He did. He was told he should take his case to the United Nations. He did. There have been 18 U.N. resolutions, none of which have caused Saddam Hussein to comply.

What does the president get for doing what his critics have demanded? He is called names by those unwilling to forcibly deprive a mass murderer of his power to kill even more people.

The foreign press, especially in Britain where hundreds of people have complained to the BBC about its one-sided, anti-American reporting, has been particularly brutal. Many have called President Bush outrageous names, apparently as a substitute for sound arguments. Having lost the battle of ideas, the overseas press and increasingly the American press have resorted to a game of who can say the most disgraceful thing about the president. Because so many people form their impressions from the way "news " is delivered on TV, it is no wonder the level of support for war with Iraq has fallen.

Yet even in the midst of its criticism, the coalition of the unwilling is reluctantly concluding that the president's position on Saddam Hussein is right. During an angry attack on the president, columnist Richard Cohen concedes, "It's not that I don't think (President Bush) is right about Saddam Hussein and, if need be, the necessity to deal with him through war. "

Joe Klein, who regularly mocks the president, says that war "may well be the right decision. " At the conclusion of an essay filled with snide remarks about the president and his administration, Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic admits, "The war against Saddam Hussein is just, and it is truly a last resort. "

The Nation - which is about as left as you can get and still be on the planet - carries this concession by Eric Alterman: "I admit that the beefed-up containment policy vis-a-vis Iraq, driven exclusively by the Bush administration's obsession with the issue, has been a smashing success. " Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, who like other liberals is more concerned with "tone " over substance, claims the president's tone has been "destructive to American interests, " but then declares, "But I now support military action. "

Bush critics hate it that he is sure of himself and is not "conflicted " as they are. They detest his "black vs. white, " "righteous vs. evildoers " view of the world. Klein blasts the president because his faith "does not impel him to have second thoughts, to explore other intellectual possibilities or question the possible consequences of his actions. " Columnist E.J. Dionne comes up with a new philosophy - "heroic ambivalence " - which he wants the president to embrace in the face of a grave and growing threat to our nation.

Ambivalence is not heroic. Neither is it leadership. The president's liberal critics fear he will succeed, win a second term and then name conservative justices to the Supreme Court. They know Saddam Hussein is evil. But they see President Bush as a greater evil because he will deprive them of their 40-year pattern of using the courts to make law and change culture. In their hearts they know he's right about Saddam. But in their heads they know the days of liberal domination of the courts are coming to an end, almost as quickly as Saddam Hussein's despotic regime.

Posted 12:36 AM by Steve
I'm pooped. I worked out, then ran 5.4 miles and then mowed a hill that is at a 45 degree angle. Having said that, I have been watching news broadcasts and surfing the net for all sorts of stuff. I watched Janeane Garafolo get taken to the carpet by the little guy on Fox & Friends. Garafolo is one of those people who is just bright enough to get herself into trouble, but not truly intelligent enough to follow through on a path of reasoning. She changed the subject as often as possible, because after all the heart of her argument is Bush- Bashing. She even said that UNSCOM was doing a fantastic job in Iraq prior and then said that they were spies. What a twit. She, of course, neglected to mention that the first Gulf War was the reason UNSCOM was in Iraq in the first place. She said there is no proof of ties between Iraq and Al-Queda. Gee, what about the Iraqi agent who met with a fleeing Al-Queda terrorist in Prague? What about the training camps (specifically the "poison" camp) that Al-Queda operatives used IN IRAQ. Iraq is connected to varying degrees with Al-Queda and other terrorist organizations such as:

*Egyptian Islamic Jihad
*Jamaat Islamiyya, also from Egypt;
*the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
*the Islamic Army of Aden, in Yemen;
*Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed, in Kashmir;
*the Salafist Group for Call and Combat and the Armed Islamic Group, both of Algeria;
*Abu Sayyaf Group, in Malaysia and the Philipines

These groups share Al-Queda's Sunni Muslim fundamentalist views. Note that Saddam is also a Sunni.

Oh and by the way, Ms. Garafolo, Saddam DID , in effect, kick the inspectors out of Iraq by ordering his troops to fire on U.S. and British planes enforcing the "no-fly" zone. I can't understand why these Hollywood imbeciles are so hell-bent on defending Hussein. Hussein is a war criminal. He mustard and nerve gassed his own people and placed civilians in harm's way in an attempt to defend military installations. I wonder if these Hollywood types are the same kind of people as the Germans who looked the other way as the Nazi's rounded up the Jews?

Posted 10:51 AM by Steve
DENNIS MILLER IS A STUD!

It's nice to finally see a celebrity (besides Ted Nugent) make an appearance with a little patriotism and some common sense!

Miller was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and got HUGE applause from the audience for some of his surprising comments:

About the French he said: "You'd better gas up the dinghy and go fishing with Fredo, because you are dead to me." -- Dennis Miller, on the Tonight Show.

Miller was on fire tonight. He said: "If you're at a peace march, and the guy next to you has a sign saying 'Bush is Hitler,' stop the peace stuff for a second and beat his ass."

And he sent this message to Dubya: "If you're watching, I think you're doing a hell of a job. I'm proud you're my president. ...I think there are a lot more people out here on your side than you may think."

Posted 10:17 AM by Steve
FYI, Bush-Bashers in 1999, the Clinton administration and our NATO allies decided to bomb Serbia (for 77 days) without even seeking U.N. approval, after it became clear that Russia would veto any proposal. This contrast with the supposedly muscular Bush administration is especially odd when one considers that Saddam Hussein is far worse than convicted war-criminal Slobodan Milosevic, and that Iraq has left a long trail of violated Security Council resolutions, while there were none on Kosovo. Hmmmm.