Freudian Slip at NPR?

One has to laugh. On the way to work, the newscaster at NPR advised that Judge Roberts had cleared another hurdle in the "confrontation" process with the rating he received from his peers.

Is this how the previous administration dealt with the Able Danger Project?

OK, the monkey thing might have been a cheap shot, but you do appreciate the comic irony, don't you? On a more serious note, we've got Sandy Berger stuffing documents into his socks right as the 9/11 Commission is having hearings? For his sake, I hope it was mere coincidence. We've got lawyers in the Pentagon (Clinton adminstration lawyers) that said a terror suspect, a non-citizen with a US visa, gets the same protection as a US citizen? Finally, we've got 9/11 Commission members (including Clinton administration official, Gorelick, that signed off on keeping the walls up in the first place) denying ever getting, or seeing, or being notified, or... wait! 'Yeah, we got the info on Able Danger, but...'

Gee...thanks guys, for all the hard work...and forthrightness.

This reiterates the basic problem with our intelligence capabilities concerning terror, but it also reiterates how few politicians in this country (red or blue, take your pick) have enough courage to put out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Just a little honesty, please...

I've made a point of cruising other aspects of the blogosphere to see what's going on.

Looking at Crooks and Liars' blog, I found a reference to Senator Rick Santorum's interview on Brian Lehrer's radio show. Senator Santorum recently published a book, "It takes a family" as a counterpoint to the Hillary/liberal viewpoint on how to raise children. Crooks and liars trumpets the fact that Rick Santorum 'lost it' during the interview. Thirty minutes later, I come to the conclusion that Rick Santorum actually maintained his cool throughout. Most of the comments to Crooks and Liars on that particular item, left and right, said the same thing. During a segment discussing gay marraige, Brian Lehrer throws this bomb out.

LEHRER: It came out this month that your communications director, Robert Traynham, is gay. How long did you know that?

SANTORUM: Uh, I’ve known it for a while.

LEHRER: And if he has a boyfriend, is that the moral equivalent as, in a famous quote of yours, of bigamy, adultery, or incest or even bestiality?

SANTORUM: Well, I didn’t – number one, my famous quote did not draw moral equivalence. And in fact if you read the quote in its proper context without words inserted by a reporter, uh, who put words in my mouth that I did not say, nor did I mean –

What? You gotta be kidding. Rather than deal with issues of the day, make it personal why don't you? If anything, the fact that Mr. Santorum discounts his comm director's sexual 'orientation' as a qualifier for the job speaks volumns to his open-mindedness. Can't say the same about liberals, generally.

LEHRER: By the way, do you have lively debates with your press secretary over this? Does he try to convince you, do you try to convince him to go get cured?

SANTORUM: Uh, no, I – look, his personal life is his personal life. I don’t have lively debates with any of my staff about their personal lives. It’s their personal life, and I have lively debates about issues of, that, of public policy. And I have people on my staff that agree with me on everything and – well, not everything, but most everything – and I have those who don’t. And uh, you know, that makes for a healthy debate in the office.

So, we have a liberal talk show host trying to bait the Senator with a 'gotcha', which he didn't take, by the way. Yet a liberal blog paints Santorum as some raving loonatic.

Look, if we're going to disagree and debate, at least keep it honest. Sheesh...

Hello! Are you awake yet?

Make no mistake. It could happen here. Perhaps we could look to Luke 11:21 "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace"

It is just hardball Politics, after all...

This from Howard Fineman of Newsweek on a Q&A concerning Karl Rove, here.


"Torrance, CA: Why is it that so little attention has been given as to why on earth the CIA would have sent someone like Joe Wilson in the first place?

Howard Fineman: Very good question. My theory is that the CIA didnt like the idea of going into Iraq and wanted to send someone who would help make the case against going in. CIA and State were at odds with DOD and the Veep's office on Iraq from the git go. I wrote about it on the Web in 2003 and think I'm right. "

So, maybe that's why we're getting all we're getting. What kind of help were folks at the CIA looking for? Its no secret (excuse the pun) that the CIA and the State Department have been anti-administration. Alot of the shake-ups and personnel changes have been a result of this feud, the lousy job the CIA did in the first place concerning pre 9/11 intelligence, and State's UN (show that anti-USA) oriented foreign policy. Hitting back at an effective Republican strategist like Rove seems in order for the opposition. Shoot, if they didn't I wouldn't have much respect for them to hit back. Kind of reminds me of "The Untouchables" and that Sean Connery line about the Chicago Way...

"You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone! Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?"

Finally!

Reports coming in this morning that London police (with guns) chased down a suspect from yesterday's bombing attempts and shot him dead. One down...you Limeys keep it up.


UPDATE: Evidently the guy was a Brazilian that didn't understand English and is not apparently connected to the terrorists in any way. Now the British Police are saying "sorry". Wrong move. The language thing is no excuse. At least some British civil rights groups are saying not to rush to judgement on the police action, considering the environment London is operating under. On the other hand, Muslim spokesmen are whining about how their young Muslim men are 'feeling', that they're afraid. Good. Maybe they'll finally figure out that if they don't want Islam hijacked by extremist thugs and ultimately have Islam outlawed as a religion in the West, they better get cracking.

Like my new hot tub?

Ya' gotta love CNN...

(CNN) -- Nearly 25,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the start of the Iraq war, according to a group that tracks such statistics from media reports.

The Iraq Body Count -- a London-based group comprised of academics, human rights and anti-war activists -- said on Tuesday that 24,865 civilians had died between March 20, 2003 and March 19, 2005.

The group said 42,500 injuries were recorded as well.

Academics....human rights activists...anti-war activists. Now there's some folks with no axe to grind. Surely all those media reports are accurate, right? Besides that...anti-war activists? Can't that be considered some type of oxymoron? I mean, anybody out there a "pro-war" activist? Anybody? Just raise your hand...anybody...oh Saddam, put your hand down...we know you're a pro.

When are we going to wake up out there? Islamic extremists are out to kill anybody thats not an Islamic extremist, a supporter, or in the case of too many other Muslims, enablers. I'm not sure the last two groups are neccesarily safe, either.

Can it be any more blatant? Watch this video...

Some five years ago, the mainstream media had made the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam. Check this video out from ABC News . Somehow it was OK for the media to connect the dots back in 2000, but if its George Bush's administration, all of a sudden the connection is non existent, and he 'lied'. BTW, if you don't have Realplayer, you'll need it.

Hat tip to Powerline on posting this one

How many wake-up calls do we need?

The most recent attack in London bears out one of the big problems facing us in the war on terror. No one else seems to know there is one, and if they do, they don't want to fight in it. By and large, the war in Iraq has been unpopular in England. Tony Blair has taken a considerable amount of flack and lost some political mojo in his unwavering support of our position before and during the current action in Iraq. At home, Brits have allowed their country to become a crossroads and sanctuary for Islamic Extremists to operate and grow unfettered in their midst. It will be interesting to see how they ultimately react and if they'll clean up the mess they made for the sake of 'tolerance'. Lets hope this doesn't become another Spain.