An Interesting look at Iraq from the inside. Thank God for blogs

"Those guys can do some pretty smart stuff sometimes," a senior adviser to one of the Democrats said.
Ya think?

The Debate Show Nears the End of its Run
Great look at the damage the Democrat Debates on all three cable news networks have done....to Democrats.

The Complete Message from the President Yesterday: Courtesy OpinionJournal:
BAGHDAD, Iraq--Thank you. I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere. Thank you for inviting me to dinner. Gen. Sanchez, thank you, sir, for your kind invitation and your strong leadership. Ambassador Bremer, thank you for your steadfast belief in freedom and peace. I want to thank the members of the Governing Council who are here, pleased you are joining us on our nation's great holiday, it's a chance to give thanks to the Almighty for the many blessings we receive.

I'm particularly proud to be with the First Armored Division, the Second ACR, the 82nd Airborne. I can't think of a finer group of folks to have Thanksgiving dinner with than you all. We're proud of you. Today, Americans are gathering with their loved ones to give thanks for the many blessings in our lives. And this year we are especially thankful for the courage and the sacrifice of those who defend us, the men and women of the United States military.

I bring a message on behalf of America: We thank you for your service, we're proud of you, and America stands solidly behind you. Together, you and I have taken an oath to defend our country. You're honoring that oath. The United States military is doing a fantastic job. You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq, so that we don't have to face them in our own country. You're defeating Saddam's henchmen, so that the people of Iraq can live in peace and freedom.

By helping the Iraqi people become free, you're helping change a troubled and violent part of the world. By helping to build a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East, you are defending the American people from danger and we are grateful.
You're engaged in a difficult mission. Those who attack our coalition forces and kill innocent Iraqis are testing our will. They hope we will run. We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost in casualties, defeat a brutal dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins.

We will prevail. We will win because our cause is just. We will win because we will stay on the offensive. And we will win because you're part of the finest military ever assembled. And we will prevail because the Iraqis want their freedom.

Every day you see firsthand the commitment to sacrifice that the Iraqi people are making to secure their own freedom. I have a message for the Iraqi people: You have an opportunity to seize the moment and rebuild your great country, based on human dignity and freedom. The regime of Saddam Hussein is gone forever.

The United States and our coalition will help you, help you build a peaceful country so that your children can have a bright future. We'll help you find and bring to justice the people who terrorized you for years and are still killing innocent Iraqis. We will stay until the job is done. I'm confident we will succeed, because you, the Iraqi people, will show the world that you're not only courageous, but that you can govern yourself wisely and justly.

On this Thanksgiving, our nation remembers the men and women of our military, your friends and comrades who paid the ultimate price for our security and freedom. We ask for God's blessings on their families, their loved ones and their friends, and we pray for your safety and your strength, as you continue to defend America and to spread freedom.
Each one of you has answered a great call, participating in an historic moment in world history. You live by a code of honor, of service to your nation, with the safety and the security of your fellow citizens. Our military is full of the finest people on the face of the earth. I'm proud to be your commander in chief. I bring greetings from America. May God bless you all.

The President in Iraq On Thanksgiving Day: "
'We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins,' the president said, prompting a standing ovation and cheers."

Any Questions?

My Way.Com
If you've clicked on links from the Drudge Report recently, you've read the stories through this new website. Very well designed, very fast loading, just plain very good. Worth checking out.
It's my new home page.
And, they didn't pay me a dime to say so.

The Massachusetts Ruling: A Tactical Error For the Gay Community?An interesting take on the gay marriage ruling. Worth considering.

And this, from the editors at National Review:
Actually, the difficulty for those who would prefer to sit on the fence is even worse than that. If you agree with the Massachusetts ruling — if you think that it was rightly reasoned as well as rightly decided — you cannot even be a moderate supporter of gay marriage who believes that intelligent people of good will may disagree. Opponents of gay marriage are irrational bigots, equivalent to the people who opposed interracial marriage in bygone days. The court declares that there is no rational basis for defining marriage in a way that renders same-sex couples ineligible. Thus the traditional marriage law cannot survive even if the court subjects it to the lowest level of scrutiny it can apply. The court repeatedly likens its decision to the Supreme Court's invalidation of bans on interracial marriage. It sees no difference between the cases.

The President's Speech in London
While the media has been on Jacko watch, something important happened today, and also something important didn't happen.
President Bush gave an important speech. He didn't back down, he didn't beg for UN intervention.
He reminded the Western democracies of their history, and their responsibility.

It's been said that those who live near a police station find it hard to believe in the triumph of violence, in the same way free peoples might be tempted to take for granted the orderly societies we have come to know. Europe's peaceful unity is one of the great achievements of the last half-century. And because European countries now resolve differences through negotiation and consensus, there's sometimes an assumption that the entire world functions in the same way. But let us never forget how Europe's unity was achieved -- by allied armies of liberation and NATO armies of defense. And let us never forget, beyond Europe's borders, in a world where oppression and violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal, and freedom and security still need defenders. (Applause.)

Oh yeah. And what didn't happen?
The protests.
200 showed up.
I'd post a story, but can't find any.
Funny how the Media doesn't want to cover the nonstory.....

Fast Company | The Wal-Mart You Don't Know
You don't read many articles about Wal-Mart. Fascinating look at what it takes to keep your brand in the store, and a look at where the jobs are going. Teddy Roosevelt, where are you when we need you?

Unemployment Drops.
Ah well, the Democrats still have Iraq....for now.

Reagan II
This speech may have been missed by many. I promise it wasn't missed in the middle east. Mr. Reagan would be proud.

Victor Davis Hanson, On what this war is Not about.

We had a vote last autumn about going into Iraq. The Senate decided overwhelmingly to give the president the power to go to war — and even earlier it had passed domestic legislation to crack down on terror. All the present screaming about illegality and the excesses of the Patriot Act cannot change the fact that the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary were all involved, as they should be, in the present decisions to fight in Afghanistan, Iraq, and here at home against stealthy killer-cells. We have had plenty of time for our versions of Bob Lafollette and Charles Lindbergh, who screamed long, hard, and a little dishonestly to keep America out of its two World Wars.

Yet when war did come, at least their frenzy ceased and the nation closed ranks to defeat the enemy. So when Gen. Clark implies that President Bush knew in advance about 9/11 or when candidates Kerry and Dean insist that the effort in Iraq is characterized by deceit, illegality, and corruption, they and all those who repeat their slurs have crossed the line, and will only earn the wages of a George McClellan who likewise slandered Lincoln as a warmonger, lost the election, and then rightly ended up in bitter retirement.

It is time for Clark, Dean, Kerry and the rest either right now to advocate legislation to stop the war and bring the troops home — or to simply be quiet and support the effort of our soldiers. Any further hysteria about purpose rather than quibbling over tactics, and the American people will rightly conclude that such Democratic invective hurts America and helps its enemies, whose entire strategy of assassination and terror is aimed at appealing to the anti-war movement in the United States.

Vietnam is much evoked by the Democrats, who apparently believe the country was lost in 1973-4 when they cut off money for further support. So it is now the hour for them likewise to conjure up that time-tested Vietnam remedy by cutting off the money, bringing home the soldiers and calling it quits. If they really care about the troops at war, they must either support their efforts or bring them back — but not leave them in limbo as they damn their mission.

We are in a war and we are winning due more to the courage and superb character of our soldiers than to the popular mobilization and engagement of the American citizenry itself. We have the best military in the history of civilization, but we can still lose this war — unless we remember September 11, acknowledge the awful nature of our enemies, and always, always accept the truth that civilization itself hangs in the balance.

Its been an odd week for me. My wife decided to run my car through the wash with the antenna up. The car was quite clean, the antenna quite broken. Also broken was my link to talk radio on my hour and a half drive to and from work. No more Spike O'Dell or Don Wade and Roma in the morning.
No more Rush fill-ins at noon,
and no more Hugh Hewitt on the drive home.

In its place, the book tape version of April 1865, the Month that Changed America. Can't think of any book more timely, as we continue this war, than to contemplate the last time this country was under attack on its own soil, that time by its own people.

I was listening to the story of the brave and honorable Robert E Lee, as the Democrats attacked their own over a flag.
I was listening to the howling voices of capitulation, as Lincoln steadfastly kept his eyes on the goal of Union, above all else. In the present, the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence were caught politicizing the war.

I was hearing the voices of the thousands dying in The Wilderness, as today's press wailed over the loss of a few soldiers cleaning up the mess that is Iraq.

I guess, in many ways, I wasn't so out of touch after all.

The Tortoise and the Hare
The United States got to the moon in less than ten years. That was over 30 years ago.
China will launch its first moon probe in three to five years.
There's an a line from the Sputnik days, attributed to Lyndon Johnson: "I don't want to be lookin' up and seein' a damned Red moon!"
He may have been looking into a Chinese future.....

So What Caused the Fires?

Here's one look at a cause, from Hugh Hewitt.
My hope is that folks currently living in the People's Republic of California will take a hard look at what their Democrat led government has given them.

By the way, funny how Sen Barbara Boxer switched her vote on the Healthy Forest initiative after opposing it for so long.
To see just how vociferously she has opposed the initiative, just run a Google search with these four words.
Barbara
Boxer
Healthy
Forest.
Get past this week's stories, and look at her obstruction for over a year.
Ya think Southern California burning down around her had anything to do with her change of heart?

The Will to Win
I don't often quote extensively from the peices I post. I want folks to read the articles for themselves.
But this article from Friday's OpinionJournal is a keeper.

Here's and extended segment:
Incredibly, every Democratic Presidential candidate save Dick Gephardt and Joe Lieberman has opposed Mr. Bush's $87 billion request to fight the war. Senators John Edwards and John Kerry voted against this money to finish the war they both voted to start. Wesley Clark not only opposes the money but this week blamed Mr. Bush for failing to stop September 11. Of all people, a decorated Vietnam veteran such as Mr. Clark must understand that his words are heard not just in Des Moines and Nashua but in the Baathist bunkers of Tikrit and Fallujah.
We are not saying that these voices want the U.S. to lose. But their criticism is so virulent and unconstructive that it is clear they won't let themselves believe that America could win. Chasing Howard Dean to the left, Mr. Kerry is all but saying that if he becomes President the U.S. will withdraw post-haste. In Sunday's Democratic debate, the Vietnam war and protest veteran also divorced what is happening in Iraq from the broader war on terror. "And this war on terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering, law enforcement operation," he said.

At least this comment gets to the heart of the matter. Mr. Kerry is endorsing the pre-9/11 consensus on how to fight terrorism. Try to disrupt the terrorists if you can, but be ready to endure their blows and send the police and prosecutors to get them after the fact. We tried that once, and the result was 3,000 dead civilians.

It's time we all recognized the stakes. And the cost of putting politics ahead of country.

The Jewish Problem
The rise of anti Semitism, and worse, its acceptance by Liberal elites is on the rise. It is confronted head on in this column by Victor Davis Hanson.