Via Andrew Sullivan, this disturbing graph (which he got off the Free Republic):
Makes me want to vomit. Remember this the next time the lying Democrats claim Bush is gutting spending.
Republican Bile
Way to help ‘change the tone:’
Just a few blocks from the future site of Bill Clinton $160 million presidential library, a couple of Clinton haters hope to open a museum devoted to mocking his presidency.
“As long as he’s talking, we’ll have to be here trying to keep him somewhat honest and stop him from rewriting history,” says John LeBoutillier, a former Republican congressman from New York who rode Ronald Reagan (news – web sites)’s coattails to victory in 1980.
LeBoutillier and his partner, Houston businessman Richard Erickson, plan to call it the Counter-Clinton Library. They say the museum here and one planned for Washington will look at such topics as Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, the last-minute pardons, even damaged White House furniture.
“We already hear he’s going to bring a bunch of egghead economists to his library to say how great the economy was when he was president,” LeBoutillier says. “And we’ll find our own who can say it had nothing to do with him.”
This is an embarassment. What a bunch of jerks.
(via Wunderkinder)
*** Update ***
Apparently, this is old news.
Deep Thoughts
The death of Hussein’s sons could be good or bad:
The killing of Saddam Hussein’s two eldest sons in a battle with American soldiers in northern Iraq could be an important victory in a campaign to control, and even end, the guerrilla-style insurgency that has almost daily killed or wounded coalition troops, administration and military officials said here.
The assault that killed Qusay and Uday Hussein could set off an immediate wave of retribution attacks, officials said, but the deaths should also embolden more Iraqis to come forward with crucial information to energize the military’s anti-guerrilla operations.
Thanks. Some Iraqi’s are less ambivalent:
Baghdad’s curfew was broken by the crackle of gunfire as word spread last night that Saddam’s hated sons had been killed.
“It’s a celebration, people have heard about what happened,” a US military spokesman said.
On the streets, many Iraqis were prepared to speak out for the first time about Uday and Qusay. But while some celebrated their deaths, others wished they had been captured alive. Alaa Hamed, regularly beaten with clubs while he worked as a producer for Uday’s television station, said: “I don’t want him dead. I want to torture him first.”
Shopkeeper Abu Muhammed said: “This is very good news. Uday, Qusay, and Saddam are the ones who ruined this country.”
California Recall
I am against the recall of Gray Davis in California- I think there should be criminal behavior before an elected official should be kicked out of office. Please spare me the will of the people crap- sometimes those governing have to make tough decisions, and I want them relatively free to do so without feeling the immediate emotions of the population. Regardless of my opinions, it is clear the NY Times is against the recall. Otherwise, why else would they be doing Gray Davis’s hatchet work:
Backer of California Recall Feels Heat Directed at Him By CHARLIE LeDUFF
Darrell Issa, the millionaire congressman who is bankrolling the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, is facing nagging questions about two arrests for car theft in his youth.
This is front page news from the paper of record? A smear campaign launched by Davis and his lawyers? C’mon.
Holy Jesus
I wonder what peole will say about this:
President Bush’s erroneous reference to an Iraqi-Africa uranium link was understandable, former President Clinton said Tuesday, in part because Saddam Hussein’s regime had not accounted for some weapons by the time Clinton ended his term in 2001.
Clinton’s comments reinforce one of the pillars of Bush’s defense of the war in Iraq — that his Democratic predecessor was never satisfied that Saddam had rid himself of weapons of mass destruction.
“When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for,” Clinton said during a televised interview.
Clinton said he never found out whether a U.S.-British bombing campaign he ordered in 1998 ended Saddam’s capability of producing chemical and biological weapons. “We might have gotten it all, we might have gotten half of it, we might have gotten none of it,” he said.
In his State of the Union (search) speech in February justifying the planned war in Iraq, Bush referred to British intelligence reports that Saddam had tried to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons production. His administration says it now believes those reports were based in part on forged documents.
Clinton confined his remarks to biological and chemical weapons, and did not say whether he would consider credible any report that Saddam had wanted to build a nuclear weapons program.
Nonetheless, he suggested that Bush’s mistake was par for the course — and that it was time to move on now that Bush had acknowledged the error.
“You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president,” he said. “I mean, you can’t make as many calls as you have to without messing up once in a while. The thing we ought to be focused on is what is the right thing to do now.”
Clinton said ending tensions in Iraq should be the priority now — another echo of the current White House’s talking points. “We should be pulling for America on this. We should be pulling for the people of Iraq.”
Speechless.
(Via Hanks)
Excellent News
Common sense in the House:
The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to roll back a key provision, which allows the government to conduct secret “sneak and peek” searches of private property, of a sweeping anti-terrorism law passed soon after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The House voted 309-118 to attach the provision to a $37.9 billion bill funding the departments of Commerce, State and Justice. It would be the first change in the controversial USA Patriot Act since the law was enacted in October, 2001.
The move would block the Justice Department from using any funds to take advantage of the section of the act that allows it to secretly search the homes of suspects and only inform them later that a warrant had been issued to do so.
Sanity prevails.
When I am Wrong, I am REALLY Wrong
This thread about Democrats planning strategy and accidentally broadcasting their meeting was kind of amusing:
The conversation was transmitted to roughly 500 “squawk boxes” around Sacramento that political staff, lobbyists and reporters use to listen in on legislative proceedings.
….”Since this is going to be a crisis, the crisis could be this year,” Goldberg said, according to a transcript. “No one’s running [for reelection]. And maybe you end up better off than you would have, and maybe you don’t. But what you do is you show people that you can’t get to this without a 55% vote.”
….After about 90 minutes, a staffer interrupted to alert lawmakers that their meeting was not private at all:
“Excuse me, guys, you can be heard outside,” an unidentified staff member said.
“Oh [expletive], [expletive],” Goldberg said.
That is amusing enough, but it started to make me think about the California problem again. I have decided that if there was ever one thing I was wrong about, it was term limits. And, boy, was I wrong. Is there anyone out there who thinks that if a competent legislature with experience were in place, California would be in half as bad a mess as it is now?
As much as it hurts me, I am with Willie Brown. Term limits are not the answer.