the things you believe you're seeing...

I guess them Dems will have file this one away for another day. Now if only the President can start bragging about the economy like Jack Welch says he should be doing. U.S. Economy Expanded at a 4.3% Pace in Third Quarter

It's the US & UK military's fault that these four people were kidnapped? Ok. And, God willing, if we can rescue them before any parts of their bodies are detached, would they say thanks to the terrorists for allowing them to get away? In a statement, Christian Peacemaker Teams said it strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and blamed the kidnapping on coalition forces . “We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people,” the group said. Christian Peacemaker Teams does not consider itself a fundamentalist organization, a spokeswoman said. “We are very strict about this: We do not do any evangelism, we are not missionaries,” Jessica Phillips told The Associated Press in Chicago. “Our interest is to bring an end to the violence and destruction of civilian life in Iraq.” The group’s first activists went to Iraq in ...

Betsy Newmark is all over a story from Jund Fund in the Wall Street Journal's online Opinion Journal Diary ; Last Wednesday, the Minority Leader appeared on KRNV-TV's "Nevada Newsmakers" program and dropped a stunning revelation. He had been informed just that day that Osama bin Laden was killed in the giant Pakistan earthquake last month. "I heard that Osama bin Laden died in the earthquake, and if that's the case, I certainly wouldn't wish anyone harm, but if that's the case, that's good for the world." Intelligence analysts tell me that the only proper action by a top U.S. Senate leader who has been given such information is radio silence. If the report is true, such information is best released at a moment of the U.S. government's choosing. For one thing, as long as the information is tightly held, it can be used to sift out electronic intercepts that might lead to other Al Qaeda leaders. On the other hand, if Mr. Reid's public s...

From the look on her face it seems that the Peace Mom is coming to the realization that her 15 minutes ARE UP! But that doesn't stop Reuters from running with this "patriotic" shot of PM at her book signing. See the rest at Sweetness and Light UPDATE : It seems Cindy is upset with AP and Reuters (imagine that!) for running the photographs that show her sitting in an empty book signing tent. She says it leaves the impression that the book signing was a flop. Newsflash to Cindy, it was! She is of course claiming that the conservative sites picked up the story and claimed that NO ONE bought her book. I know I didn't claim that, AP and Reuters didn't make that claim and all the blogs I read did not make that claim either. Editor and Publisher has the entire story. I guess Cindy just can't handle the truth! But in a statement today, Sheehan accused “right-wing” sites of “spreading a false story that nobody bought my book at Camp Casey on Saturday. That is not t...

Just when all seemed right in the world and the NFL, Arlen Specter has to stick his big fat nose where it doesn't belong... Sen. Arlen Specter, ardent Eagles fan and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, yesterday accused the NFL and its Philadelphia franchise of potentially violating antitrust laws in their treatment of Terrell Owens. Speaking at a news conference in Harrisburg, Specter (R., Pa.) said he was investigating the matter and might refer it to the Senate panel's antitrust subcommittee.

This op-ed by Senator Joe Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal will not get the "Murtha treatment" in the mainstream media for obvious reasons but it needs to be heard. This is from a guy who has been to Iraq four times and clearly sees progress being made. This passage is especially intriguing; Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory. Let me say it again, polls conducted by Iraqis for I...

I shake my head when I read lead paragraphs like this from the AP ; Sales of new homes soared at a record pace in October in what could be a last hurrah for the booming housing market. The Commerce Department said that sales of new single-family homes shot up by 13 percent last month, the biggest one-month gain in more than 12 years. The increase pushed sales to an all-time high seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million units. The increase confounded analysts who had been predicting that new home sales would decline by 1.8 percent, reflecting continued increases in mortgage rates. It was possible that the unexpected surge reflected a final rush by buyers to get into the market before mortgage rates climb higher. So we have record setting new home sales yet the AP says its the last hurrah. These so-called expert analysts are the only people I know of where they are paid for being wrong on a monthly basis. Can I have that job? If I was as wrong as they are I would be job-hunting co...

A fine roundup of how the media screwed up the reporting of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Canada's government is thrown out Stephen Harper celebrated after plotting his rival's downfall Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's government has been ousted in a no-confidence vote.

Well how about that, it seems a new poll says that the Democrats latest line of attack that "Bush Lied" is not playing very well with the American people. In fact it says that most Americans agree with the evil VP Cheney; Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney's suggestion that criticism of the administration's war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point. Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale. The raw data is here . And this is not a partisan poll by any means; But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a De...

And now with a shrine...

...but this time they are breaking the law and being arrested. Good! And where oh where is the peace mom? She has a family emergency and can't come down to Crawford until next week, she says. Maybe she is waiting to see what happens to the suckers, I mean, protesters who are there today. And by the way, why does a dozen protestes, thats 12 people, warrant news? Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallying against Zarqawi in Jordan hardly made a blip but the nut-job Sheehan supporters get frontpage coverage on MSNBC website .

Funny how these technical malfunctions never seem to happen to Democrats; The Political Teen has the video here . MediaBistro has more here including CNN's statement.

While listening to Sean Hannity the ABC Radio News hit at the bottom of the hour claimed that VP Dick Cheney was back-pedaling on the White House's alleged attacks on Rep John Murtha, playing a clip of the VPs speech today where he praised Murtha and encouraged healthy debate in the country. The problem is the only people that called Murtha a coward was the mainstream media while reporting on the supposed attacks by the White House. From CNN on Friday ; In a broadside issued Thursday night, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said that it is "baffling that [Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha] is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party." But McClellan added, "The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists." So where is the attack? I am not seeing it. Of course when the White House praises Murtha's service then the administration in backtracking. Unbelievabl...

Chris Matthews gave a speech at University of Toronto (well that figures) in which he said this; "The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said. "If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil — they just have a different perspective."

For about the ba-zillion-th time al-Zarqawi has been reported killed , this time in Mosul. We can only hope...

The House Republicans actually located some semblance of a spine last night and called the Democrats bluff by putting forth a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawl of troops from Iraq, what Rep. John Murtha called for on Thursday. Of course the Democrats are saying that he did not call for an immediate withdrawl but a gradual six-month draw-down of troops. I beg to differ; From the SF Chronicle; (11-17) 10:52 PST WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In another sign of rising discontent in Congress over the war in Iraq, perhaps the House's most influential Democrat on military issues called today for the immediate withdrawal of all American forces from that nation. From the NY Times : WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 - An influential House Democrat called the Iraq campaign "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" today as he called for the immediate withdrawal of United States troops , intensifying an already bitter debate on Capitol Hill. UPDATE: An excellent summary at Discriminations of how...

Anyone notice gas prices are way down ? Here in CT I can get gas for under $2.20 a gallon and in some areas of the country it is under $2 a gallon. So where is the breathless reporting on the cost of gas, not to mention the shrieking about oil being under $56 a barrel? Here's a site tracking gas price , just input you zip code and a radius...

An absolute must read (via Sgt Hook ). Hey Cindy Sheehan, this is what makes a noble cause, you ignorant fool!

After reading the breathless reporting by the MSM about Rep John Murtha calling for immediate withdrawl of troops from Iraq you would think that this was a stunning reversal of position. In reality this is what he has been saying since at least May 6, 2004; Signaling a new, more aggressive line against the Bush administration’s policy on Iraq, Rep. John Murtha (Pa.), the House Democrats’ most visible defense hawk, will join Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today to make public his previously private statements that the conflict is “unwinnable.” UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has a nice list of Murtha's past statements that are basically the same as what he said yesterday. The only difference is now he wants the troops home next month. UPDATE2: NewsBusters has more on the media ignoring Murtha last year. Interesting quote from Murtha sort of undercuts the Democrats latest "Bush Lied" mantra and mirros what the adminstration has been saying lately; In this interview, not...

Joe Wilson thinks that Bob Woodward should be investigated... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Joseph Wilson, the husband of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, called on Thursday for an inquiry by The Washington Post into the conduct of journalist Bob Woodward, who repeatedly criticized the leak investigation without disclosing his own involvement. "It certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. He was taking an advocacy position when he was a party to it," Wilson said. You don't say, say like for example having your own wife set you up to go on a "fact finding" boondoggle to Niger and then come back and lie about everything you found out? This guy has no shame at all...

VP Dick Cheney is getting into the act giving a powerful speech tonight attacking the "Bush Lied" Democrats, here's my favorite line of the speech; The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone – but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. The whole speech text can be found here .

The Washington Post reports today that their Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified on Monday in the CIA leak case that he was told be a "senior White House official" about Joe Wilson's wife one month prior to her identity being disclosed. This throws a huge monkey wrench into the timeline and the hysterical/breathless reporting that Scooter Libby was the first person to tell reporters about Valerie Plame. Woodward indicated in a statement that this source has not waived confidentiality so that would lead you to believe that it is not Rove or Libby. Keep an eye on Tom Maguire for an in depth look at this story.

Simply click the image and you will find a plethora of information on Iraq and Clinton from 1998, it's very eye-opening, I wonder if Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, Howard Dean, Chris Matthews and the rest of the "Bush lied" crowd have done this;

This says all you need to know about the democrats! MR. RUSSERT: But is it enough for you to say to the country, "Trust us, the other guy's no good. We'll do better, but we're not going to tell you specifically how we're going to deal with Iraq." DR. DEAN: We will. When the time comes , we will do that. MR. RUSSERT: When's the time going to come? DR. DEAN: The time is fast-approaching. And I outlined the broad outlines of our agenda. We're going to have specific plans in all of these areas. MR. RUSSERT: This year? DR. DEAN: In 2006.

A new movie about gay cowboys is coming to a theater new you soon, the question is how long will it last; No one knows that answer, because no one has ventured into this territory before. The movie is a groundbreaker. There's never been a homosexual cowboy movie, and while the indies have been supplying gay romances to the art house circuit for years, and gay series like "Queer as Folk" and "Will & Grace" have been pulling big numbers on TV, there hasn't been a mainstream gay love story since 1982's "Making Love," which bombed and was blamed by many for damaging Harry Hamlin's career. I am guessing that this one will meet the same fate, I am not sure this kind of subject matter plays to the masses very well. The coasts will love it, as do the film festivals. But I think it will be in and out of the Top 10 in a matter of 2-3 weeks. Pure speculation on my part, I could be totally wrong.

...and keep saying it! From the President's speech today; Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war –­ but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people. Leaders in my Administration and members of Congress from both parties looked at the same intelligence on Iraq –­ and reached the conclusion that Saddam Hussein was a threat. Let me give you quotes from three senior Democrats: First, quote, “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.” End quote. Here’s another one, quote, “The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as [Saddam Hussein] is in power.” End quote. And here’s the way another Democratic leader summed it up, quote, “Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the President's approaching this in the right fashion.” The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded ...

...and they don't have any post-war intelligence either.

This report from Reuters says the President Bush will "directly take on the false attacks that Democratic leaders have been making" in a Veterans Day speech today and all I can say is it's about f-ing time! The Democrats have been allowed to continually misrepresent, distort, mislead and lie about the reasons for going into Iraq. Specifically claiming that President Bush lied to get us into war by manipulating intelligence. And of course the media acts as a wing of the Democratic party by simply repeating every lie that people like Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen John Kerry, Sen Harry Reid, DNC Chairman Howard Dean and anyone else on the left has to say. But will anyone know about the speech? If the media ignores it, which they will mostly do, then the affect will be little if anything. So my suggestion, as if the President listens to my every word, would be to say something that takes on the media as well as the democrats. Link the two together. Call them...

Sen George Voinovich said this today ( via ABP ); " It is time to recognize a simple fact of life. Contrary to what some of my colleagues seem to believe, tax cuts do not pay for themselves." So how do explain this from the October 6 2005, CBO report ??? Receipts in 2005 were about $274 billion (or 14.6 percent) higher than in 2004, CBO estimates. Because that percentage growth far exceeded the growth in nominal GDP, revenues as a share of GDP rose from 16.3 percent in 2004 to 17.5 percent in 2005, the first increase since 2000. Read anything lately George??? Grow a spine!

On ANWR; I am so incensed over ANWR being dropped from the budget bill! Will you Republicans grow a pair, PLEASE! You are the majority party, ACT LIKE IT! Or in 2006 you won't be anymore! See here .

They are all the lastest approval ratings for President Bush from The WaPo, AP and C-BS News and they are all MEANINGLESS DRECK. Without boring you to death with the internals of these polls being worthless (weekend polling, income level of respondents and age) lets just look at the party ID percentages; ( via ABP ) Keep in mind the Party ID breakdown for the 2004 Presidential Election: Republican: 37% Democrat: 37% Independent: 26% Party ID of The Washington Post poll respondents: Independent-38% Democrat-31% Republican-27% Lean- Democrat 52% Republican-41% Independent-6%) Party ID of AP/Ipsos poll respondents: Democrat-49% Republican-40% Independent 9% Party ID of CBS News poll respondents (weighted): Independent-41% Democrat-35% Republican-24% Now is it any wonder that the approval rating is what it is? And it looks like these shenanigans (yes I said shenanigans) have been going on since July .

According to the lastest C-BS News poll, the President's approval rating is at 35%, well I guess they would get that number if the suppressed the number of Republicans surveyed down to, oh, I don't know, say 23.8%??? Well what do you know, thats exactly what they did; ( via RCP ) CBS News Poll New CBS News poll out tonight. Highlights: Bush job approval at all time low of 35% Bush favorable rating at 33% Right track 27%, wrong track 68% Congress job approval 34% Congressional Dem favorable rating 41%, Congressional Republican favorable rating 35% Now for the numbers behind the numbers. Take a look at the composition of the respondents: Total Respondents (Unweighted) = 936 Republicans = 259 (27.67%) Democrats = 326 (34.83%) Independents = 351 (37.5%) Now look at the weighted sample: Republicans: 223 (23.80%) Democrats: 326 (34.79%) Independents: 388 (41.4%) The result is a 35% job approval for the president, which is roughly 4-8 points lower than the other polls out right now...

This from the AP ; SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Parents have no constitutional right to prevent public schools from exposing children to sexual topics, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's decision that found the rights of parents were not violated by a California public school district that allowed a psychological survey of its elementary school children.

The dems love to say that Bush lied about WMD and thats why we went to war, blah blah blah, but they never want to tell you that there was much more in the Iraq war resolution besides WMD in Iraq. They'd prefer to keep saying and have everyone believe that the only reason we went into Iraq was because of WMD when in fact there were 7 reasons outlined in the Iraq War resolution and you can read the entire thing here .

Hey, I kinda like Oreo cookies... Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican. Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log. Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted. But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with "pointing out the obvious." "There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names," said a campaign spokesman for Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Oh and in case yo...

The Corner notes more news to make Harry and Dick happy.

Harry Reid has invoked the rarely used Rule 21 so that he can scream and cry about why Karl Rove wasn't indicted and about Scooter Libby being indicted, all under the disguise of demanding an investigation into pre-Iraq war intelligence. Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, demanding answers about intelligence that led to the Iraq war. Republicans derided the move as a political stunt. In a speech on the Senate floor, Democratic leader Harry Reid said the American people and U.S. troops deserved to know the details of how the United States became engaged in the war, particularly in light of the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Reid demanded the Senate go into closed session. With a second by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, senators filed to their seats on the floor and the doors were closed. No vote is ...

GatewayPundit has a link to audio of Joe Wilson spelling out his anti-Bush agenda a full month before the Novak column was published and he was propogating his lies even then. He starts off; "Let me just start out by saying, as a preface to what I really want to talk about, to those of you who are going out and lobbying tomorrow, I just want to assure you that American ambassador who has been cited in reports in the New York Times and in the Washington Post, and now in the Guardian over in London, who actually went over to Niger on behalf of the government-not of the CIA but of the government-and came back in February of 2002 and told the government that there was nothing to this story, later called the government after the British white paper was published and said you all need to do some fact-checking and make sure the Brits aren't using bad information in the publication of the white paper, and who called both the CIA and the State Department after the President's Sta...