Brutally Honest

Meet Harley

21 weeks ago we lost our beloved Sadie to liver failure.  We thought then that it would be a very long time before we allowed a dog to steal our hearts again.  Looks like we thought wrong. 

Harley, who up until roughly 4 PM this afternoon was known as Jack and belonged to a young family who thought it best that they part ways, is a mixed breed with a decidedly blue-black colored tongue and a very mischievous disposition. We're told he's roughly 6 months old, has been fixed (poor guy) and comes equipped with a locator micro-chip that was implanted in his shoulder.  He's roughly 30 pounds of wound up energy and I suspect he's going to spice up our lives.

Pray for us.

Vote... and often

If you think this picture's pretty cute, then I'm thinking you should go here (or click on the pic) and make your opinion known (while making me a benefiter of your benevolence).

At the bottom of the page, vote for Rick (which is a vote for Jacob, little nephew of my sis-in-law and tug-on-his-cheek cute).

Justice Thomas is being brutally honest

Webloggin provides the evidence:

The plurality’s willingness to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is both unprecedented and dangerous. - Justice Thomas in Dissent

The Court did recognize that detainees need to be held until the war is over.

Excerpt from Justice Thomas’s dissent

Moreover, the President’s determination that the present conflict dates at least to 1996 is supported by overwhelming evidence. According to the State Department, al Qaeda declared war on the United States as early as August 1996. See Dept. of State Fact Sheet: Usama bin Ladin (Aug. 21, 1998); Dept. of State Fact Sheet: The Charges against International Terrorist Usama Bin Laden (Dec. 20, 2000); cf. Prize Cases, 2 Black, at 668 (recognizing that a state of war exists even if “the declaration of it be unilateral” (emphasis in original)).

In February 1998, al Qaeda leadership issued another statement ordering the indiscriminate—and, even under the laws of war as applied to legitimate nation-states, plainly illegal—killing of American civilians and military personnel alike. See Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders: World Islamic Front Statement 2 (Feb. 23, 1998), in Y. Alexander & M. Swetnam, Usama bin Laden’s al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, App. 1B (2001) (“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it”). This was not mere rhetoric; even before September 11, 2001, al Qaeda was involved in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the bombing of the U. S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the attack on the U. S. S. Cole in Yemen in 2000. See id., at 1. In response to these incidents, the United States “attack[ed] facilities belonging to Usama bin Ladin’s network” as early as 1998. Dept. of State Fact Sheet: Usama bin Ladin (Aug. 21, 1998).

Based on the foregoing, the President’s judgment—that the present conflict substantially predates the AUMF, extending at least as far back as al Qaeda’s 1996 declaration of war on our Nation, and that the theater of war extends at least as far as the localities of al Qaeda’s principal bases of operations—is beyond judicial reproach. And the plurality’s unsupportable contrary determination merely confirms that “‘the Judiciary has neither aptitude, facilities nor responsibility’” for making military or foreign affairs judgments. Hamdi, 542 U. S., at 585 (THOMAS, J., dissenting) (quoting Chicago & Southern Air Lines, 333 U. S., at 111).

Some Funky skewering of The Gorebot

Last night on The Daily Show, The Green Prophet complained about "the ideological lines becoming harder and the vitriol coming mostly from the right".  This is ever so funky sweet in reply:

Really?

Vice President Dick Cheney is "sleazy and despicable."

-- Al Gore, Sept. 5, 2004

"The Republican right wing has launched a kind of civil cold war in a very ruthless fashion."

President Bush's faith is "the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia."

-- Al Gore, interview in The New Yorker, Oct. 11, 2004

"And every day they [the Bush Administration] unleash squadrons of digital brownshirts to harass and hector any journalist who is critical of the President."

-- Al Gore, speech at Media Conference, Oct. 4, 2004

"The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorist attacks against the United States ...

"He planted the seeds of war. He harvested a whirlwind ... And now the corrupt tree of a war waged on false premises has brought us the evil fruit of Americans torturing and sexually humiliating prisoners who are helpless in their care."

-- Al Gore, speech at MoveOn.org, May 26, 2004

And another reminder in the comments:

[Al Gore, screaming, red face] "George Bush betrayed this country!"

Ahh... bald faced hypocrisy unveiled... it's a beautiful thing...

Worth a visit or two

Don't you think?

H/T Froggy.

“A Good Program…to Make Us Safer…Is Over.”

Byron York at National Review Online has a must read column up:

Thomas Kean, the co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, was briefed several weeks ago about the Treasury Department’s terrorist-finance program, and after the session, Kean says, “I came away with the idea that this was a good program, one that was legal, one that was not violating anybody’s civil liberties…and something the U.S. government should be doing to make us safer.”

Kean tells National Review Online that the New York Times’s decision to expose the terrorist finance effort — Kean called Times executive editor Bill Keller in an attempt to persuade him not to publish — has done terrible damage to the program. “I think it’s over,” Kean says. “Terrorists read the newspapers. Once the program became known, then obviously the terrorists were not going to use these methods any more.”

I can't understand those who want to defend The New York Times.  I can't understand it at all.  And yet they're out there.

Loons.

AP shills for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth

This U.S. Senate committee report provides detail:

June 27, 2006

The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled “Scientists OK Gore’s Movie for Accuracy” by Seth Borenstein raises some serious questions about AP’s bias and methodology.

AP chose to ignore the scores of scientists who have harshly criticized the science presented in former Vice President Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In the interest of full disclosure, the AP should release the names of the “more than 100 top climate researchers” they attempted to contact to review “An Inconvenient Truth.” AP should also name all 19 scientists who gave Gore “five stars for accuracy.” AP claims 19 scientists viewed Gore’s movie, but it only quotes five of them in its article. AP should also release the names of the so-called scientific “skeptics” they claim to have contacted.

Nice to see some in the Senate joining those questioning the gospel according to Gore.  Nicer still to see key members on the blogroll doing the same.

Truth about An Inconvenient Truth is getting out, gradually but steadily.

Sojourner's false front

Fishkite points us to this Sojo press release with an interesting reference that turns out to be something other than factual:

-- Jim Wallis Holds a Conversation with Gov. Howard Dean on the "Democratic Party and the Faith Voter." (Tuesday, June 27, 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.) Gov. Dean and Mark Melman were invited to discuss: "How do Democrats and Republicans Plan to Overcome Poverty." Gov. Dean accepted the invitation; Mark Melman of the Republican Party declined.

The problem?  Mark Melman is a Democratic pollster and ex John Kerry aide.  Now Fishkite suggests that Sojo meant to invite someone with a similar sounding name who is a Republican.  And perhaps that's the case.  But what really caught my eye and prompted this post is this Fishkite introductory paragraph:

Slate alerts us to Pentecost 2006, the religious left’s political gathering starting this week, organized by Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Call to Renewal. Headliners include Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and Howard Dean, with a few Republicans thrown in to maintain the Marxist group’s bipartisan facade.

Marxist group?  Bipartisan facade?

Amen.  And amen.

War Posters continued

Michelle continues the Photoshopping wars with effect, Mike's Noise providing a most poignant entry.

And Hugh Hewitt is especially applying much needed pressure and exposure to the Times' duplicitousness.

"Disgraceful"

Michelle Malkin's Hot Air has the video of a pissed off President.  It's righteous.

... what we did was fully authorized under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America. What we were doing was the right thing. Congress was aware of it, and we were within the law to do so.

The American people expect this government to protect our constitutional liberties and, at the same time, make sure we understand what the terrorists are trying to do. The 9/11 Commission recommended that the government be robust in tracing money. If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money. And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror.

I'd like to see this President get pissed off more often at those who are doing their level best to aid and comfort the enemy.  Much more often.