From The Hill:

Forty-one senators have pledged to filibuster any bipartisan spending bill that includes an amendment to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood, threatening an impasse with House conservatives.

The group, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), includes thirty-nine Democratic senators and two Independents, Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.)…

Lieberman is a real let-down on this one – but, more than likely, he just doesn’t really know what Planned Parenthood does. As a good, northeastern Liberal his views of PP are informed by the carefully scripted spokespersons for the group who put out absurd lies. If Lieberman would look in to it, he’d swiftly find out that PP is not a family planning or health care organization, but the merest collection of abortionists and anti-human fanatics.

Outside of Lieberman, the rest are just doing what Democrats do – getting on their knees to abortion upon command. Liberalism has become a religion (well, strictly speaking, a sort of Anti-Religion), and the sacrament of the Church of Liberalism is abortion. They have to kill children – Moloch must be appeased, lest the campaign funds dry up. It is a sad day for America when mercy as well as fiscal sanity are set aside in favor of murdering the innocent.

Looks like we’ll get a shot at least one of the fleebaggers – from Journal-Sentinel Online:

The head of the campaign to recall Sen. Robert Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie) says the group has gathered enough signatures to force a recall election.

Dan Hunt, chairman of Taxpayers to Recall Robert Wirch, says his organization has “well over” the 13,537 signatures required to force Wirch into a recall election, though he said the group still has a goal to collect 18,000, in case some of the signatures are disqualified. He said it’s likely the signatures would be filed with the state Government Accountability Board next week.

“Let the voters of Senate District 22 decide whether Senator Wirch was justified when he left the Senate to flee to Illinois,” Hunt said in a statement…

Remember, the people of Wisconsin have been relentlessly propagandized about the evil of Governor Walker and the GOP. The liberal/MSM narrative is that the events in Wisconsin have re-energized the liberal base and unions and now its payback time. And yet, it was still a genuinely grassroots conservative group which is first past the post in the recall efforts…this indicates that underneath all the liberal shouting, the conservative revolution continues.

A bit of a disturbing story – from CBS:

Authorities intercepted a parcel this morning addressed to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) containing a bloody pig’s foot and a derogatory message, a source has confirmed to CBS News.

The parcel was intercepted at the Congressional mail facility in Landover, Maryland, where mail sent to lawmakers is screened for security risks…

King, of course, is investigating the radicalization of American Islam – so, is this just the act of a screwball, or it is a threat? One thing certain, we have to work on the assumption that its a threat. Remember, Islamists are people who will kill you if you point out that they will kill you if you offend them.

From Fox Nation:

The Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee said his party’s budget proposal for 2012 would cut deficits by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, vowing to tackle costly entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid.

The proposal, set to be unveiled Tuesday, would serve as the Republicans’ official response to President Obama’s proposed $3.7 trillion budget for 2012. The White House claims its plan would cut deficits by $1.1 trillion over a decade.

But Ryan, R-Wis., in an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” accused Obama of “punting” and said Republicans’ plan would exceed the fiscal goals set by the president’s fiscal commission — which issued a report calling for $4 trillion in cuts. That report never made it out of committee…

It is true that the President is punting – and the alleged $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction in the President’s plan is almost certainly bogus. It is probably the result of rosy revenue forecasts and “we’ll cut next year” savings. For all we know, the President’s plan is still working on the idiotic assumption that ObamaCare will reduce the deficit. So, very good that the GOP will call him on it and offer a vigorous alternative. Pity, though, that it simply isn’t enough.

$4 trillion in cuts sounds like a lot, but it is over a decade…which means $400 billion a year. Cut $400 billion from the FY 2011 deficit and you still get nearly a trillion dollars in deficit. And I’ll bet that a lot of the cuts are back-loaded…in other words, I’m figuring that we don’t start with, say, $800 billion in cuts the first year and then go from there. It’ll probably be a couple hundred billion in cuts right now with more to come later. We promise. But even if we really did cut $400 billion a year, it would not stop a complete fiscal collapse of the United States. We need to have a balanced budge by about 2015 or we’re toast – and that will take more than $400 billion in cuts.

We could probably get away with $800 billion in cuts in FY 2012 provided that it was followed by another $800 billion in FY 2013, and at least another $400 billion in 2014. That sort of budget cutting would have a strong chance of actually balancing the budget by FY 2015 – and when I say “balanced” I mean really balanced…where Uncle Sam actually spends less in 2015 than he takes in, entitlements included. That is the only way to avoid a real fiscal crisis – we have to get ourselves to a position where we are no longer borrowing to pay for current expenses. Only thus can we be sure of the ability to roll over short-term debt at something other than a ruinous interest rate (and we have built up a massive amount of short-term debt over the past two years thanks to exceptionally low interest rates…but that is something which cannot and will not go on forever)…only thus can we avoid the fate of Greece.

I know a lot of experts out there say otherwise. They claim either that the debt/deficit is not that bad, or that in any event the United States will never default. I remind everyone that these same experts never figured that the sub-prime mortgage market would collapse…I remind everyone that the economic experts are, for the most part, a bunch of Keynesian dolts who haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. We can default – eventually, we can build up so much debt that, at first, people will only lend to us at extortionate rates and, eventually, won’t loan to us at all because they fear we won’t be able to pay back. This is crunch time – this is the time where we must act to avert a crisis. We can do it, or we can punt and hope that things work out…but, they won’t; of that you can be certain.

In the end, the GOP plan is good. It will be useful in getting our house in order. It clearly shows the differences between the GOP and the Democrats heading in 2012. But it isn’t enough – not by a mile. We need to really get serious about this…and our hope is that a new, GOP-lead government in 2013 will do just that.

UPDATE: In March, Uncle Sam spent 8 times more than he took in. Houston, we have a problem…

UPDATE II: By CBO numbers, the cuts will be $4.4 trillion…using Obama’s numbers, it will be $6.2 trillion in cuts. Here’s the kicker – the drop dead date on the debt ceiling is now July 8th.

UPDATE III: Obama’s plan? Why, spend more money, of course! In this case, double conservation spending and buy more land. The man is simply not serious – he’s an utter fool.

Nick Cohen at Standpoint explains, in regard to the way the global MSM entirely missed the story now exploding in revolution in the Moslem world:

…No news organisation in the West could base their main Middle Eastern bureau anywhere other than Israel, for the simple reason that it was the only free country with a free press, an independent judiciary and a constitution. Researchers and diplomats, as well as reporters, could phone or visit Palestinians in the occupied territories, as indeed could anyone else. Crucially, in an age dominated by images, television crews could get pictures. I am not saying that the authorities do not harass foreign or Israeli correspondents trying to report the undoubted violations of Palestinian rights, simply that they can report from Jerusalem but cannot from Damascus or Riyadh…

Add to it a bit of overt anti-Israel (if not pro-Palestinian) bias and the Palestinian’s increasingly savvy understanding of how to manipulate news stories in their favor and, presto!, you’ve got it. A decent, civilized, democratic nation beset by a host of enemies who would kill every Israeli if they could is cast as the villain. Meanwhile, the tyrants of the Moslem world – corrupt brutes, to a man – are let off…as are the Islamists who would stone a woman or a gay man to death at the drop of a hat. Not to mention the number of Christians brutalized and murdered over the years, the religious sites desecrated, the horrible fate which awaits anyone who dares to convert from Islam to another faith.

I’ve been saying for a long time – since pre-9/11, even – that no one really knows what the people of the Moslem world want. This is absolutely true and is easily demonstrated – without free elections to give an indication of where the people want to go there is no way to say, with certainty, that this or that action is opposed or supported by the Moslem people. No one – not the most learned and expert person on the area and its people – knows if Israel is really a bone of contention for the Moslem people. Perhaps it is true that the Moslem people want war to the death with Israel…but we won’t know until the Moslem people are allowed to vote in a series of multi-party, fair elections (just one vote doesn’t count…parties can win a lot of different ways, especially when it is the first time the people are really voting).

The only evidence we really have of Moslem attitudes towards Israel, the United States, the West in general and the Islamists is Iraq. There we have had several multi-party and reasonably fair elections. And here’s the thing – those groups who, perhaps, would want to make their main appeal on exterminating Jews or fighting the United States have not done well in the elections. For the most part, the people winning in Iraq tend to concentrate on bread and butter issues, along with security against foreign and domestic violence. I’m sure there are plenty of Iraqi politicians who rhetorically beat up on Israel, etc. on the stump…but in practical terms, there’s not too many votes in promising to send someone’s children off on suicide missions against Israel. Think for a moment, good people…do you really believe that Ahmed out there who’s got six kids to raise and is trying to rebuild his farm after years of oppression, war, revolution and civil war is hankernig to fight Israel? Would you be?

Just a bit of thought – and a bit of willingness to actually dig out the truth – will quickly explode the myths we have come to believe regarding that area of the world. In a word, we’ve been had. A lot of con artists (ours and theirs) have suckered us – even on the highest, official levels – in to believing a fairy tale about what has gone on and what will solve the problem. And here we’re just talking about how screwed up the debate is on Israel and Islam…we haven’t even got in to the way laziness and lies have messed up all other debates.

From global warming to abortion to gay marriage to energy policy and all down the line – all of our debates are deformed by incompetent and/or lazy reporting. It is easier to just show pictures, context be damned. Easier to quote an ignorant fool who has a shocking sound bite than to actually sift the evidence. It takes a lot of effort to really know what is going on – and a lot of humility to admit to ignorance. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t noticed too many hard working and humble MSMers of late.

The good news is that the New Media is stepping in to the breech. Because we have Drudge and Breitbart and blogs the truth is coming out…no one person or group having it all, but a diligent person can get a grasp of the situation by reading a variety of sources. This is why the old media is starting to fall apart – as the New Media digs up ever more of the truth, it is ever more clear that the old media reporting is often just a pack of lies. Some times not deliberate lies, but lies none the less. We have, I believe, a better informed population now than at any time in the last 100 years – we finally have reporting agencies who are fearless and willing to tell the truth regardless of consequences. And because of this we are developing the raw materials of rational policy.

Now, if we could just get a set of national political leaders who are as well informed as the people, we might actually get somewhere.

From NRO’s The Corner:

State supreme-court justice Michael Gableman stumped for his colleague, justice David Prosser, at a Republican luncheon this afternoon. He knows a thing or two about bruising high-court races. In 2008, Gableman unseated supreme-court justice Louis Butler, flipping the court’s balance to a 4-3 conservative majority. With JoAnne Kloppenburg, an environmental lawyer, mounting a high-profile campaign against Prosser, that majority risks being upended.

“We need you step out of your comfort zone,” Gableman said, his voice rising. “This is it. The truth is, if they succeed in taking David Prosser out, a man who has deserved and earned a reputation as a judicial conservative — not legislating from the bench, but simply applying the law — and they replace him with an unqualified partisan, well, then we get four black-robed masters who will serve as veto power over everything the governor and the legislature does, whether it is this governor and this legislature, or governors and legislators yet to be elected.”…

And that, indeed, is the issue in Tuesday’s Wisconsin election. The choice: re-elect a judge who will fairly rule on the law, or elect a thuggish, left wing ideologue who will rule which ever way the liberal party line demands? (Thuggish? Yes – while Kloppenburg has kept herself at arms-length from the nastiness she has refused to condemn or stop other liberal groups from using outright slander against Prosser…even when one of the subjects of an attack ad plead with Kloppenburg to stop using his case in a lying attack ad, Kloppenburg refused to act). If the people of Wisconsin wish to have the freedom to decide for themselves the future of Wisconsin, they will return Prosser to office…if they prefer to have someone entirely controlled by shadowy and corrupt liberal groups, then they’ll vote for Koppenburg.

It is probably impossible to poll in this race – the normal turn out for such elections is about 10-15%. Some guess it could go as high as 30% as the forces of the right and left step up their activities. While Prosser has received some excellent help from TEA Party and other groups, the left (as usual) will vastly outspend the right. It really will turn on who shows up – the left is counting on an energized union-stooge base to show up…and then using a new liberal court majority to undo everything Walker and the legislature have done or will do (and that, my friends, is telling…they are working desperate to find an un-democratic way to thwart democracy; if this doesn’t convince you that the left is fascist, nothing will).

Will the left be proven right? They could be – and thus I urge you, if you are in Wisconsin, to get out and vote…this is important. If we can beat back the left right here, right now, we will greatly weaken their efforts going in to 2012. This is all part of the process – all part of our march to victory. Did you think the left would roll over and play dead after the people rejected them last year? Heck no. They never cared what the people thought, anyway…the left is all about securing personal power and wealth for the left; they won’t go away and they won’t go down without a fight. Here’s our chance to smack them one more time.

This is just one step too far – he’s gone entirely against America and is unfit to hold office. From Hot Air, regarding Sen. Graham’s comments about the Koran burning/Islamist riots issue:

…As for Graham, “I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable,” he laments, clearly deflated by the thought that the First Amendment applies even while we’re “at war.” And if you’re not sure what he means by “at war” — well, I’m not either. Are we “at war” only if troops are in the field? No Koran-burning, in other words, until the last U.S. serviceman has left Iraq and Afghanistan (and Libya)? Or are we “at war” as long as Al Qaeda and other anti-American jihadist movements exist, ready and willing to demagogue acts like Jones’s for their own uses? Even if all Islamist outfits in the world were eliminated, wouldn’t Graham want to continue the ban on Koran-burning lest it inspire new jihadist outfits to spring up? There’s no limiting principle to this idea, realistically. It’d end up being his own version of an “emergency law.”…

There should be no place in American government for a man who thinks that curbing free speech in response to enemy outrages is a good idea. This has nothing to do with Jones or the fact that he burned a Koran – as we know from the past, the Islamists will use anything which comes to hand to advance their pursuit of wealth and power (and that is what its all about – religion is just a mask for them; something used to cover up the fact that they are just out for themselves). During World War Two were we careful not to insult Hitler or Hirohito for fear that might make them madder at us?

What Jones did was wrong – as a religious man, I simply cannot agree that a person should desecrate another’s holy book. But I can also understand it – often a desire to deliberately insult Islam has come to my heart and mind, only suppressed as I realize that my Lord would not have me do it. But right or wrong, Jones as an American was perfectly within his rights to do as he pleases with a book he owns…it was his Koran and if he wanted to burn it, use it as a door stop, chop it up for mulch or whatever, it was his right to do it. And no government official should ever question the motivations of a non-violent act by an American citizen. As far as the government goes, it doesn’t matter why Jones did it…but here comes Lindsay Graham (with at least some support from Harry Reid) announcing that he wishes he could in some way sanction Jones for exercising both his property and free speech rights.

If other people around the world don’t like it, then that is just too bad. If they want to go on a murderous rampage because of it, then we should kill them for doing it. Decent, civilized human beings do not murder people because someone else did something physically harmless, even if it is gravely offensive. It is the duty of all those who defend civilization to support the right of a man to do as he pleases wit his own, as well as our duty to kill or otherwise render harmless anyone who would seek to do violence over such an act. Enough is enough of this – stop kowtowing to Islamists. Stop worrying about what barbarians will think.

From the Washington Post:

U.S. officials are becoming increasingly resigned to the possibility of a protracted stalemate in Libya, with rebels retaining control of the eastern half of the divided country but lacking the muscle to drive Moammar Gaddafi from power…

Once again, we either should have gone in weeks before we did when the rebels could have won it easily with a little support, or we should have gone in with both feet. Now, I can’t see us finishing this except by the employment of US ground forces…and I figure the best use of such forces would be to drop on Tripoli like a thunder clap, hoping that the sudden appearance of US Marines and Airborne troops there would cause Gaddafi’s forces to give up and seek a way out…and then we turn that city over to the rebels as soon as they can drive from Benghazi, and we get out.

If we keep on as we are, then we’ll just have a drawn out, expensive operation where Libyans will keep suffering and dying with no end in sight. Meanwhile, our enemies will be encouraged as they see us unable to even get someone as small time as Gaddafi out of power. This is just a bad situation rapidly getting worse – the result of putting in to office a man of no knowledge and no sense.

2012 can’t come fast enough…

William A. Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection has an excellent report on the slanderous “Goldstone Report”, Goldstone’s semi-apology for his slanders, and the damage done to Israel and basic, human decency by Goldstone. For those who haven’t been following it, Richard Goldstone was head of a commission established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (member States include Cuba and China) to investigate Israel’s efforts to defend herself against unprovoked rocket attacks coming out of Gaza. The fact that the UN Human Rights Council was involved immediately demonstrated that fair treatment to Israel was impossible – and the report produced confirmed this fact by actually accusing Israel of committing war crimes. The report, itself, has been used with great success by enemies of Israel – especially in the increasingly anti-Semitic political left. That Goldstone is Jewish has just added a level of authority to a report which is really nothing more than a dog’s breakfast of absurd complaints about Israel…a democratic State fighting for it’s life against anti-democratic, anti-human barbarians.

Goldstone has now issued a sort of apology for the report, essentially admitting that he was a willing useful idiot for the terrorists…stupidly figuring that if he condemned Israel, the terrorists leaders would actually do something about all the brutality meted out by the thugs running Gaza. Its like trying to get the Mafia to go legit by arresting the cops. This apology, correctly, is being condemned as inadequate – Goldstone’s report will always exist and will always be used by the terrorists and the global left as an excuse for their continued and increasing attempts to destroy Israel. You can’t un-say a lie and few people will ever hear of Goldstone’s retraction (and those who use Goldstone’s report will just ignore it the apology, even if they do hear about it).

What I wish to hit here is the fundamental absurdity behind the report – that there is something called a “war crime” which can be detected, prosecuted and punished by means other than war. To be sure, crimes can be committed in war, but the idea of a “war crime” is just a bit of globalist, liberal nonsense left over from the early 20th century. Most famously, of course, in the aftermath of World War Two we placed on trial the Nazis of Germany as well as a few of the leaders of Japan…some where executed, others imprisoned for lengthy periods of time. This was supposed to set a new standard for justice…the concept that the leaders of the world could be held legally accountable for their actions.

But, think about it – when we convicted Nazis of plotting aggressive war (one of the charges listed at the Nuremburg tribunal), among the judges were representatives of the USSR (which plotted aggressive war against Poland in agreement with the accused Nazis) as well as representatives of the United Kingdom (which plotted aggressive war against Norway in order to forestall crucial trade between Sweden and Nazi Germany). How can you condemn someone for doing something you’ve done? To be sure, the 6 million murders committed by the Nazis in the death camps cried out for justice…but justice was not served by having Stalin’s representative on the court because Stalin’s regime had already murdered vastly more than 6 million and was to keep on murdering for decades thereafter.

It is said that Winston Churchill opined that, after the war, we should have just picked one fine morning, lead the Nazis out of their cells, and shot them. Brutal? Sure. But it would not have had the stench of rank hypocrisy around it as the war crimes trials did, nor would it have burdened the world with the continuing concept of war crimes trials. Terrorists attack Israel for no reason and Israel is accused of war crimes…heck, former President Bush is held to be a war criminal by the same people who would never dream of trying to put the Hamas leadership on trial. Its just a bunch of nonsense. But nonsense, it must be noted, which comes with a blood price.

The Goldstone report, and efforts like it, convince the terrorists that they can win political victories with ease. All they have to do is launch some missiles at Israel, wait for the response and then shout “war crimes!” knowing that people like Goldstone will pick it up and carry the ball. Result: more pressure on Israel to offer concession, more terrorist attacks on Israel to force more offers of concessions…more and more blood and destruction. And at the back of it, the long-held terrorist hope that the Jews can all be killed or driven out of Israel. That is what Goldstone’s report abetted…and that is what we get for subscribing to an idea as idiotic as “war crimes”.

Have done with it. As we fight wars, make decisions on what we’ll do with enemies captured. Kill them or let them go and make no fuss about it. If we think they’re brutes whom we can’t trust to be free, then kill them…if not, then just let them go after the war is over. Whatever we do, don’t offer inhuman enemies the chance to use our decency against us – don’t allow them to take concepts of “human rights” and “war crimes” and use them to weaken our ability to defeat them. It is time we got back to reality.

“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” – Matthew 6:16-18

Why the Biblical quote? Because I got this in my e mail from Justin Rubin at MoveOn:

We don’t have a budget crisis in Washington. We have a moral crisis.

When Congress can seriously debate forcing veterans into homelessness and cutting food aid to pregnant women and children, while giving tax breaks to billionaires, something is very, very wrong.

That’s why this morning, I joined, along with the heads of seven other major progressive organizations, in an ongoing fast launched by religious leaders to protest the brutal and unjust budget cuts being debated in Washington…

So now a desire to not spend money we don’t have is an immoral action? And the liberals are asking us to engage in a very public, religious act in opposition to a proposal to not spend non-existent money? And they’re doing this during Lent when a lot of Christians fast every Friday? Sorry, but this is just too outrageous.

The immorality of not spending non-existent money on the kids of today? How about the immorality of saddling today’s kids with crushing debt because liberals really won’t agree to any cuts, at all? Budget cuts are brutal? How about the brutality of abortion, which liberals want to be taxpayer funded? And this leaves aside the propriety of calling God in to a political battle. When I pray for Obama and the rest of our leaders, what I pray for is that they will listen to God and go along the paths of mercy and justice…I don’t pray they’ll be bent to my political will on this, that or the other issue. It just wouldn’t be fitting to do otherwise…but here come our liberals, people who normally despise all religion, playing upon peoples’ religious feelings in order to protect every last penny of government spending.

A truly disgusting display of both cynicism and hypocrisy.