Blogs For Victory

All sorts of accusations flew around regarding the missing emails of the Bush Administration.

So, one has to ask, why is Mr. Hope-and-Change siding with Bush on it?

The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.

Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.

So, my liberal friends, what is your excuse for Obama on this?

Gee, the American GULAG, isn’t:

Obama’s Government Report: Guantanamo is Humane and Abides by Geneva Conventions

President Obama in one of his first actions in office ordered the closure of the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. He also ordered an in-depth study of the prison camps to decipher whether the terrorists and alleged terrorists at Gitmo are properly treated and that U.S. troops are abiding by the Geneva Conventions.

The report, part of which was leaked today, shows that Gitmo “complies with the humanitarian requirements of the Geneva conventions” and that the prisoners are treated with dignity. A Pentagon official, who spoke anonymously, said that it showed that the Bush administration created a humane detention camp that has been unfairly characterized by critics. Speaking of the remaining 245 detainees there, this official said the report underscored that if the men are moved, they may “go from a humane environment to a less humane environment,” according to the New York Times.

Just what made you liberals out there even think for a moment that Gitmo was inhumane?

It can only be explained by a knee-jerk hatred of anything America does, especially if the President is Republican at the time.

This should get liberals foaming at the mouth:

Look, I don’t always agree with Coulter. She sometimes seems to scream black whenever the media screams white (a strategy that works only about 85 percent of the time). I’m pretty sure we really did evolve from apes—myself within living memory. And I enthusiastically endorse any and all non-bloodletting sex acts done in private between consenting adults—as long as you don’t then ask me to pay for the resulting child, abortion or course of medication.

But the whole way liberals work is to redefine manners and morals in such a fashion that conservative common sense automatically becomes hateful. If you note that women and men are different, you’re misogynistic. If you denounce the destruction of marriage in black communities, you’re racist or moralistic. If you call for the defense of America against the world-wide Islamist menace, you’re a bigoted warmonger. If we take this garbage seriously even for an instant, we spend our whole lives playing catch-up, saying sorry, going on defense.

Coulter’s answering strategy is to blow all that foolishness away. She says the unsayable thing, does it with intelligence, humor and style and gets the world exactly right far more often than not.

I have to admit, Ms. Coulter has got me laughing quite a few times, too. Anyone can be a rhetorical bomb thrower, but to do it with style takes talent, and Coulter has an abundance of that. Its all about how to stick the knife in where it does the most damage, and doing it with a smile:

(Sing to “Jingle Bells”)

Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell

Whitey has to pay;

Burning, shooting, oh what fun

On this made-up holiday!

Kwanzaa itself is a nutty blend of schmaltzy ’60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven “principles” of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life — economics, work, personality, even litter removal. (“Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.”)

This sort of thing just makes liberals go ballistic – they shout that Coulter is a racist, that she’s mean, that she’s hateful…yadda, yadda, yadda. It gets tiresome, these liberal accusations. Coulter is what Coulter is. Love her, hate her; whatever floats your boat. But don’t try to demonize her or dismiss her via a bit of junior-league Leninism where people become “unpersons” for having strayed from the party line.

The “Tea Party” spreads:

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township.

Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan.

Specter, 79, acknowledges his run for re-election will be tough.

He says he’s not completely happy with Obama’s plans but he points out that he was able to cut the price tag by over $100 billion and he says he was able to increase the amount of tax cuts.

Even so, Specter acknowledges the Republican Party’s conservative wing will attempt to unseat him in next year’s primary race.

Yeah, no kidding. S. M. G. Specter Must Go!

I’m sick of having to carry around people like Specter – they take our money, take our votes and then when we really need them, they invariably jump to the other side. Did any of us ever really doubt that Specter would do something like this? Do any of us doubt that he’ll do it again? I’m sure Senator Specter is a nice guy and there are areas of agreement between him and the larger GOP, but it is when Democrats are planning on blowing through a trillion dollars of pork that we really need the GOP to stick together.

Specter should become the 60th Democrat, or become an Independent; he shouldn’t even seek the GOP nomination for Senator. Better to have an Independent or moderate Democrat we can work with from time to time than an alleged GOP Senator always available to throw us over when the chips are down. For Specter to use the alleged $100 billion he trimmed from the spendulus to garner GOP support is an outrage – if we’re wasting a trillion, telling us that we’ll now “only” waste $900 billion doesn’t really help matters. Either you think the spendulus is what is needed, and thus vote for it in total, or you think its a crock of feces, and you vote against it entirely.

I’ll be sending donations to any conservative – or even moderate GOPer who will stick by us when really necessary – rather than support Specter. And I hope the RNC and the NRSCC are reading things properly here – if there is a primary challenger, stay out of it this time and allow the GOP voters to decide who gets the GOP nomination.

The news story:

Israeli President Shimon Peres chose hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to form a new Israeli government, giving Netanyahu six weeks to cobble together a coalition.

The question now is whether Netanyahu will form a narrow government with his hard-line allies or a broad government along with his centrist rival, Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni. His choice will have serious ramifications for the Mideast peace process.

Peres made his announcement early Friday afternoon after holding meetings with Netanyahu and Livni. An official ceremony appointing Netanyahu was to be held shortly afterward.

Peres had been meeting political leaders as he decided which candidate would be given the task of forming a new coalition in the aftermath of Israel’s national election last week.

The choice of Netanyahu was cemented on Thursday when Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party, endorsed the Likud leader.

Israel girds for war – I wonder if Obama is fully paying attention to this? Israel feels its life is at stake, and isn’t going to patiently wait while Obama has State dinners with the leaders of Iran.

Larry Kudlow takes it to task:

Reporting from the Chicago commodity pits, my CNBC colleague Rick Santelli unleashed a torrent of criticism against this scheme. Santelli said: “Government is promoting bad behavior. . . . Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages? This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama, are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgages! It’s a moral hazard.”

All this took place on the air, to the cheers of traders. Santelli called for a new tea party in support of capitalism. He’s right.

Obama’s so-called mortgage-rescue plan amounts to $275 billion in new debt that will have little if any lasting impact on deeply corrected housing prices or the mortgage-default problem that stemmed from the insistence of government to throw home loans at lower-income people. A modest reduction in mortgage rates will have little impact on home prices, as Harvard professor Ed Glaser has shown. And by the way, re-default rates on modified mortgages have been running 50 to 60 percent. This is not going to change. So why should we throw more good money after bad?

All very correct – but we do need to do something to deal with the fact that a lot of people who are maintaining their mortgages are now sitting on houses which have lost 50% of their value. The incentive, right now, is to go out and figure out some way to purchase one of the foreclosed houses for half the mortgage a person is carrying, and then let the other house drop into foreclosure. And don’t think no one is thinking along these lines…its the logical thing to do when you’ve put $130,000 into a house which has a 400K mortgage and couldn’t sell for 200K if one’s life depended upon it.

Such, anyways, is my situation – but, of course, I won’t do such a thing. The temptation was there, and the temptation was resisted…and now after much cajolery I managed to get my lender to see a bit of reason and we’ve worked out an acceptable deal, albeit one which still has me short the $130,000 I’ve put into the place. Not everyone will be able to resist such a temptation – and if a two income family loses one source of income (something which is becoming more common as unemployment rises), it might become a financial necessity to go the route of buying a new home and allowing the old one to drop away.

Unfortunately for us, Obama seems to be concentrating most of his effort on people who are at or near default on their existing loans. I’ve got no particular problem with helping people stay in their homes – both morality and practicality decree that I be in favor of keeping people in their homes (having someone become homeless is something we must, as believers, work hard to prevent…on the other hand, even a non-believer doesn’t want yet another foreclosure on the market to drag down housing values even further). Given that Obama is a liberal, it is a natural that his plan mostly involves throwing good money after bad.

What should we do? Essentially go into bankruptcy re-organization of our housing and mortgage markets – rework loan balances to reflect current market values…the banks will lose some of their outstanding receivables, but lots of home owners will lose a lot of money they have put into houses, even if all they’ve put in is interest-only payments for two or three years (this still adds up to quite a lot of money). Everyone loses, but then we’ve got a market where house prices match house values, and thus we can start to rebuild from there. The real beauty of this plan is that it doesn’t require a taxpayer fund to cover other people’s bad moves.

Of course, we should be open for suggestions – I certainly don’t hold my idea as the be-all and end-all of existence, but I do like the factors of human solidarity and mercy it reflects. Anyone has other ideas, they should be brought forward…maybe one or two good ideas will eventually get to Obama, and then we might actually have a recovery in the housing market.

Just another day in America – where no stone will be left unturned to provide race-hustlers with a reason for existing:

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied to boycott the New York Post on Thursday, branding the newspaper as racist for publishing a cartoon that (had absolutely no relation to President Obama or, indeed, any person) (Ed. Note: news story edited to make it true)

Liberals, race-hustlers, politically correct fascists – you’re really starting to bore us. And annoy us.

Don’t push this too far, or you’ll get burned.

(Oh, my, “burned”…the KKK burned crosses, and Mark is a Christian, and what that means is that he’ll burn a cross because he’s a racist!!!…so will go liberal “thinking” on this)

Bringing the absurdly named “Fairness Doctrine” out from under its lefty rock, and exposing it to the light of day:

Although a spokesman for President Barack Obama said the administration wouldn’t pursue the revival of the Fairness Doctrine, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, S.C., wants Senate Democrats to go on the record one way or another on the issue.

DeMint, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, said on Feb. 19 he will offer the Broadcaster Freedom Act as an amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights bill next week. The Broadcaster Freedom Act was introduced by Republican lawmakers last month and prevents the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

“I’m glad President Obama finally confirmed his opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, which attacks the right of free speech on talk radio, but many Democrats in Congress are still pushing it,” DeMint said. “With the support of the new administration, now is the time for Congress to take a stand against this kind of censorship. I intend to seek a vote on this amendment next week so every senator is on record: Do you support free speech or do you want to silence voices you disagree with?”

Its a fair question – and unless Reid can squash this, it will pass overwhelmingly, because no Democrat up for re-election in 2010 will want to be within a country mile of a vote against free speech.

We must fight and must remain vigilant – the left wants to curtail freedom because it leftwing thought holds that non-leftwing thought is wicked…deliberately wicked, or wicked by being folly, but wicked in any case. And something which is wicked is not to be tolerated – in this case, Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio, with a possibility of throwing in the conservative blogosphere, too.

If we want to emerge out of the Obama morass as free people, we will have to keep on our toes to guard our liberties against a leftwing which doesn’t really understand what liberty is.

Because if President Obama is determined not to fight, then he’d better figure out how to surrender on the Iranian nuclear issue with the least damage possible:

Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.

In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, UN officials said Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought.

Given the nature of the beast here – ie, the delay between actual event and non-Iranian agencies getting into the know – we can probably assume that Iran is within a year of a nuclear device. Remember, this isn’t the work of the world’s greatest geniuses, anymore – pretty much anyone who has the materials can build the device. There is more to a nuke than the uranium, of course, but we can’t count on Iran still being far from the rest of the materials necessary for nuclear weapons.

Now, as to what I mean:

We can fight – we can work out the best plan possible for attacking in an aerial campaign the identified Iranian nuclear sites coupled with a naval blockade preventing the export of oil and the import of gasoline. This is fraught with risk, but we do have a first class army in Iraq and a first class army is being built up in Afghanistan, so we have the ground forces east and west to keep any Iranian attempt to widen a conflict under wraps. Our air and naval forces are so vastly superior to the Iranian that even if the Iranians are capable of landing a Sunday punch, we can rely that very swiftly we’ll have absolute control of Iranian airspace and a tight blockade on Iran’s coastline.

Fighting won’t solve the problem – it will delay Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps by many years, but it won’t stop it, unless the Iranians voluntarily pull the plug. That is what the blockade is for – bombing to wreck the program, blockade to be the bargaining chip to get Iran to dismantle its nuke program under US supervision. Blockade and careful bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites is my preferred option.

We can surrender – we can decide that we can live with an Iranian nuclear force and thus work out some sort of deal where we guarantee Iran against any future American attack in return for some sort of concrete Iranian agreement to some course of action we desire (such as, to keep the IDF out of the picture, an engagement to not supply any more weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah). This sort of deal doesn’t commend itself to me, but if we are to engage in such a surrender to Iranian pretensions, its better to do it now, before Iran has a nuke and while we hold the strategic upper hand. This way we can gain maximum advantage, if any is able to be gained (something I doubt, because tyrannical regimes like Iran tend to be inherently dishonest).

Fight or quit – and lets pray we don’t have President Obama making empty threats and quasi-surrendering, because that would have us held in contempt and would do more to energize the mullahs than anything else we could do.

Mark and I have been saying for a long time that the Democrats phony tough stance on ethcis and corruption would come back to bite them… and it looks like they are about to get bit really hard.

The Obama administration and the new Congress are quickly handing over to Republicans the same “culture of corruption” issue that Democrats used so effectively against the GOP before coming to power.

Freshman Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., is only the latest embarrassment.

Senate Democrats accepted Burris because they believed what he told them: He was clean. Burris now admits he tried to raise money for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who authorities say sought to sell President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.

“The story seems to be changing day by day,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday.

The political mess for the Democratic Party, however, isn’t Burris’ conduct alone; it’s the pattern that has developed so quickly over the past few months.

• The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is the subject of a House ethics investigation. It’s partly focused on his fundraising practices for a college center in his name, his ownership financing of a resort property in the Dominican Republic and his financial disclosure reports.
• Federal agents raided two Pennsylvania defense contractors that were provided millions of dollars in federal funding by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
• Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on federal charges, including allegations he schemed to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder.
• Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota, abandoned his bid to become health and human services secretary and the administration’s point man on reforming health care; and Nancy Killefer stepped down from a newly created position charged with eliminating inefficient government programs. Both Daschle and Killefer had tax problems, and Daschle also faced potential conflicts of interest related to working with health care interests.
• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was confirmed after revealing he had tax troubles.
• Obama’s initial choice for commerce secretary, Bill Richardson, stepped aside due to a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors.
• While the Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm William Lynn as deputy defense secretary, Obama had to waive his ethics regulations to place the former defense lobbyist in charge of day-to-day operations at the Pentagon.

The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Richard Durbin of Illinois, expressed his anger about the Burris case Wednesday while he was on an official visit to Greece.

On that note, I am scheduled to do a book signing at CPAC 2009. If any of our reader will be there, bring your copy of Caucus of Corruption (or buy one there) and check the final schedule and I will sign your book!

And of course, bookmark Democrat Corruption, which, as the name suggusts, chronicles corruption in the Democratic Party.