WEDNESDAY 10/29/03

THE ENVIRONMENTAL ANGLE IS STARTING TO COME OUT

At last ... some in the media are starting to question the role of environmentalists and environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and  Earth First in the devastating California wildfires.  It seems clear that the severity of these wildfires would have been reduced if proper forest management policies had been followed.  These policies were blocked time after time by environmental radicals and the politicians who pander to them.

If there is any silver lining to this cloud of smoke over Southern California, it may be that environmentalists will be weakened and some common sense management of forests and areas prone to wildfires will occur.

DIE THE WAY YOUR VICTIMS DID

I've long felt that murderers should die the same way their victims did.  This includes arsonists.  If and when they catch any of the arsonists who set some of these fires in California they should be tried for murder.  If they're convicted they should be nailed to a dead  tree in the middle of an area scheduled for a controlled burn.  Set the match and stand back.  Try to stand upwind though.

LIVES WERE SAVED ... LET'S COURT MARTIAL THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE

Lt. Colonel Allen West was serving with the 4th Infantry from Ft. Hood, Texas.  He was serving in an area of Iraq known as the Sunni Triangle ... an area where many American soldiers have been killed.  Col. West received word from an Iraqi informant that an attempt was going to be made to kill him.  The Iraqi informant also said that a local police officer was part of the assassination plot. 

Col. West ordered the suspect Iraqi police officer detained and questioned.  When he was told that the police officer was not cooperating he decided to take over the interrogation himself.  He pulled out his service pistol and fired two shots near the head of the Iraqi police officer.  The gun was not aimed at or anywhere near the Iraqi's head.  The tactic worked, though.  After the second gunshot that Iraqi started blabbering like a child. He disclosed who was to carry out the attack and where the attack on Col. West was to take place.  The attack was averted.  American lives were saved, and the Iraqi police officer was not harmed in the process.

So .. what is to become of Allen West?  He's being offered a choice.  He can either (a) retire from the army before he is eligible for any retirement benefits; or, (b) he can face a court-martial. Why?  Because Lt. Col. Allen West. assaulted that poor Iraqi officer who was part of a plot to kill Americans.

Is this how you fight a war?  Those people are trying to kill our people, and we can't use a little fear of Allah to get them to reveal assassination plots?  Don't you just know that our special ops types are using tactics much worse than this with some Al Qaeda detainees?

The Magi present gifts to the Baby Jesus. [more]

IT'S JUST THIS EASY

If the United States were to follow the advice and the campaign platforms of John Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Weasley Clark, or Dennis Kucinich in Iraq we would, in effect, be doing exactly what Saddam Hussein wants us to do.  Don't some of you find it just a little odd that the Democratic Party has a rich history of promoting the agenda of our enemies? Many of you don't remember the Cold War and the arms race with the Soviet Union.  During the days of the arms race, the Soviet Union wanted the United States to unilaterally disarm to show its good faith.  Back in the good ole' USA who were those people backing and supporting the Soviet unilateral disarmament designs?  Democrats, that's who.  When the decision was made by a Republican president to send Pershing II missiles with nuclear warheads to Europe to counter a Soviet threat, the Soviet Union was naturally upset.  They demanded the missiles be removed.  And just who was it in this country that was carrying the water for the Soviets?  Why, it was our good appeasing friends, the Democrats.

Now .. in Iraq .. the most influential and arguably the most powerful support group that Saddam Hussein has anywhere in the world is made up of Kerry, Dean, Edwards, Clark and Kucinich.

Gotta love 'em.

GO TO THE DOCTOR!

When is that sore on Nelly's face going to heal?

READING ASSIGNMENTS

A must read.  Thomas Sowell tells how California has managed to increase test scores for government school students, not so much by teaching the students but by changing the test.  OK .. read this and then hustle your kid off to your local government school.

What if the current crop of presidential candidates were running for president in 1944?  Would they be screaming for an "exit strategy?"

Now we have Weasley Clark, the Army General who was relieved of his command for unspecified integrity and character issues, blaming George Bush for 9/11.

The Wall Street Journal editors are wondering if that was a Democratic presidential debate or a Republican campaign ad we saw Sunday night.

Bruce Bartlett says the stars may be lining up for a tax increase. 

Blame weather extremes on global warming? Well, if you want to ignore science and the facts, I guess you can go ahead and do just that.  What, though, is wrong with basing government policy on actual real scientific data instead of shaky computer models?

The number one health problem in the United States?  I would say it's stupidity ... but I don't know if we can categorize stupidity as a health problem.  The head of the CDC says that honor goes to obesity.  And the lardassification of America goes on.

Maybe ... just maybe the feds owe you a tax refund.  Hey, it costs nothing to check.  All you have to do is check here.

The cover of Newsweek has a picture of George Bush.  The headline reads "Bush's $87 Billion Mess."   The words "Waste, Chaos and Cronyism" can also be found.  Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center wants you to go every Newsweek from the eight years of Clinton and see if you can find the words "mess" or "cronyism" next to a picture of Clinton.  Yup, there is no liberal bias in the media.

President Bush continues to amaze, baffle and infuriate most of the Washington political class.  No wonder they hate him so.  This from Tony Blankley.

Walter Williams wrote an excellent two-part column about our government schools and a way to end educational mediocrity.  Here are your links to part one and to part two.  The columns discuss a book "No Excuses:  Closing the Racial Gap in Learning."

And here's more on the book "No Excuses."  Mona Charen says that it may turn out to be the most important book of the year.

Did Iraq smuggle materials from its weapons program to Syria prior to the attack?