NOW THAT MADONNA HAS SPOKEN UP ....

What a relief.  Finally our military commanders Iraq and President Bush's advisors have some expert guidance on what to do in Iraq.  Madonna has finally broken her gut-wrenching silence and has informed the world as to the correct course of action.  Madonna has now called for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq.  And, true to Hollywood custom, Madonna decided to share her foreign policy expertise with the world from a foreign platform .. an interview with British radio.  Madonna, who has successfully hidden her wide ranging knowledge on foreign affairs for quite some time now, says that she "(doesn't) want American troops to be in Iraq, period.  My feelings are, 'can we just all get out?'" 

No word from the White House yet.  I'm sure the president's advisors will be meeting this morning to discuss the wide-raging implications of Madonna's pronouncements.  Meanwhile, a grateful world breaths a sigh of relief.  Finally, someone with some sense has stepped forward to save the day.

RELENTLESS?

By the time you read this it will probably be old news, but the assault on Fallujah continues.  The insurgent's outer line of defense has collapsed and Iraqi and American soldiers are going house-to-house arranging meetings between Islamic goons and their personal collections of virgins. 

You may remember that several months ago American intelligence officials intercepted a message believed to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  If my memory is serving me well this morning I believe that al-Zarqawi said something to the effect that these American troops were "relentless."  He only thought he saw relentless a few months ago.  Now his goons are seeing the real thing.

I'm not a nice person ... so I can tell you that I'm looking forward to seeing the stacks of body bags containing the remains of the Islamic insurgent terrorists who have been targeting our troops and Iraqis seeking freedom for months.  'Bout time.

POST ELECTION SELECTION TRAUMA

That's what some shrinks in West Palm Beach, Florida are calling it.  Post Election Selection Trauma Disorder.  The acronym would be PESTD.  Pronounce it anyway you like.  The phrase is used to describe Florida voters who are visiting the offices of psychologists because of the emotional trauma of Bush's win last week.  The shrinks say that these pitiful people are emotionally shocked and paralyzed by Bush's win.

These people are weak.  They're emotional cripples.  They can't cope with life without the help and support of their grand caretaker government. They can't even cope with an election loss.  They sit there with blank expressions, mouths hanging open like a brook trout, staring off into the distance.  These are not the people that you could depend on when the chips are down.  They're a pathetic indication of things to come, of the "grief counseling" culture that permeates our society today.   There's a fight at the local government school?  Rush in the grief counselors.  Someone accidentally sets off a fire alarm?  Grief counselors.  Too many red lights on the way to your canasta game?  Grief Counselors.

This weakness disgusts me.  Your candidate didn't win?  Deal with it.  Resolve to do a better job of choosing a candidate the next time.  If you want to nominate a U.S. Senator as your presidential candidate, perhaps you should chose a Senator who actually has something to show for 20 years in office.  If you want to nominate a veteran, perhaps you would be well advised to find a veteran who didn't call his colleagues in the armed forces war criminals.

Thank God this country has been populated for the most part by people who react to adversity with a determination to go forward and persevere.  If America had to rely on these slugs sliming their way into psychologists offices in West Palm Beach in hard time our country would be doomed.

HERE COMES THE DOUBLE STANDARD

Attorney General John Ashcroft has submitted his resignation to President Bush.  He's ready to move on, most likely for health reasons.  The rumor is that the president will nominate his replacement today.  So who will it be?

The leading candidate is Larry Thompson, who served as deputy attorney general until last year and is said to be a favorite of the president's.  Thompson has just landed a high-paying job with Pepsico, so it's not certain if he would accept the nomination  If the nomination is offered, and if he accepts, Thompson would be the first black American to lead the justice department.  So what does that have to do with anything?  Plenty.

If he is the choice, expect the Democrats to go even harder on him in the confirmation hearings, and completely ignore his minority status.  You see, promoting minorities to key positions is only a good thing when they're liberals.  Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice don't count, and neither will Larry Thompson.

Remember: black liberal Democrats are good; black Republicans are bad and not really genuine black people.  Just watch.

TIME TO START DRILLING

One of the most sacred places to the left is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.  They make it sound like it is a place filled with flowing green meadows, burgeoning with endangered wildlife.  What they always fail to mention is that the oil-rich part is a frozen, barren wasteland.  Bet you didn't know that, did you?

So now that the Republicans have increased their majorities in the United States Senate, it looks like President Bush has the votes to send the oil rigs north and start tapping oil-rich ANWR.  Couldn't have come at a better time.  Expect the bedwetting environmentalists and the media to go absolutely ballistic over this.  Too bad. The facts are the facts.

With oil at $50 a barrel and gas at around two bucks a gallon, the United States relies too heavily on foreign sources of oil.  It is estimated that 11 billion (that's right...billion) barrels of oil lie underneath the frozen tundra of ANWR and it could be tapped without any environmental damage.  Drilling for that oil is a no-brainer, yet for some reason, the left opposes it.  Their reason?

Hypocrisy.  They want to deny Americans the ability to become less reliant on foreign oil and to pay lower prices at the pump.  Somebody might make a profit, you know.  We can't have that!  In their socialist utopia, everyone rides their bicycle to work and heats their home with solar power.  Everyone, that is, except them.

Liberals love their SUVs and rock stars like to ride around in their private jets, consuming mass quantities of fossil fuels, all while complaining about the price.  But don't suggest drilling for more oil in the United States to increase the supply and bring down the price...you might harm the environment.  They want it both ways.

By the way ... do you know just how much of ANWR would be affected by the drilling?  Here's an illustration.  Take a look at a chair sitting on a nine foot by twelve foot rug.  The rug represents the total size of ANWR.  Now, look at the space on that rug occupied by just one leg of that chair.  Just one leg.  That's the representative area of ANWR that would be disturbed by the drilling.  Didn't know that, did you?

The time to get the black gold flowing out of Alaska is now.

DEAD OR ALIVE?

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether or not Yasser Arafat has assumed room temperature and gone to visit his 72 virgins yet.  Reportedly, Palestinians are making burial preparations to bury the lifelong Islamic terrorist thug.  There are reports that he is still alive in a French hospital, but most reports say he is dead. 

I know you're not supposed to say things about dead people unless it's good.  Well, he's dead.  Good.

And so it is that now the media swoon will begin.  He will be portrayed as the symbol of Palestinian struggle, and a proponent of Palestinian statehood.  The truth is he was in favor of winning neither.  Just like the NAACP has no interest in eliminating racism, Yasser Arafat had no interest in a Palestinian state.  It would mean he was out of a job, and being a pimp for the downtrodden paid pretty well.  In fact, it paid so well, they're not sure where all the money he stole from the Palestinian people went.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat everything including the moon at Camp David in 2000, and he turned it down.  At that point, it was plain for anyone to see that Arafat did not want peace.  His continued support for terrorism and his direct payments to suicide bombers further cemented his status as a Palestinian warlord.

Perhaps now that he is pushing up daisies, the Palestinians will get their state.  Maybe.

AND YOU THINK GAYS ARE A THREAT TO THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE

Socialite tramp Nikki Hilton got married in August.  Now she's not married.  How long did that last?  Four months?  And you think two gay Americans who love each other and who want to live together in a legally recognized relationship present a grave threat to the institution of marriage?  Look to Hollywood and our celebrity culture.  There's your threat.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The European political establishment is hostile to Christianity.  Big surprise there, right?

What led to Bush's victory more than anything?  Was it the Democrats? Gay marriage?  The War on Terror?  CNN's Carlos Watson (of all people) says don't discount the political genius of George W. Bush.

Does George W. Bush have a mandate for a second term? You bet...just ask John Podhoretz.

The left always accused the right of appealing to voters' selfishness, but this year they tried the same thing and it got them nowhere.  Mark Steyn explains.

We need to win a decisive battle in Fallujah, no matter what the cost is in death or destruction to finish the job once and for all.  Ralph Peters says this is the biggest military operation in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad.

Is the 2004 election a high water mark for the Republicans, or is it a springboard to decades of Republican control?  Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says it can be the latter, but only if the party takes some steps to ensure its success.

Remarkably, the media is now generating the myth that voter fraud in Ohio and Florida may have handed the presidency to President Bush.  The Media Research Center reports.

The media and the pundits talk about how America is a divided nation, but has anyone ever stopped to ask why?  Walter Williams does, and has some reasons.

President Bush has said he will have no litmus test when it comes to selecting candidates to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.  However, that has not stopped Arlen Specter from having his own litmus test.  Thomas Sowell looks at the issue in part two of this series.

Jonah Goldberg has a follow up to his column offering advice to the Democrats.  He says what's bad for the party isn't necessarily bad for America.

The media's coverage of election night shows their leftward tilt; one need only look at their decision not to call Ohio for Bush.  Brent Bozell explains.

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