AND THE DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE?

If we want to be honest about this, here is your concise report on the status of the war on terror.  While the American people have not lost their will, the Islamic terrorist jihadists have not lost their determination.  This combination of attitudes spells nothing good for our future safety and our very culture.  The terrorist game plan for the past few years has largely been to destroy our will to fight ... our will to resist.  They have succeeded to an extend unimaginable in the months following 9/11.  The true horror here is that the terrorists have met with this amazing success with the eager help of Democrats, the mainstream American media and, of course, those who profess to be Americans but who, in fact, hate this country because of its success, wealth and power. 

There was aging San Francisco hippie Nancy Pelosi after Bush's speech yesterday demanding an American withdrawal within six months.  Anyone who does not fully understand that there were cheers in the terrorist training camps at Pelosi's words simply does not understand how grave this situation is.  Then we have The Poodle, John Kerry, who told us that the presence of our troops on the ground is fueling the insurgency.  Well ... duhhhh.  That would be like some anti-war Senator from 1944 saying that the Germans are fighting because Americans have landed at Normandy.

If the Democrats are so damned determined to give the Islamic terrorist elements a victory in Iraq, if they're so eager to show the people of the Arab world that we can talk big, but will never stick through to the end ... then they should just introduce a resolution immediately withdrawing all funding for the war in Iraq.  As long as this war is being pursued the timetable -- as if there can ever be a timetable -- should be left up to the military commanders in the field, not hippie desk-jockeys in Washington.  As for the Democratic claims that George Bush has no strategy to win in Iraq ... pure nonsense.  Every time Bush sets forth his strategy in Iraq the Democrats take to the microphones to complain that he hasn't articulated a strategy ... and their myrmidons buy it.

I repeat --- just how many American men and women in Iraq have died because the Democrats decided to politicize this war, instead of to win it? 

WILL ANYONE SAY THAT MOVE-ON .ORG LIED?

Probably not .. because Moveon.org is a liberal organization ... just about as liberal as you can get without changing your name to socialism.org or peaceatanyprice.org.    Here's the story.  Moveon.org was running an advertisement on its website calling for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq:  i.e., calling for surrender.  As the narrator of this ad was talking about American troops they showed a picture of British troops --- saying that they were Americans. You could tell they were Brits because one of them was wearing shorts .. not part of the American GI uniform.  When Moveon.org learned of the error they tried to alter the photograph by darkening the British fatigues to look more like American fatigues, and by photoshopping a new pair of pants on the soldier wearing shorts!  This, of course, was a deliberate and premeditated attempt to deceive.  The very thing the left is so fond of attributing to George Bush.  Later, when their attempt to deceive was discovered, they just eliminated the picture altogether.  You can get the entire story here.  And if you want to see the altered pictures,  they are available here. Enjoy.

PLAYING WITH THE VENT

I've referred to The Vent before.  It's a feature in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that prints fifteen or so one-sentence comments submitted by readers by phone or email.  Reading these comments can sometimes be uplifting, but more often can leave you shaking your head at the thoughts and attitudes that dwell in the heads of supposedly educated Americans.  So .. I went through today's vent and lifted a few comments .. then added my own pithy comments at the end.  The vents appear in italics.  My comments follow:

• If you don't have a union to thank, you probably don't have a pension check.  Typical union attitude.  You probably think the union created your job too, don't you?  The truth here is that you're not bright and disciplined enough to save and invest some of your pay you Social Security is probably your only retirement fund.
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• We shouldn't allow a Gwinnett millionaire to tell us how to do the Beltline project.  Right on!  Let's get someone who isn't smart enough to have made a good amount of money run this project for us!  How about a welfare recipient?
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• Delta pilots should shut up and take the pay cut. They will still make more than police or firemen.  Yeah, and policemen and firemen don't pay $50,000 out of their own pockets to get the training it takes to become an airline pilot.
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• When I pay $22 to look at a fish, I want to be looking at a lobster on my plate.  A lobster isn't a fish.  What government school did you go to? 

Shooting fish in a barrel. 

YOUR "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" RESPONSE

Can't tell you how happy I am that we are seeing some public revolt at the de-Christmasing of Christmas.  The Capitol Christmas Tree is once again a Christmas Tree.  Lowes home improvement stores have cut down their signs advertising fresh cut Holiday Trees, and a debate is forming over whether or not you want to shop at a store that hits you with the "Happy Holidays" line at the checkout counter.  Well, since I like stirrin' the puddin' so much, I've used this response to a few of these "Happy Holidays" greeters.  "Look, I know your boss told you to say happy holidays instead of merry Christmas, but it's pretty obvious I'm buying Christmas presents here,  so tell your boss I said merry Christmas."  This doesn't assault the employee, but it gets the point across, and usually elicits a small smile.  Give it a shot.

PAYING FOR PROPAGANDA

The latest media outrage is the revelation that the Pentagon may have paid money to plant favorable stories in the Iraqi press.  In fact, as the story goes, they went so far as to put pro-Democracy journalists on the payroll.  So if it's true, what does this mean?

Who cares.  This is war.  It's OK to kill people and break things in a war, but it is not OK to try to influence public opinion?  We are fighting a war in Iraq...and the goal is to win.  Propaganda is part of any war effort, going back for decades.  If paying some bucks to get stories printed saves American lives, why not?  Somebody has to counter the doom and gloom of the pro-terrorist international media.  But all of the indignation over this practice really goes much further than paying for stories.

It's the media's outrage that anybody would dare to report the good news in Iraq.  Don't they know we're losing the war?  It's a lost cause....the Americans should just leave so Zarqawi can set up shop and continue killing the non-believers.

And by the way, aren't the liberally biased reporters who reprint DNC talking points doing the same thing?  Actually, come to think of it, they're working for free.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Here is the full transcript of the president's remarks yesterday at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Ann Coulter says that the Republicans are caving in big-time when it comes to John Murtha and his call to surrender in Iraq.  She wonders when the GOP is going to stop praising Murtha.

If the left thinks 'Bush lied and people died,' then how about Bill Clinton when it comes to his actions in Kosovo in 1999?  Larry Elder says Clinton lied and people died. Check it out.

Remember when David Kay, who was the United States' top weapons inspector in Iraq, said that Saddam had no WMD's?  Well, you may be surprised to learn that just a few months earlier, he said he was convinced Saddam had WMD.

Nancy Pelosi now says a majority of House Democrats agree it's time to cut and run in Iraq...and surrender to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and his band of Islamic terrorists.  Nice.

Robert Novak reports on a drive to remove J. Edgar Hoover's name from the FBI building in Washington D.C.  Hoover has quite a history when it comes to spying on people.

Nancy Pelosi's call for a withdrawal from Iraq is a political opportunity for the Republicans, and one they should embrace immediately.  Bill Kristol explains why.

Here's an interesting argument.  Austin Bay says Iraq has been in the middle of a civil war since the summer of 2003, with Saddam's former regime elements leading the charge against the Iraqi people.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will now decide whether or not to grant clemency to Crips founder Stanley Tookie Williams.  Debra Saunders unravels the lies surrounding the case.

Why isn't the Bush administration trumpeting the good economic news on a daily basis?  Larry Kudlow points out that if this were Reagan or Clinton, there would be daily press conferences.

Emmett Tyrrell brings up the subject of immigration.  He notes that the real problem isn't immigration itself, it's the lack of border security and an orderly society.  Interesting take.