Go Liz

For some reason I can't embed this video, but please check out Liz Cheney (Dick Cheney's daughter) explaining how and what was decided in interrogations. She does an excellent job of going against a preening liberal msm host.

I think I'd rather see this daughter on places like "The View" than McCain's daughter, who is an embarrassment frankly.

Journey of Hope (Bumped)

You guys know that I don't have a paypal button and I never have fundraisers for the writing I do here. But every once in a while I have a charity or a need that I encourage you guys to give to if you can. This is one of those charities.

This is a gifted and wonderful young man named Matt Proctor. He attends Texas A&M University and his fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi sends selected young men on "The Journey of Hope" benefiting "Operation Push," a charity where ALL proceeds go to help people with disabilities. It is a three team, 80 man bike ride from San Francisco across the entire country, ending in Washington D.C. in mid-August. Almost every day the team stop in a new town and visits centers and events for people with disabilities to mentor and spend time with those with disabilities. They bring awareness to each community in what the community can do to include and help those dealing with a disability.

Read Matt's own words here. Donate here. It's tax deductible and an accredited charity.

It would mean a lot to me if you could give what you can.

Mass Suicide?

The hate filled insane "church" that leaves all of us, left and right, disgusted may be planning to either die or fly to mars. The following blog post was left at the Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. What do you think? From the post: (Coo coo alert!)

"We are particularly urgent about it, because the time is shortly to come when we will grant you your wicked wish, Doomed america! Your smart-assed pundits and foul-mouthed politicians have for years told us to pack up and leave if we don’t like this filthy little cancerous boil on the butt of the earth. You all think you’re so clever that you can come up with such cutesy little quips. You’re collectively so Bible dumb that you don’t know what you’re saying. So let me help you out.

"Look at the examples in scriptures when a nation – or world – of Godless rebels cry out at God’s patient Saints to get the hell out! Noah got on the ark and God shut the door – then the entire population of the world was wiped out. YAY!

"Lot tried to get his sons-in-law to listen and leave Sodom with him – but they liked their country and told him he was crazy. He left. They were toast! YAY!

"Before God wholly wiped out the greatest army in history, he had to get his people to “come out with great substance”. (Genesis 15:14) YAY!

We gotta go, peeps! We gotta go! And when we do, it’s time for this filthy nation to receive of all the plagues that your Creator has promised. The reason there is such urgency in those words … such passion in the irresistible call from our Saviour, Husband, and Friend … is because when that time comes for this rebellious nation – which is spiritually called Babylon and has become literally Babylon by the inexplicable and forcible snatching of that Mesopotamian land where ancient Babylon sat – it is going to be very fast and very violent, such that all mankind is utterly and simply amazed.
...
"So when you see us drop in, tell you about why God has begun your march to destruction, and then get out – it’s because the time is short. We have a job to do, and very little time to do it...When we’re done, we will leave your filthy land and be placed safely out of the reach of the horror that will then land upon you swiftly and certainly – in one hour."

I would never want anyone to commit suicide, but if the plan is to fly to mars, I am all for it!

via Towleroad

A Chilling Look at Pakistan

From Behind The White Coat:

The Swat Valley is one of Pakistan's most lush, picturesque and culturally rich areas. It is to the north of Islamabad, and holds Peshawar to the West. At one time, it was the most popular tourist destination in the country.... Now, however, there are no tourists going to Swat, and that's because it is essentially under the control of the Taliban. The militant forces of the Taliban have fought through the Pakistani forces, in months of bloodshed to aquire control of the region.

They have even forced the Pakistani government to concede into allowing them to practice Islamic Law - or Sharia, in the region, which was granted as part of a cease fire to avoid more bloodshed. They have pushed it even farther now, by using their cowardly yet successful strategy of targeting the poor and uneducated. They have continued to exploit the class rift that exists in Pakistan by concocting a bloody revolution in Swat by recruiting the lower classes to turn on the wealthy and forced out all the landowners who held the power in the region. Now with the installment of Islamic law, they pretty much can jail or even execute anyone they want if they deem them un-islamic, so nobody is in a hurry to try and get back to the region...

So wait a minute now... Are we saying that Swat has basically become a Taliban-run region? Well essentially, yes... Going through areas in Swat these days could compare to the Taliban-occupied times of Afghanistan... And the fingers of the Taliban continue to creep through the sands of the land, scooping up more and more support from local regional people--who really don't know any better. With U.S. missle strikes taking out civilians along with their Taliban targets, recruiting the local people for their cause is easy when it is primarily billed as a war against America and the West, and ridiculous claims that it is God's will. They take advantage of the people's poverty, suffering, and losses, and sadly, it works very well. There was a great documentary that a friend of mine worked on that aired on Frontline on PBS (link). In it, they show first hand accounts and stories from people and children and even Taliban in the Swat region. It shows life existing for these people under the Taliban rule, in a chilling environment of fear. Taliban propganda blaring on the radio, patrols, zero women's rights, executions, etc. Watching it will make you angry--as they bomb schools within the region, and banish any sort of education but their own, smiling and speaking and preaching their ways as if it is the only possible truth. Seeing the young kids that are being provided an "education" by the Taliban at one of their many maddrasses, telling us how they one day hope to join the Taliban's war against America, and how they would feel honored if chosen for a suicide bomb mission. Watching those young boys, you can already see the emptiness growing in the place where the soul is supposed to grow. Now taken over by the clouded vision of the Taliban, molesting the word of God and the way of Islam into a twisted vehicle of terror. The ones who oppose the Taliban and hope for a different future remain quiet, and can only pray that things will change. It really makes you sad knowing this is happening like wildfire, and we can do little about it.

Friday Stuff

The oceans haven't stopped rising since Obama took office, and it's no wonder.

Oh Goody! The Pentagon is preparing to release new photos that show alleged prisoner abuse at Gitmo and other military detention facilities . (not as bad as those from Abu Ghraib they say)

"Some show military personnel intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint."

Hmmm....

This should continue help our reputation around the world that the left worries so much about, while at the same time outrage radical Muslims who will use it against us! What could possibly go wrong? Doesn't matter. All that matters is getting Bush.

Next up on Obama's list (because he really is quite bored, nothing really going on in the world at all) is HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION! Hold on to your insurance card, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

doublpusundead takes a look at Obama's leadership selections.

I'm sincerely starting to think Obama's going to yell "LOL! Punkd!", as I'm struggling to understand how so many Obama appointments can be so wrong.

have a Treasury Secretary with tax problems;
we have a Secretary of State who wants to overcharge our relations with Russia;
we have a head of the CIA whose intelligence experience consists of how to sneak the bimbos in and out of Clinton's White House;
we have a Director of National Intelligence who has a history of human rights violations;
we have a judge-shopping Attorney General;
we have a Secretary of Education who's planning on 'fixing' No Child Left Behind because his former school district was unable to meet its standards;
we have a Secretary of Labor who was on the board of directors of a pro-labor lobbying group;
we have a Homeland Security Secretary who thinks Canada and veterans are our nation's greatest threats

This is hilarious. Frank J. Fleming at Pajama's media wonders if we elected Borat:

In fact, no one seemed to catch on at all during the campaign, and now he’s gotten elected president and keeps trying even wackier stunts. Bowing to the Saudi king, giving a DVD set he bought at Costco to a foreign leader, giving an iPod to the queen of England — they’re all obvious comedy bits. And then there’s his budget. Like every month he throws another trillion on it to see how far he can go before we figure out it’s all a gag.

Funny, right? Except it really isn't. We laugh so we won't cry.

"Biden Less Popular Than Cheney Was 8 years Ago"

This is nice to read. Cheney has been painted as "Darth Vader" by the left and he is anything but that. This is a man who gave 7 million dollars of his own money to charities for the poor when Joe Biden couldn't find a charity to give to his whole life.

Cheney was an evil rightwinger, but when his one of his daughters came out as gay, he embraced and loved her and took her with him on the campaign trail.

His daughters, btw, have always made him proud and he has said so many times.

Biden's daughter gets arrested for a brawl and busted for underage drinking and no one hears about it because the press is too busy following the daughter of the woman who isn't our Vice President (Oh God, I wish she were).

The Bush girls order one margarita while in college and all we hear about is how they were party girls. Al Gore's son gets arrested in 2007 for going 100mph with pot and an assortment of drugs including Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall in the car and this was after a 2003 pot arrest and a 2002 driving under the influence arrest, and yet I never hear a word about him being a partier (or an actual abuser of drugs, which is what he is/was).

I would think Al Gore's son or Biden's daughter might be the more interesting ones to follow around, but Bristol is the one they go after. Go figure.

Crap

Had to add the above map from Infidels are cool. From him:

All the areas in red are Taliban controlled, the areas in orange are basically divided (at war), the areas in yellow are Taliban “influenced” and those teeny weeny green spots? Yea, that’s the Pakistan gov’t control.
In other words, the capital of Pakistan is next on their list, and guess where the nukes are?

Pakistan is a 'mortal threat' to world, says Clinton as Taliban surge towards Islamabad

'I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists,' she added. (Clinton told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.)
................................

Residents claim militants have occupied police stations and that gun-toting fighters were roaming marketplaces urging people to support Sharia law. Taliban fighters have also set up checkpoints and are patrolling roads. Many police and government officials appear to have either fled or are keeping a low profile.
....................................

He said the militants have also warned barbers to stop shaving men's beards and stores to stop selling music and movies. The militants have established a major base in the village of Sultanwas and have set up positions in the nearby hills, the police official said.
Taliban have also taken over the shrine of a famed Sufi An attack on the NATO truck depo in Peshawar, near the Afghan border, only confirmed the deteriorating security situation.
......................................

This is the worst part:

In a recent interview, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and other militants aiming to oust the U.S. from Afghanistan would be welcome and protected in Swat — a statement the government condemned.
He said the militants want to see all of Pakistan under Islamic law.

In case you didn't know, Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal.

Bad stuff.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Nancy....

In the ongoing saga of Democrat hypocrisy, we find that Democrats were briefed on waterboarding during the Bush years.

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

There were 30 of these types of briefings, descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods were given at many of these.

With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

Isn't this just so typical? How long have we heard the howls from Pelosi?

EVEN TODAY, Pelosi calls for "a truth commission." It would be nice to hear "truth" from she herself:

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stepped up Democrats' calls to form a torture "truth commission," urging President Obama not to give immunity to anyone who illegally abused terror thugs.

Is Pelosi for not giving immunity to Congressmen/women like herself, who knew about these "tortures" and raised no formal objections?

"Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing," said Goss, who chaired the House intelligence committee from 1997 to 2004 and then served as CIA director from 2004 to 2006. "And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement."

This pretty much affirms my earlier post. Those leaders in our government, both Republicans and Democrats, knew what we were doing and thought they were doing the best thing at the time, whether we agree with them or not. The outrage we now hear from Democrats is fake outrage for political purposes.

It seems Code Pink was all over this in 2007. You have to give them credit. They aren't hypocrites. They are truly against war and will call out even the Democrat leader, speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi when she misleads and fakes outrage.

This story about Pelosi did come out in 2007, but it was sorta ignored by the general public.

Don't think Pelosi didn't have the opportunity to say something early on:

Not only did the Congressional Gang of Four fail to inform the public about the use of torture by our government, but it also kept the 9/11 Commission in the dark. Pelosi testified before the commission on May 22, 2003, but uttered not a word of caution about the methods used.

If you would like to see how Nancy Pelosi danced around this, look at this transcript from Fox News back in 2007:

WALLACE: The president now says that the leadership, the Congress, was fully informed, and that this is not torture.

First question: Were you ever briefed about this policy or the secret Justice Department memos?

PELOSI: Well, in order to know if I'm briefed about it, I'd have to be briefed about it now. What exactly is the president talking about? Yes, let me get my credentials right out there. I'm the longest-serving member of Congress on the intelligence committee, both on the committee and ex officio as a leader. So we have been briefed on some tactics used by the administration.
But I'd have to see what we're talking about here, because this is -- all I know is what I've read in the New York Times.

Oh boy, that's the kind of answer one gets from a teenager when you ask if he has been at a party he was forbidden to go to.

So if you are all upset about how our country tortured, then direct your anger at both parties. At least you should if you don't want to join Nancy in being a hypocrite.

The Post Office Nightmare

I needed to get my two younger sons passports. I looked online and saw that a post office near me has a passport office. The hours were 10:30-3:30 M-F guaranteeing that one had to miss work and/or school to go. I took the boys out of school at 11:30am hoping that they would only miss lunch at school.

Two hours later it wasn't even worth taking them back to school. Did I mention there were only five people in front of me?

I stopped mailing things through the post office years ago and only use UPS. Evey time I went I had to wait a minimum of 45 mins to mail a package.

But with passports you aren't given a choice of a private company to choose from. They have you completely trapped. Several people left in the line behind me because they had to get back to work by 1:00.

There was only one worker in an office behind a door. When someone would leave it would take a least five to ten minutes before they asked the next one in. The worst part to me is that there were no chairs. Even the even less efficient DMV has chairs when you have to wait hours.

The people in line to mail packages didn't have it much better. There were five windows, but only one worker. One poor woman had four small children with her. By the time she got to the window they were irritable and whiny and who could blame them? I was irritable and whiny.

As I waited in line for all that time I knew there was the distinct possibility that I might not have the right documents. Once, with one of my teenagers, I went to the DMV where I waited in line 1 hour for the information desk just to be told that I needed his social security card. I had a print out of the DMV website where it clearly stated that one did NOT need the SS card. I showed it to her and she just shrugged and said that I did indeed need it. So we drove 25 mins back home, got the card and went back and waited another hour and half for him to take the test.

So, this time I had every document my children possess whether the documents were listed on the website or not. I also saw on the passport website that Passport photos are taken at the post office I was going to. But I took no chances and got their photos made at Walgreens. Good thing, because when we got to the front of the line there is a small sign that says "no photos of children under 16 taken." It might be nice to have that on website. But what can we expect? Also, why exactly can't they take photos of children under 16?

Which brings me to my question. Why do we put up with this? When I twittered about this I must have gotten 50 responses from people who all agreed. We have all had experiences like this.

We should have a tea party for the sole purpose of protesting the inefficiency of government agencies that trap us into using them and give us lousy service.

All I could think of while I was waiting in line is THESE ARE THE PEOPLE OBAMA WANTS RUNNING OUR HEALTHCARE! That is a complete nightmare.

When the time comes for Obama's big healthcare push we should just simply put up video (real video) of people standing in line in post offices and DMVs across the country, waiting and waiting with no chairs, no help, no efficiency. And at the end of watching about a minute of this have the line "Welcome to government run healthcare."

Maybe we can't do much about the post office or the DMV, but we sure as heck can prevent another bloated bureaucracy running something that all of us need.

You Would Have Done The Same

This is the thing regarding the interrogation techniques we used after 9-11. It's all fine and good that we step back and look at what we did and decide not to do that anymore. But I have about had it with the self righteous left that thinks anyone should be prosecuted because of it, including the lawyers who formed the legal opinions at the time that saw intense interrogation techniques (or torture, whatever you wish to call it) as legal under our constitution.

The left can insist they were wrong and that is fine. We can move forward differently, if that is what we decide. But let's not pretend that things were quite different right after 9-11. We had just watched as innocent America citizens had to decide between burning to death or jumping from the World Trade Center to an equally horrific death. We heard the goodbyes on voice mails as the news played them over and over, and we cried. We all cried. It was almost too painful. Even those of us who didn't lose anyone personally felt the deep grief within us.

So we catch one of the planners. We know he knows a lot because of information gathered on his computer. He tells us that we will soon see another 9-11. That is the atmosphere that the CIA agents and the Bush administration found themselves in. Because of waterboarding this man ( a technique our own Navy and Air Force are trained in by the way), we saved people in L.A. (and ourselves) from another horror show courtesy of Al Qaeda.

There are thousand things you and I would never do. But if someone puts a gun to the head our child, there are a thousand things we suddenly would do. And if you tell me you wouldn't, you lie.

Bush had a choice. Prevent more dead Americans or skate the line of torture. You are telling me you wouldn't have done the same?

Was it wrong? Was it unconstitutional? We can argue that point. We can say it was or wasn't and move on. But you cannot prosecute people for doing what they thought was right at the time. We cannot make a circus of the tough decisions made at the time.

Of course, if Bush hadn't made that tough decision and another 9-11 would have occurred, we wouldn't be talking about torture right now, we would be talking about how Bush couldn't keep us safe and the horror of another day watching Americans die.

I think that is why Pres. Bush sleeps well every night.

Update: Jeff Jacoby, who has all along been against any kind of torture, gives a thoughtful ccomment on the politics surrounding the memos.

Update2: Obama's top man in intelligence sends memo that "enhanced interrogation" techniques worked.

Smoke and Mirrors

Obama is all about the smoke and mirrors isn't he? He demands his cabinet cut $100 million in spending, knowing that that is all Americans will really hear. It sounds like a good chunk of change to most people, right? They will say to themselves, "See? Pres. Obama trying to cut costs too." We, who pay attention know that this the equivalent of you and I not buying a cup of coffee for one day. It's all about perception. We on the right can blog all day about how minuscule it is, but the general population will never hear us. Which poses the life long question. If someone blogs in the forest and no one reads it, did it even really happen?

Meanwhile Obama proposed a $100 billion U.S. loan to the International Monetary Fund to boost the IMF’s war chest and urged a bigger stake in the IMF for emerging powers like China and India.

Obama is like a teenage girl left at a mall with a black American Express Card paid by a VERY rich uncle. There is no spending he won't do.

There is nothing like the feeling of spending other people's money I suppose.

Releasing just the CIA memos they wished to release, is an example of the same thing. Obama releases memos hoping everyone will be properly horrified at our interrogation techniques and he looks like a hero that saved us from having a terrible reputation overseas.

But Dick Cheney is having none of it. He wants all of us to see the memos that showed how the techniques saved us from the real horrors of another attack.

Let's see, shall we have a better reputation or shall we not have American blood smeared streets the likes of 9-11? I think I'll take the latter.

I say we really see this "transparency" thing Obama was always talking about and hasn't done yet, and let us see ALL the memos and decide for ourselves.

Yes, I realize that means the outcome of opinion can't be managed like his well oiled campaign, but it is "transparency" after all.

Update: CIA defends itself completely:

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Let's decide who we trust more to do the right thing. The CIA agents determined to stave off another attack after 9-11 or the nancy lawyers the likes of the ACLU, who never met a patriot they liked?

Read HotAir for more.

Buy a Tea Party T-shirt

I know the left claims the GOP or conservative think tank groups are funding the tea parties, but the reality is that the organizers paid for it themselves. If you want to help offset our costs, buy a cool T-shirt!

The Presidential Bigot?

Frank Rich of the NYT has a piece titled "The Bigot's Last Hurrah" where he names all the usual conservative suspects who are against gay marriage.

Rich blasts religious conservatives like Rick Warren, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin and their 'backward' ideas regarding gay marriage. He sees their "softening" on the issue as something new, when in reality it has always been their view to not alienate or condemn gays. He did forget one "bigot" though.

Barack Obama.

Barack Obama, like most of us conservatives (myself included), has said that he supports civil unions but is against gay marriage. In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."

Just exactly how is that different from what Rick Warren believes?

It isn't different. Rich is just a prime example of the growing hypocrisy of the left.

Another "bigot" he fails to mention? Hillary Clinton. Hillary was quoted in The New York Daily News as saying, "Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage always has been, between a man and a woman."

Rich believes that the case against "equal rights for gay families" is getting more and more difficult to argue on "nonreligious" grounds. He might ask Pres. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton why they continue to argue it from that perspective then.

Could it be that Rich doesn't think President Obama or Hillary Clinton are being honest with us? Or do they get a pass because they are Democrats?

Another group not mentioned? 70% of blacks voted There is one group Rich ignores as well. 70% of blacks backed Prop. 8 against gay marriage in California. I would like to ask Frank Rich if they are "bigoted" as well? If so, then why put all the blame on Republicans and not mention them?

I wrote about my beliefs and thoughts on gay marriage back in 2006 and it hasn't changed. We can argue laws, beliefs, and what marriage and sex means to each of us, but there really is only one thing that matters. My post ends with this:

In the end, the things in this life that the world tells us is so important; sex, money, fame, and even comfort, are not who we are. They are not what gives us peace. They are not what our soul thirsts for. Whether we believe or realize it, our soul thirsts for the One who gave us life.

It is in that union we find all that matters.

The Worst Torture Technique

The release of the CIA memos regarding harsh interrogation techniques issued by the Justice Department in the days following 9/11, have brought out the leftist outrage again on torture.

I get the arguments over torture, I really do. But I have to ask this question. Where is the outrage from the left over the greatest torture method of all, blowing off someone's head?

Pres. Obama authorized our Navy Seals to do just that when pirates took an American Captain hostage. He did that to save the Captain's life. So can someone tell me the difference when our government is trying to save the lives of many when using harsh interrogation techniques?

Isn't more humane to waterboard someone and then let them live than to blow their heads off?

Dead is forever after all.

I'm just asking the question

Christopher Buckley, who is clearly trying to get his conservative street creds back, says this:

It is, yes, good that we're not torturing anymore, but let's not get sanctimonious about how awful it was watching 3,000 Americans die at the hands of fanatics who would happily detonate a nuclear bomb. And let us m ove on. There is pressing business. (Are you listening, ACLU? Hel-lo?)

I'm not justifying torture here. Let's just say that's above my pay grade. But the left is never equal in their outrage, are they?

Homos For Freedom

The GayPatriot sure found some diversity at his Santa Monica Tea Party. Seems there isn't much difference between us when it comes to believing in liberty.

Smart Girl Politics

Smart Girl Politics is all about the conservative woman (men are allowed to join though). It's brand new grass roots organization. We had a great meet up last night.