(Via Americans for Prosperity – H/T Ed Morrissey)
Category: Neoconservative
The obligatory Israel might attack Iran posting
I swear, if I had a nice, crisp, one hundred dollar bill for every time I saw this question or headline — I could retire early.
The story:
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months.
Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want to leave the fate of Israel dependent on American action, which would be triggered by intelligence that Iran is building a bomb, which it hasn’t done yet.
via Is Israel preparing to attack Iran? – The Washington Post.
AllahPundit over at HotAir.com tosses cold water on this rather hyped headline or opinion piece.
Between you and me; I highly doubt Israel would do something like that. I could be wrong, but something tells me that Israel is just not going to risk “upsetting the apple cart,” as my grandmother used to call it. This is not to say that I do not think that Israel has the right to defend themselves, I do believe that fully. What I fear is, that Israel will pick a fight with Iran and get in over their heads; and want the United States to pull their butts out of fire. As much as I am sympathetic to the cause of Israel and how much I know the history of Israel and the Biblical connection to the land and the people — I just do not believe that the United States of America is obligated to come to rescue of a Nation, like Israel, that decides to pick a fight with another Nation. We would not do that for any other Nation, so why should we do it for Israel?
Realistically speaking, I believe this little conflict will be resolved via diplomacy, rather than war. Because again, I believe the United States and its allies learned their lessons from the last time that they tried a foolhardy mission of occupation of a Country. I believe that a fiasco of that magnitude will not be repeated anytime soon. Again, I could be wrong; but I really just do not see this happening again, at least not this soon.
Others: Guardian, Politico, CNN, Pat Dollard, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, Jerusalem Post, Associated Press, War in Context, Israel Matzav, The Enterprise Blog and Chicago Boyz
Mitt Romney sticks his foot in his mouth…..again
Just when I think the stupidity bar has been reached, someone comes along and raises the bar. In other words; move over Jennifer Petkov and Newt Gingrich, you have company. 🙄
The Video:
The Story:
After winning the Florida primary, GOP presidential nominee hopeful Mitt Romney explains to CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien that he is focused on a particular portion of the American population in his campaign.
Romney says, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair , I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich…. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”
O’Brien asked him to clarify his remarks saying, “There are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd.'”
Romney continues, “We will hear from the Democrat party, the plight of the poor…. You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus…. The middle income Americans, they’re the folks that are really struggling right now and they need someone that can help get this economy going for them.”
via Mitt Romney: middle income Americans are focus, not very poor – CNN Press Room – CNN.com Blogs.
What a better way to communicate to the rest of world, such as independent voters, like me — who struggling and looking for work; and cannot find a job — like me.
…and by the way, Mitt? We’re not that concerned about your stupid, out of touch, rich, white Mormon ass either! 😡
What really steams me, is the fact that this idiot is — what black liberals accuse me of being; which makes it even worse. 😡
I hate to post this, because I like to try and keep the swearing on this blog to a minimum; but this right here, is some seriously serious Weapons-Grade asshole-manship right there…
Others: Erick’s blog, Michelle Malkin, American Spectator, National Review, No More Mister Nice Blog, Liberal Values, The Enterprise Blog, Opinionator, Business Insider, PERRspectives, RedState, New York Times, The Atlantic Online, Informed Comment, Riehl World View, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Little Green Footballs, Stinque, Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly, The PJ Tatler and Taylor Marsh — Via Memeorandum
Newt Gingrich does not even know how to lose
Just a little cherry on top to what I wrote last night:
Newt Gingrich gave his post-primary speech tonight while gracelessly declining to congratulate the man who beat him by double digits. According to the Romney campaign, Gingrich hadn’t called to congratulate the Florida winner as of 9:30 p.m. ET.
The speech was vintage Gingrich, comparing his predicament to Lincoln at Gettysburg and vowing to conduct a “people’s campaign.” He made one small run at Romney, calling him “the Massachusetts moderate,” and then wandered into a rather trite recitation of his commitment to change. He rambled a bit, getting nostalgic about his Contract with America and assuring us he’d been studying “how to do this” since 1958. (He was running for president as a child?) He is going to get rid of White House czars, move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and halt the war on religion. If there was a theme in there, it was hard to spot.
He obnoxiously ended by pledging: “My life, my fortune, my sacred honor.” But he’s not doing any of that. And it’s quite an insult to American patriots who have said that and meant it.
Gingrich has been reduced to a smaller-than-life figure. He’s a guy with a lot of words and very little appeal, whose meanness got the best of him and helped to wreck his campaign on a heap of attacks, insults and downright vile accusations (the latest being his claim that Romney is hostile to religion).
via Newt Gingrich loses Florida — and reminds us why – Right Turn – The Washington Post.
Now something to remember, Jennifer Rubin is a Romney supporter. However, I think that this speaks to the mentality and character of Newt Gingrich; he is that ate up with a lust for power that he does not even have the graciousness to call his opponent and congratulate him on a win.
Which is why I have washed my hands of the race; I hope the GOP picks wisely and they are able to defeat Barack Obama. However, in all honestly, I really do not believe that any of these candidates will be able to even remotely beat Barack Obama, he is going to be too well funded, is going to have all of the cards on the table — including the race card. As Hillary Clinton found out, running against racial politics is the hardest thing ever to do. If you do it wrong, you do can come out actually looking like a racist, and somehow or another, I highly doubt that any of these candidates even remotely know how to fight against identity politics.
So, again, in short; We are so screwed….again. 🙁
What in the hell was Newt Gingrich thinking?
I honestly hate having to write this blog piece, because frankly, I despise this sort of idiotic tripe in politics itself. Newt Gingrich today was able to do something that not many people can do. Newt managed to pull off one of the stupidest, brain-dead, tone-deaf moves that any politician could ever do, one that reeked of utter desperation. Not to mention the fact that he lost my total support. On top that; he lost the damned primary in Florida!
What was it that Newt Gingrich did that invoked such fury from yours truly? Newt Gingrich played one of the worst, bottom of the barrel political tactic cards, that only a few mortal brave souls have played and have come out unscathed. Newt Gingrich waded onto territory that either brave souls or idiot fools—depending on your view of matters, have waded and lived to tell about it politically.
Newt Gingrich played —- The Jew Card.
Newt Gingrich accused Mitt Romney of denying Holocaust survivors in nursing homes to be denied kosher meals. Here is the problem with it; not a damned word of it was even remotely true. In fact, a well-known Jewish Conservative has written a very good article defending Mitt Romney from these idiot charges. Now I should let it be known, I am not a Romney fan. If Mitt Romney is nominated for candidate for President by the GOP, I will vote libertarian. I did say that I would hold my nose and vote for Newt Gingrich in the primary and in the general election. Well, needless to say, that is not the case any longer. I just will not vote for a man who stoops to that low of tactics.
Therefore, I am making it official here on my blog; I will not be voting for the Republican Party in 2012 in the primary or in the general election. I am sorry, but dishonest politics is just immoral and what Gingrich did tonight shows me that Newt Gingrich is just another dishonest beltway-type that would stop at nothing to obtain power. Whoever is the winner of the selection process at the Libertarian Party; I will put my support behind, and that person will get my vote.
I realize that my vote will most likely put a dent the GOP’s chances of defeating President Barack Obama. Believe me when I tell you this, nothing bothers me more than knowing that fact. However, I just cannot and will not support a man who stoops to such beltway tactics such as this.
Admittedly, I have nothing put disdain for Mitt Romney, however, none of that disdain has anything to do with his religious affiliation. My disdain has to do with the fact that man is a habitual liar, the fact that he is a serial flip-flopper; my disdain is because the man claims to be a person from Michigan, when in fact that he has not lived here for years. My disdain of the man is related to the fact that he claims to be a rib-rocked Conservative, when in fact, Mitt Romney is nothing more than an indecisive moderate!
Furthermore, the reason for my decision is this; the race of the GOP’s nomination for President of the United States is not supposed to be a religious test. If that is the case in the Republican Party, then why in the name of the Almighty God of Heaven did Newt Gingrich use the Jews as a proxy to attack Mitt Romney’s Mormonism? I know the answer —-desperation. I do not wish to support a man, who instructs his advisors to play “Dirty Pool.” It shows of the man’s character and I find it lacking greatly. I will not call Newt Gingrich an Anti-Semite, as I do not know his heart or him personally. However, I found this attack to most untactful, idiotic and highly unbecoming of someone who is supposed to be a Reagan Conservative.
Therefore let it be known; I officially disown those running for President of the United States of America in the Republican Party. Sorry, but this freak show just got rather hard to bear any longer. Also too, please know that I am under no illusions about the Libertarian Party’s chances in the 2012 election. However, my vote will be of a protest of the beltway establishment’s tactics in the Republican Party. The Tea Party movement’s message was supposed to be, during its founding that said, during its railing against the Republican Party and the United States Government; “No more business as usual in the beltway!” The Republican Party was quite obviously either not listening or somehow that message was lost.
Having said all of the above, this bloggers vote will be going on Election Day 2012 to the political party that actually believes what it stands for —- The Libertarian Party. I might not agree with everything that some libertarians believe in; but at this point, I see no other party that I actually wish to waste my vote on.
Others: ABCNEWS, Washington Post, CNN, The Other McCain, Daily Kos, msnbc.com, Gothamist, GOP 12, The Spectacle Blog, Saint Petersblog, The Right Scoop, The Raw Story, American Spectator, Reuters and Politics, Roger L. Simon, Ballot Box, National Review, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, The Spectacle Blog, Israel Matzav, JOSHUAPUNDIT, News Desk, Cold Fury, Truthdig, The Atlantic Online, Politics, The PJ Tatler, Washington Monthly, Tablet Magazine, GOP 12, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, The Raw Story, The Politico, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, CNN, The Huffington Post and PolitickerNY
Update: Oh and by the way; Mitch Berg, Shut the hell up….and start writing blog postings under your real flipping name. Damned Cowards, you and AllahPundit both. Al-Qeada is nearly defeated, it’s time to cut the chicken routine and be out with the who you both really are. 😡
A very nice article on the decline of the left
This comes via InstaPundit.
An article by Walter Russell Mead in the American Interest on decline of liberalism in America; some highlights:
“The blue model is breaking down so fast and so far that not even its supporters can ignore the disintegration and disaster it now presages. Liberal Democrats in states like Rhode Island and cities like Chicago are cutting pensions and benefits and laying off workers out of financial necessity rather than ideological zeal. The blue model can no longer pay its bills, and not even its friends can keep it alive. Our real choice, however, is not between blue or pre-blue. We can’t get back to the 1890s or 1920s any more than we can go back to the 1950s and 1960s. We may not yet be able to imagine what a post-blue future looks like, but that is what we will have to build. . . . There are a lot of reasons to be nostalgic for the old days (especially for the white males who were, far and away, the biggest beneficiaries of the old system), but there are also good reasons to bid the blue model good riddance.”
Please, go read the rest of that; because in a sense, this article says much of what I have written in the past on my old blog. Basically, that the left went off the rails years ago; along with organized labor, when they shifted from offense to defense. Since then, they have gotten worse and worse. A perfect example was in 2008, that whole thing with Hillary and Obama was a perfect manifestation of the class warfare between Man and Woman, Black and White; it all got to be a bit too much for me. Which is why I left them.
The sad thing is, the left, as it were, got even crazier after Obama was elected. It was as if the arrogance of the left went through the roof; they had the media, the white house, congress —- everything — and what did Obama do with all that favoritism? He blew it! I believe the grassroots left knows they were played; the establishment left does not really care, they are getting paychecks; but the people I know, the bloggers, are not happy.
Which brings me to my last point; I really wish this process between Newt and Romney would finally end and the Republican Party would get behind one of them. This whole populist versus establishment fighting is wearing very thin with me. It has nuances of the left’s class warfare; which I really do not get into at all. Do not misunderstand me here; I am all for airing someones dirty laundry and misdeeds, but to wrap it up in a package that the left would approve of, is not a way to fight a battle.
In other words; Florida’s primary cannot come quick enough!
Video: Friday Evening Thoughts
Just a video of my thoughts.
Please note: In this video, I mistakenly refer to the Washington Times; I meant Washington Post. Oops. 😳
References:
Quinnipiac University: Romney Pulls Ahead In See-Saw Florida Gop Primary, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Men Shift From Gingrich To Romney — Memeorandum thread
Washington Post: Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online: No One Left to Lie To
Jeffrey Lord / American Spectator: Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt
Roundups: Washington Wire, Outside the Beltway, NationalJournal.com, The Caucus, M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD’S …, Sunshine State News, Washington Post, Firedoglake, Don Surber, Florida Times Union, The Strata-Sphere, The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, American Spectator, Presidential Power, Hot Air, Mail Online, Reuters, GOP 12 and Post on Politics, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, Little Green Footballs, The Political Carnival, US Politics, Hit & Run, Boing Boing, Gawker, Daily Kos, Hot Air, YID With LID, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Dish, The PJ Tatler, GOP 12, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Political Mojo and Shakesville, National Review, Riehl World View, Guardian, Big Journalism, The Atlantic Online, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Eunomia, RedState, Power Line, The Reality-Based Community, The Daily Caller, JOSHUAPUNDIT and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Nitpicking Megan McArdle a bit
Megan McArdle is a good writer that makes a whole bunch more money writing than I do.
She writes a very good blog entry about the President’s State of the Union address. In it, she writes the following, that I feel the need to comment about:
The harsh way to put it is that the speech was an extended whine about how all the rich bankers and George Bush have screwed everything up. That was fine campaign rhetoric when he was a Senator. But it’s pretty weak when he’s been in charge for most of a full term–two years of that with a majority in congress.
You see this is the entire problem; the Democrats lead by President Obama, continue to perpetuate the outright lie that the President George W. Bush and the cabal of rich bankers caused the Wall Street crisis and that drove our economy into the ground. This is nothing more than outright historic revisionism. The truth is the so-called “bankers” took advantage of the situation. As I have written on this blog and my previous blog, in 1973, the Democrats passed the community reinvestment act. In 1993, the Democrats added the subprime clause to that act, which created the ability for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack to sell high-risk, adjustable rate mortgages to those who, under normal circumstances could not even remotely be qualified to get them.
There was one thing that did exacerbate the situation, that was the removal by Congress and not by Bush; the regulation that was supposed to prevent predatory lending conditions. Furthermore, The Republicans in Congress at the time, can be blamed for backing off an investigation, when the then President of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played the race card in response to a warning from the Bush White House that the housing market was about to crash.
Now the question as to the morality of the bankers is another story entirely. However, the very idea that somehow a cabal of banks actually brought the economy down is weapons grade conspiracy theory nonsense. The only thing that “The Bankers” and Wall Street did was take advantage of a situation created by the very socialists who are blaming the banks for the situation in the first place.
Mitt Romney fires a shot across Newt Gingrich’s bow
Looks like Mittens is feeling the heat, perhaps from the flip flops and/or because of the recent polls and is firing back.
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — Mitt Romney landed here Sunday with a simple message: Newt Gingrich is a failure and a fraud. And a disgrace. And a hapless showman.
Standing under a brilliant orange Florida sunset, Romney delivered his longest sustained critique of the South Carolina primary winner to date — ticking through a list as if he were reading off Gingrich’s Wikipedia page, and undercutting each item as he got to it.
“Speaker Gingrich has also been a leader,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “He was a leader for four years as speaker of the House. And at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader and he had to resign in disgrace. I don’t know whether you knew that, he actually resigned after four years, in disgrace.
Romney continued: “He was investigated over an ethics panel and had to make a payment associated with that and then his fellow Republicans, 88 percent of his Republicans voted to reprimand Speaker Gingrich. He has not had a record of successful leadership.”
Then Romney got into Gingrich’s post-congressional career.
“Over the last 15 years since he left the House, he talks about great bold movements and ideas,” he told the crowd of several hundred people gathered at a building materials company here. “Well, what’s he been doing for 15 years? He’s been working as a lobbyist, yeah, he’s been working as a lobbyist and selling influence around Washington.
via Mitt Romney: Newt Gingrich is a ‘failed leader,’ ‘disgrace’ – Reid J. Epstein – POLITICO.com.
To be clear, Newt Gingrich is not a saint and as Geller put it, “He is a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our Son-of-a-bitch.” I know that personally I would rather vote for someone like Newt and hold my nose, than to vote for some idiot racist Mormon who worked for a Latin-American financed company that acted as corporate raiders. I am sorry, but that is simply Anti-American; the very idea that an American would sit at a table with Latin Americans to devise a plan to destroy American businesses is absolutely asinine and for this Mitt Romney should be held accountable. However, because Fox News and others are in the tank for that creep, you will not hear a word about it and that my friends is the tragic thing about corporate media.
So, yes, you can put me in the “anyone but Mitt Romney” category.
Newt Gingrich Snags the win in South Carolina
Obviously, I underestimated the power Chuck Norris. 😯
ABC, Fox News, CBS, AP, are all reporting that New Gingrich has won the South Carolina primary. I guess the accusations of his second ex-wife did not stick at all. Which says much about the moral condition of South Carolina and of the Nation as a whole.
AllahPundit, as always has some very good information. Here’s Romney’s speech, in this speech, he dings Gingrich, Newt does not return the favor and in fact, he compliments all of the people running with him in the primary. Voters will remember that:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Here is the first part of Newt’s victory speech, I’ll post the second part when it comes up: (H/T Fox News Insider)
and Part 2:
Florida is going to be an interesting battle. I look forward to blogging about it! 😀