More sectarian violence in Iraq

This is what happens when you invade a Country based on bad information. This is also what happens when you let the proverbial “Genie out of the bottle.”

BAGHDAD — Insurgents unleashed a fierce string of bombings against Iraq’s Shiites on Thursday, attacking pilgrims marching through the desert and neighborhoods in Baghdad in an attempt to stir sectarian violence amid a political crisis that has brought the government to a halt.
At least 60 people died in the attacks and at least 138 wounded, security officials said, in the second devastating and apparently coordinated attack in Iraq in less than a month.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks but they appeared similar to ones conducted by Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group that has tried to plunge the country back to the brink of civil war by pitting the country’s sectarian groups against each other.— Attacks on Shiites in Iraq Kill More Than 50 – NYTimes.com

I don’t claim to be an expert in this department, but I see us going back there within a year or so.

This is why I am not that big on Newt

Because of silly stuff like this right here:

Newt Gingrich still won’t congratulate Mitt Romney for winning the Iowa caucuses.
At a news conference in Concord, N.H., Gingrich was asked by CBS correspondent Dean Reynolds why he congratulated Rick Santorum but not Romney.
Gingrich stared at the reporter and raised his eyebrows in silence, eventually drawing laughter from some of the reporters.
“Because I know you would be a man of great professionalism, I know that’s a rhetorical question. And a good one,” Gingrich said.
During his speech in Des Moines last night, Gingrich visibly seethed at mention of Romney, who along with his supporters ran a barrage of attack ads against the former speaker.
Romney said he’d spoken with every GOP rival last night except Gingrich.

Because when you do stuff like this; you come off as an old bitter curmudgeon. Last night, while watching Newt’s speech, I was not impressed at all. Because instead of being gracious, he came off as angry. Newt starting punching up, and attacking Romney and attacking Ron Paul. Whatever happened to just thanking your supporters and the others who also competed with you in the caucases?

Either way, this will not go over well for those in New Hampshire. Because it makes him sound ungratful, not to mention the fact that Newt is a bomb thrower, who is not good at thinking on his feet. All of this will flush itself out during the caucas process — hopefully.

Is Rick Santorum a “Big Government” Conservative?

My answer? Aren’t they all? 😀

This guy seems to think so: (H/T HotAir.com)

Rick Santorum, like most Republican candidates, fashions himself the one true conservative running in 2012. If the thought of big, intrusive liberal government offends you, he might just be your man. And if you favor a big, intrusive Republican government, he’s unquestionably your candidate.
People are taking a look at Santorum. Important people. People in Iowa. Even New York Times columnist David Brooks recently celebrated his working-class appeal, newfound viability and economic populism, noting that the former Pennsylvania senator’s book “It Takes a Family“ was a ”broadside against Barry Goldwater-style conservatism” — or, in other words, a rejection of that Neanderthal fealty for liberty and free markets that has yet to be put down. Santorum’s book is crammed with an array of ideas for technocratic meddling; even the author acknowledges that some people “will reject” what he has to say “as a kind of ‘Big Government’ conservatism.”
Santorum grumbles about too many conservatives believing in unbridled “personal autonomy” and subscribing to the “idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do … that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom (and) we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.” — Via Santorum: Conservative Technocrat | TheBlaze.com

Go read all of that, it’s quite interesting.

Nate Silver explains it.

This pretty much sums it up…:

I don’t care if you call it a win or a tie. In Iowa on Tuesday, Mitt Romney had a performance that looks ugly on the stat sheet , but which accomplished quite a bit when you consider it in its broader context.
The two most important things that Mr. Romney accomplished are as follows:
First, Mr. Romney eliminated Rick Perry from the nomination contest. Of course, Mr. Romney got a lot of help from Mr. Perry himself. Maybe we should use the passive voice — Mr. Perry was eliminated from the nomination contest. The conclusion is the same: the man who once looked like Mr. Romney’s most formidable rival has suspended his campaign.
The result was not unexpected based on late-stage polling — in fact, the polling average nailed Mr. Perry’s share of the vote almost to the decimal point.
But it was not long ago that Mr. Perry looked like he might finish in a solid third place, at a bare minimum, in Iowa; a poll conducted as recently as Dec. 12 actually had Mr. Perry ahead of Mr. Romney. And there was some chance that Mr. Perry might have done quite a bit better than third place. I’m not convinced that there was anything that happened to Rick Santorum that couldn’t have happened to Mr. Perry, if only Mr. Perry had received the right injection of momentum — say, an endorsement from the Family Leader, a conservative group — at the right time. — via Winning Ugly, but Winning – NYTimes.com

I think is pretty mcu spot on, read the rest, it is very interesting. A little wonkish, but very interesting.

This is a mememorandum thread.

Bachmann bails with the Longest….speech….ever

I can see why she left, but man, was that long rambling speech really necessary? 🙄

Via CNN:

The Video:

The Story:

(CNN) – Michele Bachmann ended her bid for the Republican presidential nomination Wednesday, hours after a disappointing sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
The Minnesota congresswoman suspended her campaign, a legal technicality that will allow her to continue to raise and spend campaign funds.

Ed Morrissey was not very impressed with her, like me. Stacy McCain was actually there, the lucky old bastard. 😛

Anyhow, you know who this helps, right? Perry, of course.

It’s humor folks, relax

I hate it when I have to remind my own people that sometimes humor, is just that, humor.

Real Clear Politics has a video of Michelle Obama appearing in a TV show called iCarly.

Here’s the quote:

First Lady Michelle Obama is to make a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of the popular Nickelodeon show iCarly.
In the episode, which airs on January 16, the First Lady helps the show’s title character Carly get in touch with her father, an Air Force colonel who can’t make it home for his birthday.
Obama surprises the girl and her friends, which leads to her being called “Your Excellency” by Carly’s friend Sam Puckett.
After being corrected by a friend that you don’t call the First Lady that, Michelle Obama jumps in and says “No, no, I kind of like it.”

As if right on cue, the right-wing blogosphere is condemning this; do some of these people drive? It is humor folks, something that many of us actually could use right now. 🙄

I just have to wonder aloud, would they be that shrieking in their criticism of Michelle Obama if she were a white woman? It is to wonder.

No, Pat Robertson did not hear from God

I am fixing to break one of my rules that I wrote on my blog’s “about this blog” page. I wrote the following:

Also too, with this blog, I am going to stick strictly to Politics. I am not going to meander into Religion or Religious arguments like I did on my previous blog; Because for one, it tends to start fights with unbelievers and two, it tends to make me look like a jerk. My point is this, I know what I believe, but I am not interested in fighting about it or debating it. At some point, I might create a Blog solely dedicated to Christianity; but on this blog, it’s about politics and politics only.

For what it is worth I do plan on following that little rule; however, when so-called “Christians” insert themselves into politics, I, as a Fundamentalist Baptist, will have to speak out.

Having said all of the above, I can tell you with the uttermost confidence that God did not speak to Pat Roberson.

Here is the very misguided man attempting to act as someone who has a personal line with the almighty: (H/T Mediaite)

Quote:

I spent the better part of a week in prayer and just saying, ‘God show me something,’ some things I’ll share with you. I think he showed me the next me the next president but I’m not supposed to talk about that so I’ll leave you in the dark—probably just as well—I think I’ll know who it will be. I’m going to read just as I wrote down as if I’m hearing from the Lord these words.
Your country will be torn apart by internal stress, a house divided cannot stand. Your president holds a radical view of the direction of your country which is at odds with the majority, expect chaos and paralysis. Your president holds a view that is at odds with the majority, it’s a radical view of the future of this country, so that’s why we’re having this division. This is a spiritual battle which can only be won by overwhelming prayer. The future of the world is at stake because if America falls, there’s no longer a strong champion of freedom and a champion of the oppressed of the world. There must be an urgent call to prayer. The Lord said, a time of maximum stress and peril, greater than at any time since the CBN ministry began. This country will begin disintegrating.
I started thinking, when did we start this place? We started CBN in 1960, you think of all the things that went on, you had the assassination of the president, assassination of Martin Luther King, you’ve got a war in Vietnam, you’ve got all these things, He is saying you will have worse stress than before. So I’m saying, God, let me give you some suggestions and you tell me if any of them is right, pick one. I said, is it an EMP blast? No that isn’t it. Is it a cosmic or solar or radiation blast? No. Is it Mayan galaxy alignment? No. Is it Iranian or North Korean nuclear threat? No. Is it an earthquake or a volcano? No. Is it a massive power failure? No. What is it? It’s an economic collapse. And God said, This is not my judgment, they are bringing it upon themselves.

Pat Robertson is a Pentecostal Christian, he is under the typical delusion that the “signs and wonders” as written about in the Book of Acts chapter 2 are somehow for today. In that false belief system, these people actually believe that God is still speaking to people today. This is patently false; everything that God had to say to mankind is located in the Bible. period, end of story.

Anyone that tries to tell anyone any different is trying to deceive people, which is what this con man is an old professional at being— a con man.

Others: Indecision Forever, The Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite, Gawker, Daily Kos, The Raw Story and Little Green Footballs

It’s getting ugly between Gingrich and Romney

…and Gingrich does not disappoint with this shot across Romney’s bow: (Via CBS News)

Video:

Of course, the bad part was that Gingrich sort of stuck his own foot in his mouth, when he called Romney a liar and then turned right around and said he would support him if he were the GOP nominee. D’oh! 🙄

Lord Edward Morrissey, who knows this stuff better than anyone, I think, saith the following:

Hey, not to rain on Gingrich’s parade, but how is that different than any other PAC or super-PAC? I’m pretty sure that Gingrich-supporting PACs aren’t run by disinterested strangers, nor are those for Rick Perry or any of the other candidates in the race. That’s a problem in the structure of the campaign finance regulations that impose artificial divisions on contributions. If those were removed, the same money would flow into these races, but the candidates themselves would be responsible for its use instead of hiding behind PACs and super-PACs — and that includes Newt Gingrich.
As I’ve written earlier, there is nothing wrong with so-called “negative” campaigning. Candidates should draw contrasts between their positions and those of their opponents, and their records as well. As long as that is being done honestly, there is nothing wrong or dishonorable about it; in fact, that’s why we have primaries. Gingrich chose to eschew that strategy and now wants to claim some kind of victimization because the rest of the field chose not to follow in his footsteps. On top of that, Gingrich has descended to name-calling, which looks more like a dog-in-the-manger ploy than a way to gather support in the few short hours before Iowa voters trudge to precincts tonight. A confident candidate wouldn’t have sunk to the level of this conversation the morning of a caucus.

Indeed.

Also too, I say this as a kid, who grew up in the inner city of Detroit; there is nothing funnier than watch to rich, white old guys fighting it out like school kids. I find it quite amusing. 😉 😛

Again, as it is has been written many times over in the right-wing political blogosphere and also said by others on Fox News; Gingrich is a thinker, a Conservative intellectual, if you will — but he is also a bomb thrower, who is not apt to thinking on his feet. This video above proves that. In other words, it is okay to be a bomb thrower, you just have to be able to run from the bomb, in the right direction! 😯 😛 😉 😀

I think this is a bit of a stretch

First off, let me say that I have never ever supported the #OWS movement at all. However, I think that accusing the people that put this float on of Antisemitism is a bit of a stretch.

Here’s the video of the float: (Via Weasel Zippers) (I love the name of that blog… 😛 )

Now Donald Douglas, who I happen to think is a pretty nice guy; he likes Hendrix, he can’t be that bad! Anyhow, says that this float was essentially this:

I respect Douglas opinion, and he could very well be right about this; but he could be wrong too. I did not see any Israeli flag on the float. My point is this, as I have written around here before; we, as Conservatives, need to be real careful about tossing the Jew-hater flag out at the political football game. I mean, pinning the thoughts of a few people on an entire crowd is collectivism and this Conservative writer despises that mindset. This is what separates me from the “Neo-Conservative” wing of the Conservative movement; because I happen to reject the “group think” mentality that goes on in those circles. Further, I reject the entire notion of collectivism as a Conservative way of thinking. Sorry, that’s a page from the leftist playbook and I want no part of it.

Again, I reject what the #OWS is all about, they’re anti-capitalists, that is a given — But I won’t place them all in the “Jew-Hater” corner. As someone who’s been accused of such tripe, I will not fire off that accusation at a group of people — at a individual, maybe. But at a group? No. Sorry, that is just not how I roll. (as the young people like to say today. 😀 )

You might disagree, and that’s okay — stupidity is not illegal. 😉

Others: Daily Mail, The Informer, Atlas Shrugs, Doug Ross, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Scared Monkeys

Some thoughts on attacks on Republicans

Last night as I sat and watched the video of Alan Colmes attacking Rick Santorum something came to my mind and I thought I would write about it. Folks, I believe that we should prepare ourselves for this sort of a thing. The reason I say this is that the Democratic Party establishment knows that they are in a very bad way. After all, their President has failed in every manner imaginable; his attempts to save the economy failed, his attempts to create more jobs failed, even his idiotic attempts to kick start green energy failed. Therefore, seeing that their President is more vulnerable than Joe Louis on a bad night, the Democratic Party is going to go straight for the jugular and pull every dirty pool trick in the book.

Now, because I am not a hyper-partisan and because I do tend to like to deal in the truth, I will say this: Republicans and Conservatives should not be shocked when this happens. Now why would I say this? Because it just so happens that “Right” media in this Country did some of the very same things to President Obama when he was being elected. What am I referring? Well, there is Birther nonsense, the accusation that President Obama is gay, that he is a Muslim or even more libel — a terrorist, that he is a communist —- all of that stuff.

The problem is that the things that I mentioned above are usually done under the banner of “all is fair in love and war.” The problem is that Conservatives and Republican do not mind doing to Democrats, because in their minds, the lies and half-truths are being done because of a love for the Country and because they want their candidate in the White House. The problem is that when these sort of nasty attacks happen to Conservatives at the behest of the Democratic Party; the first thing that Conservatives do is hoist the red flag and cry, “Foul!”

The reason why I say this is that politics as AllahPundit so very well put it is a blood sport with much bloodlust involved. Again, the attack on Santorum was an extreme example of Democratic Party bloodlust, which surprisingly now has had some blowback effect, which is a good thing. However, my fellow Conservatives, do not think that this is the end of it. More of this sort of stuff is coming, so be prepared for it. This is, after all just the primary season. Wait till the general election comes, that is going to be mess.

Put simply, my point is this; “those who fling poo, should not be shocked or surprised when it is flung back at them.”