Watergate's Real Legacy

"Deep Throat" was the mythical source for the Mainstream Media's coverage of Watergate, and the man tagged as Deep Throat passed away recently. The source's name derived from a porn movie that was popular at the time. But the true legacy of Watergate went beyond the destruction of the Nixon Administration; it went into the real beginning of the cult of the "heroic" reporter.

A great deal about Watergate remains shrouded in liberal distortion, and it may never be fully removed, for hatred of the Nixon Administration even surpassed the absurd hatred of the W. Bush decade. Yet eliminating the shroud will remain necessary to reveal the truth about what happened and more importantly what did not happen.

The NY Times Coup In Baghdad

The New York Times gets it wrong again? SAY IT AIN'T SO, RUSS BRALEY!!! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!

That Iraq coup attempt you may have read about is like Monty Python's mongoose compared to a monsoon - it isn't.

Retiring The Bailout

An interesting alternative to a federal bailout is presented here.

The Minnesota "Recount"

From November 18:

By now it should be known that Minnesota's Senate race is undergoing a "recount" to determine if former comedian Al Franken - by all accounts a detestible excuse for a person - becomes a US Senator. The recount is happening because of vote-rigging in favor of Franken, and this examination of the phony recount notes the role of leftist financier George Soros, who is to the Left what billionaires are to drug dealers - accomplices in murder.


UPDATE: The recount shows Franken-Stein's gap at 303, but Franken claims to be leading by 22 votes, a claim unbelievable on its face.

UPDATE #2: It would appear the election is being stolen for Franken.

UPDATE #3: Is Franken-stein trailing by just two votes?

President MOTWU & Governor Blago

The Man On The Way Up has a problem with Kleptocrat Governor Blagojevich, namely the two are part of the same crooked Illinois political machine. Check this look at the recent Man On The Way Up-Blago On The Way Down standoff stands.

Wagner Act Unionism & Detroit

A good look is to be found at the "very structure of Wagner Act unionism" and how it is a primary culprit in The Big Three's downfall.


UPDATE: Detroit in July 2013 filed for bankrupcy.

It Was Government, Not The Private Sector

Presented is a needed reminder that the Wall Street crunch was caused by government.

Where Private Initiative Can Help With Deficits

Check these two ideas for the government to pay off deficits. Selling government land to private owners is especially interesting with so much land going unused because government owns it.

Economic Illiteracy Run Amok

The bailout of GM Ford & Chrysler has serious problems to it - namely Congressional requirements to build "green" cars despite their worthlessness. Meanwhile the housing crunch and economic illiteracy within gets a look here.

Illinois Corruption As Usual

The governor of Illinois gets indicted for corruption?

SAY IT AIN'T SO, RICHARD DALEY!!!!!!!!!

Actually this situation involving Rod Blagojevich is insane even by the standards of Illinois political corruption, as he sought to sell everything he could and shake down anyone he could - even a children's hospital - for money. And it involved people such as Tony Rezko, one of Barack Obama's prime financiers (who it would seem helped put Blagojevich in jail) and even The Man On The Way Up himself may have some role with Blagojevich, especially as this October 30, 2008 Chicago Tribune piece notes - also worth checking is this excerpt from Roll Call.

This Is A Recession?

Some calm rationality is needed with regard to a recession that, as is usual with the MSM, isn't what they say it is. The supposed start of the recession - December 2007 - doesn't make sense, either.

The Iraq War Saved Lives

Not just the lives that would have been lost by Saddam Hussein's continuing war by proxy against the West and potential actual war with N-B-C weaponry. It has saved 40,000 children a year who were destined to die under Hussein's continuing regime.

London's See-No-Evil Policy With Syria

They're kidding right? Britain has reestablished intelligence cooperation and diplomatic ties wth Syria despite Syrian sanction of Islamo-Arab terrorism. Working with the enemy has never been sound policy.

Unions And The Big Three

A lot of ink - online and literal - has been spilled on the Big Three automakers and their alleged problems. Not that they don't have problems, but the justifications they have made for mammoth federal bailouts increasingly look flimsy. There is the claim that "1 in 10 jobs" are generated by The Big Three, a figure that is wildly exaggerated, and there is also the premise that the Big Three are hemmorhaging money, which isn't necessarily the case. That they have problems is true enough, shown in a look at how they became an oligopoly, though the often-repeated argument about Detriot's lack of fuel efficiency is oversold.

The role of the UAW in the Big Three's problems has been surprisingly undersold by pieces actually exmaining that role. A look at the decline of union power offers a look at how damaging union power has been. The UAW's role shouldn't be undersold because for whatever level of mismanagement has happened with the Big Three (and there's been a substantial level of it, but some of the stories sound less like documentation than sour graping), it is impossible to believe the Big Three would not have turned things around faster with a saner salary and benefits structure than it presently has thank to the UAW.

Energy Frauds Discussed

A good summary of the delusions that drive energy policy debates is presented here, and makes the point that a lot of "energy transitions" have been forecasted over the decades - and either not happened or were far less important than hyped. The fraud of "energy independence" is one of the salient delusions of energy policy debates and The Man On The Way Up-Elect favors a "green jobs" policy that, like everything else in Obama's ideology, doesn't work. And just for good measure, The Man On The Way Up-Elect will also deal with a proposed "cap and trade" system that - you guessed it - can't work.

And the premise behind all of this is global warming, but a gaffe by Dr. James Hansen has badly injured the credibility of temperature records cited to justify the global warming scare.

Credit Munch And GM Bail-Ins

"We're in a credit crunch." Maybe not.

"GM needs a massive bail-out." GM's overseas sales (and those of the other members of the Big Three) indicate they're stronger than they're given credit for.

Now, does this mean those problems we've heard so much about are not there? Probably not, but they do show that we've been lied to by some alarmists to a significant extent.

Economic Good And Bad News

The bad news - if you still think unions do anyone any good, the trouble in the US auto industry should make people think again.

There is, though, good news, seen in dropping electricity prices.

The (Non) Recession Of 2008

All the talk is about a recession. The problem is the actual data doesn't show one.

Why Rolling Stone Has No Credibility

Rolling Stone magazine has been around for over four decades and it covers political issues as well as rock music - and has long been known for its in-your-face and contrary-to-the-truth leftism. As such it has always been a magazine impossible for readers wanting some level of objectivity to take seriously - it is always wrong on all the issues. The magazine's vendetta against Republicans in general has always been vindictive and thuggish, and it reaches a new low with Tim Dickinson's assembly of lies on McCain that relies heavily on incorrect sources and utter ignorance of the real world.

It is just another reason why Rolling Stone has no credibility. Other magazines at least try to tell the truth - Rolling Stone lies.

Debunking Continuing Deregulation Myths

Two pieces take on continuing myths about deregulation - This one pertains to the repeal of Glass-Steagall while a 2004 SEC change is attacked by Barack Obama but which was not deregulation.

Will SNL Retract Its Own Sarah Smears, Too?

Check this note on refutation of a CNN smear of Sarah Palin.

It's Conservatism's Fault?

The MSM's theme of recent is that recent troubles are the fault of conservatism. But the problem with the premise is it's wrong.

Democratic Chutzpah Part Deux

First, this repost from September 30:

The House vote on the $700 billion bailout has seen the usual chutzpah by Democrats, such as this admission by a prominent leftist to wanting economic disaster just to score political points. There is also the windfall the idiots named Pelosi, Frank, and Dodd are trying to reap here.

Amid all the talk about economic crisis, some sobering data comes to light about just how well off the country is - in the process illustrating just how over-the-top the rhetoric about the mortgage crisis is.


POSTSCRIPT - The repost is necessary to lead into this examination of the Democratic Congress' manipulation of the market (note in particular the role of Senator Chuck Schumer) in fostering the present economic trouble.

Also worth noting is that amid economic panic, there is improvement beginning to arrive.

Terrorist On The Way Up

The Man On The Way Up has a growing problem - his alliance over the years with terrorist William Ayers, an alliance McCain is attacking with apparantly growing success.

Letting Markets Solve The Credit Crisis

Worth reading is this examination of how markets are better suited to solve the credit "crisis" than government.

Also worth reading is this roundup of research during the recent month of panic in Congress and on Wall Street.

McCain On The Attack

Given the whiny responses of Man On The Way Up Obama to previous attacks, John McCain's renewed offensive can work. First McCain notes Obama's lack of answers to tough questions, then notes The Man On The Way Up's role in the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae fiascos. McCain's camp also goes after falsification of his health care plan (Selish note: Man On The Way Up's ads attacking McCain's health care proposals kept getting in the way of MRN Radio's Talladega coverage, making me hate Obama even more).

Also worth noting is the McCain camp's response to Obama attacks on McCain's role with "the Keating Five."

Blarney Frank's Comeuppance

He's been among the most sanctimonious and thin-skinned bullies in House history, one who managed to get away with being a pimp for homosexual prostitutes as well as for violating at least one Congressional page, and his every speech betrays a level of arrogance and condescension that is inhuman even by the low standards of leftism. In the wake of the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae fiasco, Barney Frank has been on the counterattack as is his wont. But this dissection of Frank's role in Freddie and Fannie debunks his stock attack answers.

Look Who's Attacking Man On The Way Up

And in the process he's making McCain & Palin's points for us.

MOTWU A Flip-Flopper?

Apprantly so.

Mark-To-Market

Worth checking is this piece noting the accounting rule called mark-to-market. The piece makes a strong point - the search for solutions to big problems always seems to focus on expensive solutions while smaller, cheaper alternatives get short-shrifted. That should never happen.

MOTWU Attacks Deregulation

The Man On The Way Up has tried to blame deregulation for the recent mortgage confusion out there. As usual, the facts don't support him.

Manufacturing Crisis

This examination at Barack Obama and a lengthy history of liberals manufacturing crises is worth a look. While some of the rhetoric used in the piece is a bit overheated and the present economic crisis seems more overheated rhetoric - the increasingly frequent "we could plunge into a Depression" cliche ignores the economy is infinately stronger than in the 1930s, a point made here - than something the regular market can't handle - this piece on a potential positive from the bailout plan would seem to indicate there is less danger than opportunity from the present crisis - the piece makes salient points about Obama and liberals in general - among liberalism's distinguishing characteristics is refusal to accept responsibility, shown here.

A Look Back To 1907

This look at The Panic Of 1907 suggests what might happen in a similar crisis 111 years after that panic.

The Fraud Of Climate Science

This paper on climate science shows how the question posted in the title - is climate science designed to answer questions - is "No."

Mortgage Anti-Crisis

Amid all the talk about the mortgage "crisis," we have some hard indication the housing bubble won't burst, but is in fact deflating normally.

Who's REALLY At Fault?

Already the verbiage over the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street has begun, and as is to be expected it is nauseating. As expected the "Wall Street fatcats" fall guy is being dredged up, but it requries a closer examination of that angle. Also, one should check this roundup of the Wall Street mess including the Congressional exculpatory fable being peddled about mortgages - see also this look at the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae debacles.

Amid a lot of MSM panic, the old class-war cliches liable to be peddled if they aren't already get another factual beating.

MOTWU Opposes Iraq Withdrawal

The Man On The Way Up worked to delay troop withdrawals from Iraq. Amir Taheri caught Barack Obama with his hand in the foreign policy cookie jar and this caused The Man On The Way Up to attack Taheri, whose rebuttal shows Obama's utter confusion on foreign policy in general. It is this kind of confusion that Obama always tries to mask to justify his positions on Iraq.

The Man On The Way Up As Community Slum Lord

Barack Obama's claim to fame (and claim to qualification for President) is his role as a community leader. It was a role that involved enriching slum lanlords and allies in the area housing industry, at the expense of the South Side of Chicago.

Som Empirical Data On Globalization

As usual, empirical data debunks the leftist lunatics.

Bob Woodward At It Again

Bob Woodward has a reputation as one of the gresatest journalists in American history, yet his work is riddled with errors from his misunderstanding of Watergate on down. His latest gaffe concerns a "secret killing program" in Iraq, a program he compared to the Manhattan Project but which sounds presumably closer to a "Project Phoenix" for Iraq - Project Phoenix was a counterinsurgency program in Vietnam was eliminated the remaining elements of Vietcong infrastructure and is often condemned as an "assassination" program by people who refuse to understand what it actually did.

Well, one has reason to doubt Woodward's story.

Palin Discovers What Liberal Cuts Look Like

One of the hoariest of Democratic smears is the "cut social spending" smear aimed at reductions or other changes in spending increases - because actual spending increases at a different rate than what was initially proposed, it's called a cut by the Democrats. Sarah Palin is thus ripped for "cutting Special Needs spending" because as Alaska governor in the 2006-7 period she implemented a spending package - a package initiated by the outgoing Frank Murkowski administration she had defeated in that state's elections - that reformed the state's education finaning system and increased special needs student spending over a larger area of the state.

Thanks, CNN.

It's Still The Ecomony, Stupid

And we're still better off under George W. than we were under the Clintons.

Sarah Palin Getting Borked

This summary of the war being waged by the Dominant Media Culture on Sarah Palin nicely illustrates the stereotypes the Dominant Media Culture suffocates from in issues such as the qualification of Ms. Palin for the potential job of Vice President. It also helps illustrate how unlike Hillary Clinton Ms. Palin is - namely a woman who rose through political ranks due to actual work, actual competence, and not through accepting bribes via rigged stock market investments etc.

The real Sarah Palin is examined by the author of the most recent biography to be published.

Incidentally, another difference between Palin and Hillary Milhous Clinton is shown in this comparison with one of the first American leaders of the 20th century.

Reminder Of The Truth About Iraq

Because the "Bush Lied People Died" mantra isn't going away, some fact-checking remains necessary.

End Energy Socialism

For all the genuine differences that exist between the Republicans and Democrats, there are still a needlessly high number of policy similarities between the two, notably on energy policy. This piece on those similarities nicely illustrates the fundamental flaw in energy policy - its refusal to allow competition and its stifling of realworld solutions. Increased drilling for oil manifestly is part of the solution yet is treated as part of the problem; biofuels are treated as part of the solution when they are part of the problem.

Powell Gets Man On The Way Up Treatment

How does The Man On The Way Up treat people, even potential cabinet level advisors? He throws them under the bus.

Man On The Way Up In Annenberg

Check out this examination of Barack Obama's role in a disasterous Chicago education reform effort. It contains examination of the coverups that are requisite of corrupt practices. The Man On The Way Up is on his way up again - to more trouble.

TMOTWU Takes On The Blue Meanies

After his Saddleback embarassment, The Man On The Way Up lashes out at how "mean" the Republicans are. Of course all the Republicans have done is point out the truth about The Man On The Way Up and the utter illiteracy and incoherence of his entire view of the world.

The Taxes On The Way Up

That's the gist of The Man On The Way Up's economic "plan", a plan based (like all Democratic plans) on punishing the successful to reward the failed and the hackerama.

Barack TMOTWU Gets Schooled

You have to laugh at the sheer chutzpah of Obama's promises to a school he had named after himself. That he did something dictators from Stalin on down have always done (that darned cult of personality) is funny (and disturbing) enough; that he screwed this Kenyan school royally is even funnier.

The Erosion Of The Man On The Way Up

It would seem that John McCain won in a rout in the mini-debate held with Barack Obama at Saddleback. Certainly there was no evidence from his serial evasions that The Obama On The Way Up won; on the contrary, the shrillness of left-wing responses indicated understanding that their man was eroding, and rather quickly, further shown by Obama's choices for advisors as stated by him.

The Man On The Way Up - not this one.

Why Do Bad Things Happen To "Good" Pundits?

That's the recommended title of this look at a media pundit's sense of betrayal by John "Clinton" Edwards, and it's an appropriate recommendation. That Edwards was a gigantic fraud even by Democratic Party standards should have been obvious to anyone with any level of objectivity. In the first excerpt cited within this piece, I counted the use of "I" and "my" four times, which may not count as a record but does reflect the narcissism of Walter Shapiro, the author of the jilted love letter piece on Edwards cited here.

Cited in Shapiro's piece is "an emotionally raw evening in Washington two weeks after the September 2001 attacks." What any Democrat could talk about in such a context is puzzling given the party's abdication of responsibility to defeat the Islamo-Arab inperialism at the heart of the attacks, an abdication one could see coming two generations away thanks to the party's abdication of responsibility for defeating any of America's enemies.

John Edwards pulls a Clinton and some in the media are surprised. Huh?

John Edwards Pulls A Clinton

That John Edwards is a despicable creature should have been known from the moment he became a serious political player with his belligerent and reckless wielding of power as a lawyer - of course despicable and lawyer are almost synonymous. Now he has been exposed as even worse than that with his sordid affair with a woman he hired to his political campaign. Amid all the talk about the affair - and the MSM's dishonesty in coverage - has been lost the striking parallel John Edwards has with Bill Clinton.

The gist of the sordidness of both Clinton and Edwards is that they paid for sex with government/campaign jobs. Clinton bought sex from whoever he could by giving out government jobs, and this is what John Edwards did with the woman he impregnated. And both brought this corruption up every ladder of political power they climbed until they were finally ruined by it all.

It remains to be seen if Edwards' corruption hurts the Democratic Party. Given the traitorous slime that resides throughout the party one hopes it does.

Blockhead Barack's Tire War

Barack Obama's ignorance of the real world hits a new low with his absurd argument that people should inflate their tires instead of increase domestic drilling for oil. His knowledge of mechanics is as low as as his knowledge of everything else.

Iraq and Al-Qaida: Deny Deny Deny Part Deux

It is an article of faith to the Left that Iraq did not work with Al Qaida - this despite all evidence to the contrary and the absurdity of the premise to start with. It isn't stopping the Left. The latest denial comes from Ron Suskind and his new book claiming the White House had the CIA forge a document showing that Al Qaida leader Mohammad Atta trained in Iraq. Problem is Suskind's argument is laughably inaccurate. It includes some shots at Richard Cheney that reveal the Left's continuing ignorance of a lot of issues, notably Watergate.

What has to happen for the Left to admit Bush was right all along remains a mystery.

Obama: The Man On The Way Up

On WEEI-850 AM radio in Boston, the "Whiner Line" phone message segment is the most popular segment, where colorful callers leave deliberately abusive and obnoxious messages for comedic effect. One of the Whiner Line's regulars, however, has long been a source of vitriol by other callers and by the show's hosts. He goes by the moniker The Man On The Way Up, and his shtick involves a whining voice loosely patterned after Curly Howard of The Three Stooges; The Man On The Way Up boasts about his ego and how he is the primary reason for the Whiner Line's success; while the quality of his comedic bits is uneven, it is his raging self-love as well as the shots he takes at other callers and the show's hosts that gall a lot of people, to where genuinely angry retorts are left against The Man On The Way Up by other callers.

The Man On The Way Up is the increasingly strongest analogy one can offer to Barack Obama. His Landstuhl absurdity has been spun by his acolytes and it only made him more insensitive to American servicemen - and makes the McCain shot to the effect that Obama would rather lose a war than not score propaganda points all the more cutting and accurate. Indeed, the spin offered by Obama seen in the Washington Post makes him look even more idiotic and insincere, as scoring political points was clearly driving him throughout the whole issue.

It was a case of ego beginning to overflow. The windy self-congradulation Obama has serially offered in his speeches was ratcheted up a notch to where Democrats are trying to add "context" to what is clearly self-love unhinged. Obama thinks of himself as The Man On The Way Up - and clearly he is, without the deranged snickering "Yeah" sign-off or the certain level of charm the WEEI version has.

The election is between a flawed but generally capable leader and The Man On The Way Up.

The Vanity Of Audacity

Check this superb look at Barack Obama's level of narcissism - the kind of narcissim common to leftists such as John Kerry, Bill Clinton, and Michael Dukakis.

More From Barack Milhous Rodham

Barack Obama is starting to live up to Mary McCarthy's famous analysis of Lillian Hellman - Every word he utters is a lie including "and" and "the".

Even the New Yorker gave him a good shot with its cover depicting him as an Islamic toady and his wife as Angela Davis - though she more resembles the Ecumenical Liberation Army babe from Network. Rarrely does a political cartoon tell the truth more succinctly.

Speak English, Barack

Barack Obama flubbed embarassingly when noting he can't speak another language while in effect hectoring Americans to require children to be bilingual. It doesn't work anywhere in the real world and illustrates te inanity and inanity of the multicultra mindset. This is why most Americans support making English the country's official language.

Obama's Economic Stupidity

This piece on John McCain's economic plan and Democratic attacks on it illustrates the economic illiteracy that permeates the Democratic Party and also some of the flaws both parties have with economics - specifically their endorsement of cap-and-trade energy taxes, which cost jobs and do nothing for energy policy.

Sharia Trainwreck

So Sharia, the terrorist "law," is now legal in Britain. This look at the absurdity of the debate illustrates the absurdity of sharia as well.

Obama The Flipper?

Dean Barnett notes how Barack Obama's "shocking breadth of ignorance on a staggering array of issues" has translated into a collosally mindless groping for positions that betrays his inability to lead. Barnet asks the right, and mnost humorous, question - "Can you really flop when you never flipped in the first place?"

Mor seriously, do intelligent people really want this clown to lead?

Obama Milhous Rodham-Clinton

If you had harbored a suspicion that the Obamas resemble Bill and Hillary Milhous Clinton, you're on to something.

Delahunt Fights For Al Qaida

The incredible insensitivity of Congressman William Delahunt in tacitly advocating that Al Qaida assassinate Richard Cheney's chief of staff David Addington because terrorists were "waterboarded" is matched by the timidity of Republicans in their refusal to publically call out Delahunt for openly advocating enemy action.

It illustrates just how deranged the Democratic Party has become.

Democrats And Energy

Is it a coincidence that gasoline prices spiralled upward (as opposed to merely spiking up then dropping down 2005-6) since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007?

A look at this semi-humorous list of areas of Democratic interference in sensible energy policies indicates it isn't.

More On Energy

From May 31:

Oil prices can't keep going up, can they? No, they can't. And there may be reason to see them come down sooner rather than later.


UPDATE: See also this look comparing oil prices to the housing crunch.

Expending On Energy Policy

Irwin Stelzer has a good look the wrong questions being asked about energy policy, questions at the heart of a surprisingly ludicrous Bill O'Reilly piece published entering Memorial Day weekend. The only realworld solutions that exist are massive increases in drilling and greater investment in nuclear power.

Bob Ryan Out-Shanks Shaughnessy

The Dan Shaughnessy Blog does a great job dissecting the absurdities of Dan Shaughnessy writing, and when appropriate they also include deserving writers like Tony Massaroti and his ludicrous attack on the Patriots and their fanbase in the wake of Matt Walsh's testimony to the NFL.

But now Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan outdoes Shaughnessy (and Ron Borges) with a bitter and illogical attack on Bill Belichick It is worth some comment.

Ryan seems incensed that Belichick "still hasn't fessed up." Fessed up to what? Like so many others, Ryan refuses to understand exactly what Belichick did in Spygate. In casting that Belichick "was engaged in practices he knew were against the rules," Ryan ignores the facts about Goodell's malicious ignorance of the rulebook. Belichick was not engaged in activity he knew was against the rules - a fact Roger Goodell inadvertantly acknowledged with his comment that other teams wanted to tape, not doing so only because they felt it would be to no advantage.

Ryan also is outraged because the Patriots are "the most despised franchise" in pro sports. All that does is reflect poorly on the haters, who are as short on facts and long on vitriol as Ryan is.

Ryan is also ignorant on Watergate, to which he draws constant comparison. Watergate was not about an illegal break-in (in which nothing was stolen and no resistance to police offered) but about Democratic hate-mongering using the break-in as an excuse to persecute Richard Nixon for the crime of accomplishing more than they did, spelled out best in the book Bad News: The Foreign Policy Of The New York Times.

Ryan needs to reexamine himself here and while he's at it he can check Jeffrey Standen's examination of the Belichick-Goodell brouhaha.

History Lesson For Obama

Barack Obama's stupidity was on display again with his idiotic remarks about John F. Kennedy's 1961 summit with Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev. He showed how his grasp of the real world is zero by whining about "this whole notion of not talking to people." That talking to the enemy only enables the enemy is totally lost on Obama and the larger Democratic Party and is why the US has suffered internationally as it has over the years. Summit meetings are always a dead end with the enemy - only victory over the enemy works.

Stop Talking And Start Drilling

The way to combat high oil prices is to start drilling for more oil. The problem remains the intransigence of the Democratic Party that has fought against new drilling efforts for nearly three decades.

We Have Met The Enemy

And he is the American Left. It shows in persistence in the "We make more enemies than we kill" myth and it shows in the fact the terrorist group Hamas has officially endoresed Barack Obama, and Obama is incensed that someone bothers to point this fact out.

Enemy Losses

That there is a gross double standard in MSM coverage of American wars shows in this look at enemy losses at Sadr City - losses far higher than Allied losses.

UPDATE: This look at the Allies' continuing offensive against Sadr City puts comparison of losses into perspective.

Throw Reverand Wright Under The Bus

So Barack Obama finally denounced Reverand Wright. Problem is there wasn't much priniple behind it and it continues a pattern of denial when confronted by unflattering truths about his character. But then unflattering truths abound about his uninspiring career as a politician.

UPDATE: Check this piece about the Obama-Wright dynamic.

Democratic Not-Too-Swift Boating

The Democrats have a new term of moral opprobrium - swiftboating. If they say you are swiftboating someone, they mean you are lying about a person's character. It seems destined to replace "McCartyism" as the leftist term-of-moral-denunciation of choice.

The problem is the term is yet another Democratic inversion of truth.

The Saddam Papers Continued

Why people stil seem to think Iraq and Al Qaida didn't work together is a mystery, especially given what Saddam Hussein's documents show.

Sadr City: Last Train To Clarksville

Check this piece on Sadr City and what the MSM (predicatbly) is missing.

Obama The Fraud, Continued

Barack Obama got high praise for his role in question-and-answer banter during recent testimony by General David Patraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to the US Senate. The praise came because of his apparant skill at questioning - and a lot of people didn't notice that Obama's questions were a linguistic con, or that Ryan Crocker somewhat belatedly saw through it - and lost in all of this was that Obama remains wrong on Iraq. And of course Obama's antisemitism remains unexplored by the MSM, even though it indicates refusal to side with America's truest ally, Israel.


UPDATE #1: Obama is not only an antisemite, he's a bigot toward whites, too.

UPDATE #2: He's also curiously close-mouthed about real evil - when he isn't hectoring about talking to the Ayatollahs.

American Values In Iraq

How much difference has David Patraeus made in Iraq? And how much real progress have we made? Consider this look at where both are progressing, indicative of the overall success of American efforts in Iraq.

Barack Rodham Obama

Barack Obama is proving as congenital a liar as Hillary Clinton. And the MSM - you guessed it - is going along with it. His lying reflects his determination to present that Americans have somehow been conned by Republicans even though the grand con of the past 100 years was by Democrats.

Iraq Facts Hack At Hack McFeatters

Ann McFeatters is a foreign policy news hack for Scripps Howard whose pieces on the Iraq War are invariably inaccuarte and/or sensationalized - seemingly every piece merely regurgitates the antiwar talking points of the Democratic Party. A recent piece, dated April 2, claimed "Bush's Iraq Mess Is Growing." Except for one problem - the mess is being cleaned up more and more. There is also this encouraging news about the building of the Iraqi National Army.

What Dan "Shank" Shaughnessy is to New England sports reporting, Ann McFeatters is to foreign policy writing.

UPDATE: The MSM wanted to declare the Iraqi National Army's attack against Sadr in Basra a failure. Wrong again.

Saddam Papers Critique

Worth a look is this critique of the recent release of Saddam papers, for as much as they reveal, they also raise more questions.

Hillay-ous Obama-nation

Hillary Milhous Clinton has a lot in common with Barack Obama. Both are trying damage control - Hillary's looks like this while Obama's church tries it itself.

Why No Decentralized Finacial Solution?

It's a question worth asking.

Cozying To Iran

Iranian meddling in the battle between Iraq's government and terrorist al-Sadr in Basra is a blow to the Allies in Iraq and also brings to mind those who want to talk with the Ayatollahs, never mind the untrustworthiness of the Iranians.

UPDATE: Check this look at the Sadr uprising in Basra by Bill Roggio.

McCain's Climate Blind Spot

Though superior in most aspects to the Democrats, by no means is John McCain without serious policy flaws, notably with regard to the global warming fraud.

Blockhead Barack vs. LTC McCain

If Barack Obama does pull off the Democratic nomination, we will be able to see how marked a contrast there is with John McCain. In Obama we have attempted sabotage of America's effort toward victory and contradiction and buck-passing extraordinaire, while in McCain we have some serious discussion of serious issues that is closer to the Bush Doctrine than flabby MSM critiques think it is.

Palestinian Wrongs

The "right of return" is the latest tactic used by the collaborators with "Palestinians" to justify attacking Israel. Except the actual right of return belongs to Jews, not Arabs, and certainly not to a group with no racial or cultural or any difference from Jordanian Arabs and whose refugee status is entirely the result of Arab refusal to resettle combined with their use as human title deeds flimsily justifying war against the West.

Obama's Antisemitism Continued

Barack Obama's antisemitism - predictably underplayed by the MSM - has been an issue for awhile. Now his top military advisor - who has a credibility issue already in that he's worked with Howard Dean and John Kerry, antiamericans like Obama - is shown to be an antisemite himself.

It helps illustrate a point Victor Hanson makes about Obama's speech - Barack aimed his speech toward the political elite in all its obtuseness and in the process insulted the intelligence of everyone else. The antisemitism of Obama and his campaign is just part and parcel of the obtuseness of the political elite.

Response To Iraq's Monday AM Quarterbacks

A good response to Monday morning quarterbacking five years after the liberation of Iraq is presented. It notes the critiques of writer and former Army officer Ralph Peters, whom I respect greatly as one of the best analysts of the Iraq situation. The piece isn't exactly hard on Peters' own Monday morning quartebacking on the fifth anniversary of the war's start, but I felt Peters, in his own take on the anniversary, missed a mark on why the war wasn't wrapped up as quickly as some think it could have been.

Peters took on Donald Rumsfeld and "yes-man" generals, yet seemed to miss the strategy of housing American forces in base camps for a prolonged period before David Petraeus in effect got forces out of base camps and back into the countrysde in 2007. This old base camp strategy was one of the less effctive strategies in the Vietnam war and its reemergence in Iraq seemed to reflect something Rumsfeld and others were fighting - the Army's notorious history of bureaucratic inflexibility.

Likewise Peters seemed to miss an underappreciated lesson of Vietnam - namely that overreliance on overwhelming numbers was a substitute for imaginative thinking on how to win. Creighton Abrams took dwindling American forces and used them far more imaginatively that William Westmoreland, and coupled with redoubled efforts to properly train ARVN, this took advantage of Westy's genuine successes - for his overreliance on numbers and for his surprising neglect of training of ARVN, Westmoreand's approach did succeed in bleeding the enemy enormously - to make South Vietnam almost a nation at peace by 1971.

For awhile this was the same approch being used in Iraq; that it got sidetracked is puzzling, and that it took Petraeus to kick it back into gear sees to reflect more on the bureaucracy of the Army than to weaknesses in Donald Rumsfeld's leadership. Not that Rumsfeld is blameless, just that some greater balance in analysis might have been in order.

There is also the fact of the enormity of the task at hand as well as the enemy. I highly doubt that anyone had any real illusions that terrorists would disappear and cede Iraq to the West. That there were failings, and major ones, that made the conflict more difficlt should not be denied, but it would seem that the determination of the enemy, and the sheer size of the task of transforming Iraq from a launching point for internatinal war into a democracy, were at least as much at fault as anything on our side. Inded, that Iraq has progressed as far as it has toward being a viable democracy indicates the US has been far more successful at the mission than the Monday AM QBs seem to think.

Analyzing the war in Iraq will go on for many, many years, and people like Ralph Peters as well as those ofering diferent legitimate views are important to such analysis.

The Saddam Papers

More and more is being learned from Iraqi Intelligence Service documents about how much Saddam Hussein sanctioned Islamo-Arab terrorism. This entry examines his Taliban connection while here we look at what Saddam's people knew about Iranian support of Al Qaida and we also look at an Iraqi Intelligence Service source on Al Qaida. Also noteworthy is the absurd word games being played to obscure Iraq's alliance with/takeover of Al Qaida.

Obama: The Meltdown Continues

Barack Obama gave a speech in Philly in the wake of his church's exposure as a racial jihadist rally. His speech was about racial healing but made the same mistake of refusing to hold non-whites responsible for racial animosity that has been made for generations (and is nicely illustrated in the display of racial self-pity and buck-passing seen here).. It also illustrated Obama's evasiveness about his church, and for good reason - his church didn't just talk the talk of antiamerican race-mongering, it aided and abetted a Puerto Rican terrorist and his gang.

And for good measure you can throw in Obama contradicting himself about his pastor's bigotry, to go with his general brainless babble, and did anyone else notice him throwing a lot of people other than himself under the bus in his speech?

Obama-bin Laden, indeed.

Recession - Yes And No

Economic news is considered bad right now, but the actual evidence of such is mixed with some indicators being better than expected.

Obama Running Amok

Barack Obama is having a rough go of it in the wake of widely publicized tape by his quasi-jihadist pastor and his own disingenuous response to it. That his jihadist pastor's verbal fatwas aren't all that different from some hatemongering of his own in 1995 is in keeping with the fraudulence that permeates the whole mythos he uses to justify his campaign for President. It's also in keeping with his belligerent naivete on international security matters.

Pentagon Report On Iraq And Al Qaida

The MSM was quick to jump on a leak of a lengthy Pentagon report on Saddam Hussein's involvement with international terrorism by citing a supposed lack of a link between Hussein and Al Qaida. But once again the MSM got it wrong thanks to trusting what Laurie Mylroie noted in a correspondance was "a hostile leak." The actual report, linked here and discussed in depth here, cites Saddam-era documents to show what objective observors knew for over thirty years - that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was one of the largest sanction states for Pan-Arab and Islamic terrorism ever seen.

Oil And Iraq Stocks

A couple of interesting pieces are presented here - one traces Iraq's stock exchange and also we get a look at what is inflating oil prices.

Obama's Slow Erosion

It's becoming a more and more difficult run for Barack Obama, as late primary losses follow more direct challenges to the substance of his campaign, and a striking level of dissention within his advisory group has developed to go with his own evolving confusion on important matters such as Iraq.

Then you have his idiocy about NAFTA, which damages his credibility all the more. The erosion of Obama-mania should be interesting.

Obama As Traitor?

If you thought Barack Obama's fraudulent campaigning was bad, a genuinely distrubing connection between Obama and international brigand/terror-puppeteer Saddam Hussein is emerging.

Blockhead Barack Continued

Barack Obama remains a blockhead. First there is the IRS mess he's facing and also questions he isn't answering. He thus continues to make justifying his candidacy harder and harder.

Obama's Military (And General) Credibility Gap

Barack Obama continues to show his credibility gap in realworld issues with his story alleging ammunition shortages for American forces in Afghanistan because of diversion of resources to Iraq. His story was questioned by John Warner and has fallen apart as the US captain sourced by Obama contradicted Obama's account, with better context fleshing out the whole thing. Obama thus continues to spend campaign money and also fundamental credibility.

Postscript - It's not just his military credibility gap that drives Obama - his antisemitism is seeping out more and more after his recent Cleveland speech. His diplomatic efforts are also bearing farce with his embarassment over NAFTA.

Then throw in his incredibly incendiary and bogus assertion about Arab-Americans being arrested and one has to question every ounce of this person's being.

Pakistan Crosses The River

Remember the general sense of doom about Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto's assassination? There appears to be hope for that nation, after all.

Daytona 500 Postscript

Mike Mulhern is the best writer in the NASCAR world right now, and provides a solid postscript to the 2008 Daytona 500. To add to what the sport has learned from this race -


*** Dodge is deeper competitively than they get credit for, or than Stuttgart has generally realized. We talk about Kyle Busch's brilliant drives; Bobby Labonte, despite never having much drafting help, made some superb moves as well and finished 11th. The bitterly disappointing quality of his finish is illustrated by how hard he raced and yet finished dead last among the Dodges. George Gillett's teams were quiet all week and superb at the end. Reed Sorenson had no help from his Ganassi teammates yet had a terrific week. That Dodge got all its teams into the top-11 at Daytona is a circumstance Stuttgart managed to screw up when they took away Lou Patane's authority in 2001 and let their teams devolve away from the One Team concept into little fiefdoms not working together as they should have been from Jump Street. Stuttgart needs to get its teams working together because they have an opportunity from this Daytona finish.


*** For all the attention paid to Toyota, their effort was almost a one-team show. Bill Davis Racing had some good effort from Dave Blaney but that disintegrated at the end. Dieter Mateschitz got just one of his cars into the 500 and Brian Vickers overcame a lot to finish 12th. Michael Waltrip is clueless and it showed with another mediocre effort by his cars. Only Joe Gibbs among Toyota cars (as opposed to Trucks where Toyota had no real competition all week) did anything all week.


*** The high number of lead changes (42 among 16 drivers), due mostly to a flurry of late yellows, helped mask that the COT did poorly in competition, with suspension failures, tire failures, mediocre drafting ability, and a total lack of enthusiasm among drivers or anyone else. Now the grossly worn quality of Daytona's pavement has something to do with it as well, but that the Sportsman Series, running the "old" bodystyle with roof wicker and big rear spoiler, had virtually the same quality of racing with a bolt-on aero package as the Winston Cup cars shows the folly of the whole COT concept.


*** Hendrick Motorsports' poor 500 effort was not a good sign for their experiment with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior's performance level and that of the Hendrick fleet fell off dramatically after the 150s and the plate tracks remain Junior's best tracks. One has to wonder if Junior truly will be as good a fit in the Hendrick fleet as advertised.


*** His former team, DEI, gave plenty of ammo to critics of Teresa Earnhardt's commitment to winning and/or basic competence as a team owner with their mediocre week.


*** Ford looks doomed to a poor season in 2008.


So the grind of the season begins for real at Fontana, and it will be interesting to see how NASCAR spins the expected mediocre fan turnout as well as how the COT performs here, with no confidence to be had in the machine's abilities for the racing.

Boilerplate Obama

Two pieces illustrate the vacuousness of the Obamas. First is this look at Barack Obama's non-blueprint for "change" while the bizarre class jealousy of his wife Michelle is examined here.

It's Not A Gas Gas Gas

Remember biofuels? It's now clear they're worth forgetting, as they're failing at everything promised about them.

Winston Cup's Future Explodes Forth

The Car Of Tomorrow is now the car of today as Speedweeks 2008 kicks off, and after just one day we've had two wrecks, a near-brawl, and continuing signs the Car Of Tomorrow will not live up to any of its promises. Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart can be expected to wipe out the field and fight each other afterward, and the wreckage from just practice doesn't fill one with confidence in the rest of the week.

With Support Like This.....

Two articles examine the dissonance that exists about American success in Iraq. This one examines overall MSM coverage while the recent spate of movies about the war gets examined here.

The Saddam Interview

An important look at the recent Saddam Hussein interview is presented here.

Energy "Dependence" Myths

Here's an interesting look at five myths about US energy dependence.

Daytona Post-Test Miscellenia

Some miscelleneous thoughts after Winston Cup testing at Daytona -


** Much ink is being spilled over Toyota's stout test, with considerable attention devoted to higher RPMs allowed with NASCAR's new engine package. 9,000 RPMs are widely reported, to where NASCAR may mandate a slower gear for Speedweeks. Why they're allowing above 7,500 RPMs is a mystery, since there wasn't much trouble with the racing at 7,500 RPMs in previous seasons.


** There has also been scuttlebutt about reverting to 13-gallon fuel cells after tires proved troublesome in round one of the test. In Talladega's COT debut the drivers spent too much time pounding out laps single-file instead of racing, and concern remains that they'll do it again come Daytona. Going back to the 13-gallon fuel cell is a surprisingly effective quick-fix deterrent to such stroking, as with the smaller cells drivers found they had to get to the lead so they could pit under green in better position and not lose the draft.


** Dodge had a very mixed test session, showing up finally in the drafting sessions of the second test, notably with Kasey Kahne and Bobby Labonte.

Antisemite Vs. Wannabe-dictator

First, a repost from March 22, 2007:


Making the rounds of YouTube is a popular campaign ad comparing Hillary Milhous Clinton to the dictator of George Orwell's 1984. The ad is by a supporter of Barack Obama, whose campaign has distanced itself from the ad.

Now attacking Hillary Milhous Clinton as a wannabe-dictator is hardly unfair, since her career has been nothing but a running campaign for control. But there is something wrong when one of the best attack ads in years comes from a backer of an empty suit of a politician who is possibly an antisemite.

The repost is necessary because the antisemitism of Barack Obama is a legitimate issue given his anti-Israel "pals" and the phoniness surrounding his "condemnation" of Louis Farrakhan.

Some Good Economic News

Yes, the MSM/Democrats have been at it again with ominous stories about "wallets big and small shutting" and so forth. Except the news is more good than bad. And the Democrats get it wrong again about deficits.

Daytona Testing Underway

A few thoughts about Daytona testing -

** Tires appear to be an issue, with several blistered right fronts reported. Some are blaming it on the hardness of the tire, though usually it's a push issue. The grossly worn pavement at Daytona may also be a factor.

** Interesting to see Joe Gibbs Racing send one of their chassis specialists to directly help out the other Toyotas. With Dodge struggling it remains absurd that the manufacturer that entered NASCAR circles in 1996 via the Trucks with a One Team approach let it disintegrate as soon as its Winston Cup program hit the track.

** If Toyota can parlay good testing times into season-long muscle, the sport may actually see something new instead of just another Hendrick-Roush romp.

** Travis Kvapil has posted some good speeds in Doug Yates' car, but it's a bit much to expect him to race well, as he hasn't to any consistent level before.

Meanwhile, Back At Denial

The Democrats in general and Blockhead Barack in particular remain at Denial River with regard to winning in Iraq. Evasive charisma as usual do not make up qualities of leadership, Barack.

Hillary Happens

Hillary Milhous Clinton appears to be collapsing. It's a fall long coming and it's in large part due to the "experience" issue that is laughable in Hillary's context.

Confession Of An Ex-Olbermann Fan

I used to be a fan of Keith Olbermann. When he was co-host of SportsCenter on ESPN with Dan Patrick, Olbermann made delivery of sports highlights must-see viewing. Olbermann had a wit and sharpness to his delivery that was infectious, funny, and clever. Consider this quote from his coverage of the Patriots-Steelers 1996 AFC Divisional Playoff matchup, held in a fog-shrouded Foxboro Stadium -

"The story goes that quarterback Drew Bledsoe of the Patriots met one of his fans in a restaurant one night and as the man was introducing himself Bledsoe said, 'Oh yeah, I know you, you sit in the 14th row behind the west endzone, I'd know you anywhere....I've seen you in the gamefilms, too, you're right above my line of vision.' You knew that someday with total recall like that Bledsoe would explode in a huge game. At Foxboro, Son Of Fogbowl - 'I can't see that fan.'"

Later he got out of a verbal slipup with flying colors -

"Watch Rod Woodsen, who's forgotten his Niners, er, Miner's helmet, or his Niners helmet, or his Steelers helmet."

With the Patriots salting away a 28-3 smashing of the Steelers we saw footage of a disconsolate Woodsen, Bill Parcells and Curtis Martin hugging in triumph, and owner Bob Kraft celebrating with stadium fans -

"Rod Woodsen back and bummed, while Bill Parcells and Curtis Martin are extremely happy, and then in the stands, I liked the team so much I kissed the owner and the security guy said, 'Hey hey hey, there'll be plenty of time for that later on!'"

Olbermann even made dry recitation of facts interesting listening, as when he noted in 1996 of a Miami Dolphins win over the Indianapolis Colts where Dan Marino set a new NFL quarterbacking record and Olbermann noted it was the first time he won a game in setting such a record, noting Marino had lost 1995 games where he set new records for touchdowns, yardage, and completions, with the irony that two of those losses were to the Colts.

Such was entertaining viewing, and when Olbermann left SportsCenter I was disappointed. Even today I still miss that wit and cleverness that he brought to sportscasting, a wit and ingenuity he brought when he worked for FOX Sports, first teamed with Kevin Frazier 1999-2000, then with his short-lived Sunday late-night wrapup show, The Keith Olbermann Evening News.

But I sensed something wrong with him at the end of his FOX show; in the show's final episode in late April 2001 he ominously reported on the Daytona International Speedway worker who claimed (falsely) that Dale Earnhardt's belt was not cut when he was found in the car, inferring that NASCAR had manufactured the cut to cover up any role of theirs in his death. The way he reported this was incendiary, enough that when his show was not renewed, it seemed that such incendiary reporting was a contributing factor.

Since then he has devoted his telecasting to his MSNBC show other than a periodic guest-hosting stint with Dan Patrick on Patrick's now-defunct ESPN Radio afternoon drive show - this stint brought back some of the old Dan & Keith vinegar - and the incendiary quality he displayed in the final broadcast of his FOX show has been so common that an entire blog has been created to track his serial falsity and this look at Keith's ten lies of 2007 is the perfect place to start examining the serial falsity with which he has infected television news.

It shows what kind of fraud Olbermann truly has been and shows how much his genuine broadcasting talent has been wasted. The story goes he struck his head on a subway in 1980 and this affected him to the point he cannot drive a car. One has to wonder if such an injury affected his critical judgement as well.