I’ve spent a healthy portion of today listening to talkradio and reading the right blogosphere and two things are apparent. There’s alot of people who aren’t happy that Harriet Miers didn’t get her proverbial day in court. There’s also alot of conservatives who are thankful to see Harriet Miers withdraw her nomination. I’m certain that both are heartfelt and sincere. At this point, both points are irrelevant in going forward.

Conservatives can keep their eyes on the main prize or they can go home and let liberals get their way. That’d be a stupid thing to do. We’ve told America that we think that getting judicial conservatives is vitally important with our 63 million votes for President Bush. It’s time that we followed through on that and unite behind a strong, verifiable conservative.

It’s imperative that we all drop our insistance on this or that candidate. Yes, it’s fine to email the White House and suggest our favorite candidate but it isn’t fine to demand that candidate. It’s vitally important that we step behind the candidate that President Bush nominates. On a sidenote, it’s expected that President Bush will name his new nominee before this Sunday’s political talk shows, possibly even Friday.

Conservatives also have the responsibility of getting behind the rest of President Bush’s agenda, which is sounding more and more conservative each day. There’s just too much at stake to stay upset and complain that the Miers nomination broke your heart. Conservatives simply can’t afford that type of apathy.

Cross-posted at ConfirmationWhoppers

AP reports: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment company more than $23 million in taxes and interest for disallowing certain deductions.”

Well, God bless America.

RELATED:
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Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who some think participated in the 1979 taking and holding of American Hostages during the Carter administration said yesterday:

”Israel must be wiped off the map.”

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki went on to say:

”The comments expressed by the president is the declared and specific policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We don’t recognize the Zionist regime and don’t consider it legitimate.”

The comments, published at newstimelive.com were made during demonstrations across Iran which were attended by tens of thousands of Iranians.

Despite the fact that many countries decried the comments, should more than lip service be paid to these inflammatory remarks?

Iran has been an antagonist towards American interests since the fall of the Shah. They instigate trouble now in Iraq, and many believe they harbor key Al Qaeda members, shielding them from capture.

Meanwhile they are thumbing their noses at the international community regarding the development of their nuclear program, which they claim is for power generation. Why does a county drowning in oil need nuclear power?

The big secret everyone knows is that they are developing nuclear weapons. Iran’s nuclear development is said to be hidden in huge underground bunkers said to be out of range of preemptive strikes by Israel or the US.

According to the Bush doctrine of preemptive strike, as published in a Washington Post article published September 2005:

The first example for potential nuclear weapon use listed in the draft is against an enemy that is using ”or intending to use WMD” against U.S. or allied, multinational military forces or civilian populations…..

….”attacks on adversary installations including WMD, deep, hardened bunkers containing chemical or biological weapons.”

Who among us thinks they aren’t belligerent or crazy enough to use them? Should we anticipate an Iranian first strike against Israel, followed by an attack on an American city?

If Iraq met the President’s litmus test for preemption, than Iran certainly does. Based on this overt agressive expression by Iran’s leaders, our military planners should be developing contingency strike plans against Iran as we speak.

Tuesday marked the 2,000th US military death in the war in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan plans to celebrate by handcuffing herself to the White House gate. 590 events are planned, including in 49 states in the US and around the country, anti-war protesters plan on holding death parties by picketing local VA hospitals with such tactful signs as “2000 KILLED” and “15,000 MAIMED by Precedent of Deception and Congress of Cover Up” and “NOT ANOTHER CHILD, SOLDIER, FAMILY” and “Bring Them Home Now!!!” That should make our veterans feel supported! Did you get your invitation?

The American Friends Service Committee, sponsors of the lovefests which help to complete Michael Moore’s mosaic of death US soldiers in Iraq, boasts this thoughtful slogan:

Hmmm…. why they don’t mind the dollars being spent on the war on poverty, which began on January 8, 1964 when Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed at his State of the Union address:

“This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.”

How many billions of dollars have been spent, often wasted, in the war on poverty over the last 40 years? I say liberalism has maimed too many American citizens. I demand a stop to the unjust (and unsuccessful) war on poverty AND I want my money back.
(continue reading post »)

For some time now, John Danforth has ‘worried’ that the Christian Right is getting too strong. Last March, Danforth wrote an op-ed in the NY Times stating his concerns that Christian conservatives were getting too strong. Now, he’s speaking out on the issue again.

Frankly, it’s getting pretty tiresome hearing it. As a bornagain Christian myself, and proudly so, I don’t know what’s to be feared by the Christian conservative community.

My Christian beliefs tell me to advocate:

• the spread of freedom throughout the world. That’s currently being played out in the Middle East but with the hope that it won’t stop there. Hopefully, African dictators will feel the heat soon.
• the wise use of every taxpayer’s wages to help people. That means eliminating pork-barrel spending and shrinking and eliminating the budget deficit.
• initiatives that help more people taste the best that America has to offer. We’ve been blessed by God in ways that no other nation in the history of the world have been blessed.
• the well-thought out pro-life agenda because I want human life to be viewed as precious again. That also means end-of-life situations, too. To do less is to not confer on people the dignity that God confers on people.

Excuse me if I’m puzzled as to why that agenda is alarming or worrisome. Those views are reasonable and logical. I won’t rip Danforth as an out-of-touch moderate. He’s a man of integrity and deserves to be treated as such. I’ll simply disagree with him on this.

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing

This is hysterical:

Independent Sources has happened upon Senate Democrat’s secret flow chart that provides guidance to Barbara Boxer and friends on how to handle Supreme Court nominees. It explains so much. You’ll be shocked! Dismayed! And then you’ll realize that once the President’s next selection is announced, you’re going to save an immense amount of time ignoring the Democrat’s rote opposition. So save this and check off the boxes as the next “extreme right wing” nominee moves toward a vote on the Senate floor!

Make sure to click on the link to view the flowchart :)

Hat tip:
A ‘Senior Administration Official’ in the comments section at my blog (heh).

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That’s the title of Austin Bay’s latest column and it’s a must read. Here are some of the best points Col. Bay makes:

On the day of the election, I received an email from an Iraqi reader. He’s a Sunni Arab, a businessman and by no means a public figure. While protecting his identity, I will note I visited his hometown while on active duty last year in Iraq.
His letter mixed excitement and pride with a touch of dread, as he noted that the constitutional process and election experience told him that “major players (in Iraq) are coming more and more to realize that dialogue, alliances, common interests and just plain politics are the way to win, not violence, intimidation and terror. So this (lesson) is apparently slowly ’sinking in’ in our confused and frightened Iraqi mentality.”

After coma-inducing John Kerry grumbles about all the failures he thinks President Bush has made in handling the war, it’s great to read a column about reality from a trusted journalist. The email that Col. Bay cites is uplifting because people are buying into the political progress and abandoning the insurgency efforts.

Another bit of good news in the violence front is that Syria isn’t likely to be exporting terrorists much anymore. They can’t afford to because Assad’s government is on shaky ground after getting ‘indicted’ in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. With political and economic sanctions looming and with their economy in the tank, they’ll need military types to protect Assad.

Combining the diminishing Iraqi insurgency and the likely diminishing Syrian exporting of terrorists paints a fairly optimistic picture. I don’t want to paint a perfect picture because reality is that there’s still challenges left to meet. We still need to get the emerging Iraqi military trained, strengthened and bigger. We still need to see the Iraqis elect a permanent government and tweak their ratified Constitution.

Via global television, the entire planet will witness a Mesopotamian tyrant in the dock (talk about a historic first). Arabic-speaking audiences will need no translators, nor will their autocrats, as the tyrant is called to account for his crimes. Saddam will rant, but let the fool exhaust himself with bombast and bluster. The windbag act will only expose his weakness.

The pictures from that trial will reverberate throughout the Arab world and it won’t be good for recruiting new terrorists. Rest assured of this: That trial will impact the democracy movement even more than the original purple finger pictures last January 30th.

Something else is happening here, and it’s very noteworthy, and that is that the Arab world is noticing that wherever America is involved, peoples’ lives improve, tyrants are taken out of power, people get to choose their own path through life and women become equals to men. I’ll guarantee that that momentum won’t be stopped or slowed down. PERIOD.

After casting his constitutional referendum ballot, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said: “The constitution is a sign of civilization. This constitution has come after heavy sacrifices. It is a new birth.” Jaafari echoed comments I heard last year in Iraq. Several Iraqis told me they knew democracy was “our big chance.” One man said Iraq had the opportunity to “escape bad history”, and Iraq has a lot of bad history to escape.

There’s no time like the present to “escape bad history” than the present. Here’s to seeing Iraqis succeed.

Cross-posted at BoxerWatch

The NYTimes is reporting that VP Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby likely will be indicted Friday on charges of making false statements to the grand jury. More from the article:

Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.

That’s odd because according to this report from the Washington Post:

The term of the current grand jury has been extended once and cannot be lengthened again, according to federal rules.

That same WaPo article noted that a new grand jury could be impaneled. I don’t know which article is correct as far as the grand jury point goes. But it appears Rove is still going to be under investigation regardless. We’ll know more in a few hours, I’m sure.

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Open Trackbacks regarding today’s top story

Over the last few weeks, countless bloggers have shared opinions and perspectives about Harriet Miers. You were either for, against, or neutral. Today, it’s a moot point for all of us.

Miers has withdrawn her nomination and President Bush has the opportunity to present another choice. We’ve made our prediction. Agree? Disagree? And what about the Democrats? Wasting no time. They’re polishing the soundbites and preparing for a fight.

Please share your latest thoughts and opinions here.

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The Miers’ Withdrawal: Reactions from the Blogosphere:

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The following quotations from the AP:

“The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination.” — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

(Video here)

“The trouble is, the more we learned about Harriet Miers …. the more it was clear that this was not the right job for her.” — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“When his party turned on him, he was in trouble and she was in trouble.” — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

“I hate to see a woman go down this way. I really, really do.” — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I do not believe that this nomination was withdrawn simply because of the president’s refusal to release White House documents. That is a fig leaf to cover the real problem which was a badly mismanaged and rush nomination.” — Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

During an interview on FOXNews this morning, Barbara Boxer added the following:

“This is a victory for the far-right…” and “My advice to the President is to take a deep breath and slow down…”

If only she’d take her own advice.

Prepare for the battle ahead.

UPDATE:
“This is not a happy day for our country.”
– Boxer issues a press release

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