Dr. Frankenstein: Igor, would you mind telling me
whose brain I did put in?
Igor: And you won’t be angry?
Dr. Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby someone.
Dr. Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frankenstein: Abby Normal?
Igor: I’m almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frankenstein: Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA? IS THAT WHAT YOU’RE TELLING ME?

AMID CONFLICTING STORIES, the LA Daily News reports that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to take control of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). While I agree that gaining control over the District’s 87,000 union employees offers some political advantages, I doubt that swapping brains with LA’s educational Frankenstein will help any of the 727,000 children already stunted by years of scholastic retardation.

Except for abortion and the welfare state, America’s public schools may be the most wasteful and destructive anti-child bureaucracy in history. District apologists often blame money, culture, and parents for their failures. But after nearly two generations of decline we have to wonder whether the District’s failure was a deliberate policy to dummify our children rather than a forty-year accident. Whether intentional or not, America’s enemies could not have devised a more cunning plan to sabotage our nation’s future. And like any cancer, when we feed this disease it only gets bigger.
(continue reading post »)

Take the NRSC National Survey on Immigration Policy and let your opinions be known.

RELATED:
Who says Republicans walk in lockstep?

Michelle Malkin has liveblogging of Bush’s immigration speech
Her review is understandably unfavorable. And there’s more.

The concern is that it’s going to be all talk no action.

PoliticalTeen has the video.

Has Steve Poizner ever apologized or mended his ways after doing this?

From Open Secrets , this is disturbing.

Steve Poizner’s name is enshrined forever with… John Corzine and Barbara Lee. Remember Barbara Lee? When Congress Voted to go into Afghanistan she was the 1 vote as in 423-1.

Steve is forever crystalized in the political record as appearing with Jane Fonda and Steven Bing on the proud list of donors to the recount committee.

This shouldn’t suprise you as Poizner has opposed the President at almost every turn. Even Poizner’s White House Fellowship was under none other than Richard Clarke. The same Richard Clarke that headlined a fundraiser for Poizner.

How does Poizner repay the President for the fellowship?

Maybe an Endorsement? Nope.
Apologizing for donations? Nope.
Change in pattern of behavior, stances on the issues? Nope.

Poizner can have whatever opinions he wants, but this blogger is calling for intellectual honesty. Poizner, there is still time to run against BustaMecha as a Democrat. You’d actually have a better chance of winning.

Written by Aaron F. Park, the Roseville Conservative

Tim Kane and James Jay Carafano, research fellows at the Heritage Foundation as well as military veterans, examine the myth that only the poor and underprivileged enlist in the US military:

They all volunteered. The U.S. soldiers pitching in with hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast and those fighting and dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere decided, on their own, to serve their nation.

Or was the decision made so freely? Could it be that unscrupulous Pentagon recruiters duped them, taking advantage of their poverty, their lack of education and the bleak futures they share as members of the USA’s urban underclass?

That’s the view of some critics, such as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who writes that “very few” of the soldiers fighting in Iraq “are coming from the privileged economic classes,” and that there would likely be no war if rich kids had to fight. According to Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., social equality demands reinstatement of the draft, which he justifies by asserting that “the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent.” Herbert concludes that there is “something very, very wrong with this picture.”

What’s “very, very wrong” with the Rangel-Herbert picture is that it has no factual basis.

According to a comprehensive study of all enlistees for the years 1998-99 and 2003 that The Heritage Foundation just released, the typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is. Indeed, for every two recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, there are three recruits coming from the richest neighborhoods.

Let’s hope Bill “Low Lying Lynndie England Fruit” Maher reads the USAToday. And Rep. Charlie Rangel aka He-who- thinks-only-the-poor-serve-so-we-should-start-a-military-draft, too.

Any guesses as to why the media and anti-war types like to keep perpetuating this myth? Read the following - via Austin Bay, who posts the money quotes from Hugh Hewitt’s interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran from May of this year - and I think you’ll have your answer:

HH: Let me ask you something. Major K, a major in the Army who is reporting from Iraq on his blog all the time says, all this being said, it is no small wonder that a gulf has opened between journalists and the general public. I think even the most John Q. Sixpacks know when they are being fed a line of blank blank blank. My brother called me a journalist once during a conversation about this blog. I was offended. That is a general impression among the American military about the media, Terry. Where does that come from?

TM: It comes from, I think, a huge gulf of misunderstanding, for which I lay plenty of blame on the media itself. There is, Hugh, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media. One that begins from the premise that the military must be lying, and that American projection of power around the world must be wrong. I think that that is a hangover from Vietnam, and I think it’s very dangerous.

There you go.

(Hat tip for the USA Today link: Betsy Newmark)

Cross-posted at SisterToldjah

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The Real Ugly American reports on Sergeant Will Whitley who is serving in Iraq and has a few things to say about Congressman Murtha’s recent comments.

RELATED:
Soldier Blogs from Iraq

Below The Beltway examines the myth that Wal-Mart is bad for the poor as critics contend. But by offering the lowest retail prices, the mega-retailer does exactly the opposite: it allows frugal shoppers to get more for their money.

“I will be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of Wal-Mart. I don’t enjoy shopping there, and the products they sell don’t appeal to me. For a large segment of America, however, Sam Walton’s creation has opened up opportunities that didn’t exist before. To argue that you care about the working poor at the same time you attack the one institution that has helped them the most in the past 20 years is the height of hypocrisy.”

It’s quite likely that those claiming to care about the poor would never set foot in a Wal-Mart. Ted Kennedy comes to mind.

But he means it with the greatest respect, yo!

According to MTV.com, “50 thinks the president is ‘incredible … a gangsta.’”

(Hat tip: Matt Drudge)

“I wanna meet George Bush, just shake his hand and tell him how much of me I see in him,” 50 told GQ.

Does this mean Republicans will finally get a good rap?

(Couldn’t resist)

RELATED:
Republican Outreach: The GOP Gains
Another NAACP Leader

The AP’s Nedra Pickler wrote about this week’s Presidential Radio Address. The highlight of the President’s address is this paragraph:

In a Thanksgiving weekend radio address to Americans, President Bush mourned the growing number of fallen troops but vowed to keep fighting for the cause they died for. Bush thanked U.S. service members and military families “who are making great sacrifices to advance freedom’s cause” in his weekly radio address Saturday.

Undaunted by ‘Mother’ Sheehan’s peace protest, the President chose to focus on the war on global terrorism as a prelude to his upcoming speech in Annapolis this Wednesday. President Bush is on a campaign of reasserting his leadership on the war in Iraq by swatting down the Democrats’ unserious policies and by touting the accomplishments that the American military has achieved.

In a scheduled series of speeches, President Bush is expected to highlight the military accomplishments, especially the success of Operation Steel Curtain, where 700 terrorists have been killed thus far and 1500 terrorists have been captured. He’s also likely to focus on the writing and ratification of the Iraqi Constitution and the upcoming vote for the first permanent government in that country in decades.

I hope that President Bush will also address the foolishness of John Murtha’s unconditional retreat policy proposal by saying that pulling out before winning in Iraq is the equivalent to turning the nation over to the Iraqi security forces before they’ve been trained. (continue reading post »)

It’s often said that the main stream media (MSM) doesn’t cover the good stories happening in Iraq, or even normal life happening in Iraq. There’s a wonderful blog by an Iraqi man, Sooni, living in Baghdad, Iraq.

SIDE BY SIDE

“These are pictures of the military parade made by security keeping forces to show their strength. The U.S soldiers were there observing closely.”

That was the message I got from my brother who took these pictures. When I looked at the pictures I noticed that the American soldiers weren’t wearing anything to protect themselves and they were calmly watching the Iraqi soldiers they trained, I guess they were feeling real good in that beautiful sunny day. They stood side by side with the Iraqis to watch the parade, I can feel how proud they are to help those men to make Iraq more secure. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures and I hope you will too.

Can it be that Iraqi troops are doing fine, thank you? Can it be that progress in Iraq is going well? Can it be that’s why these photos aren’t shown in the MSM?

EID PHOTOS FROM BAGHDAD

It is relatively calm in Baghdad these days and many people celebrated the Eid (a three days holiday after the holly month of Ramadan) and my brother was in one of the amusement parks (I think this is what they call it) in Baghdad and he took many pictures out there and here are some of them: