Based on this AP article, it looks like Senate Democrats are floating their own ’slow bleed’ trial balloon. Here’s the details of their trial balloon:

While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict American troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.

I suspect that this is the Senate following through on Carl Levin’s statement that they were going to modify the AUMF that was passed in October, 2002. The good news for Democrats is that this option is constitutionally solid. The bad news is that they’ve got to get it past a Republican filibuster. If they do that, then they’ve got to get the House to approve it in a vote. If they pass those hurdles, then they’ve got to hope that the President doesn’t veto it.

In other words, this modified AUMF wouldn’t stand a snowball’s prayer in hell of going into effect. I suspect that Senate Democrats don’t want anything to do with Murtha’s original slow bleed legislation. I further suspect that they want to be seen doing something by their anti-war allies as doing something substantive without really doing anything. (continue reading post »)

According to this article, Joe Lieberman is hinting that he’d start caucusing with the Republicans if Democrats try defunding the war. Here’s what the Politico’s Carrie Budoff is reporting:

“I have no desire to change parties,” Lieberman said in a telephone interview. “If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don’t feel comfortable with.”

Asked whether that hasn’t already happened with Iraq, Lieberman said: “We will see how that plays out in the coming months,” specifically how the party approaches the issue of continued funding for the war. He suggested, however, that the forthcoming showdown over new funding could be a deciding factor that would lure him to the Republican Party.

I’ve said that Murtha’s ‘Slow Bleed’ legislation is DOA if it even makes it to the Senate. If the anti-war activists get stubborn about this, though, the Senate might be forced to take action, leaving Harry Reid’s Democrats in a lose-lose big situation. (continue reading post »)

Just when I thought global warming activists couldn’t sound sillier, I read an article like this which proves me wrong. Here’s the silliest-sounding claim I’ve heard yet:

GLOBAL warming will take a toll on children’s health, according to a new report showing hospital admissions for fever soar as days get hotter. The new study found that temperature rises had a significant impact on the number of pre-schoolers presenting to emergency departments for fever and gastroenteritis. The two-year study at a major children’s hospital showed that for every five-degree rise in temperature two more children under six years old were admitted with fever to that hospital.

I’ve decided that I’m releasing a report that’s just as scientific as this one that listening to crap like that will cause you to go deaf. Or at least make you wish you had. Where do they come up with this crap? Is this crap the result of them using very expensive drugs that cause illusions? Or perhaps they have an over-active imagination? Or is it that they’re former used car salesmen who haven’t gotten over their need to tell whoppers? Perhaps all of the above? (continue reading post »)

I’ve written about alot of the national anti-war organizations over the past year. Now I get to write about Minnesota’s own anti-war organization. This organization, Minnesotans Against Escalation in Iraq, is no different than the national anti-war organizations in that they’re trying to get us to believe what didn’t happen happened. Here’s what I mean:

“People here in Minnesota and across America spoke loudly in November: Enough is enough,” said Donald McFarland, state director of U.S. Action, one of the groups in the coalition. “These delaying tactics are unacceptable….Coleman has to stand up to his party’s leaders.”

Mr. McFarland is pretending that most people across the nation, including Minnesotans, voted in a Democratic majority because they’re opposed to the war. While there were plenty of anti-war nuts voting Democrat, the reality is that the Democrats’ majority is more the result of conservatives staying home because they opposed Bush’s border policy and Republican spendaholics.

Mr. McFarland also is ignoring this poll, which clearly shows that Americans are pro-victory. (continue reading post »)

There’s an old saying that a little paranoia goes a long way. Let’s just say that Nancy Pelosi’s paranoia is showing and it isn’t a flattering picture of her. Here’s the AP article that exposes her paranoia. Let’s start with what touched off her paranoia:

“I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al-Qaida strategy,” the vice president told ABC News. “The al-Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people…try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit.”

This isn’t just opinion. Osama bin Laden said that America’s leaving Somalia convinced them that American was a paper tiger. Here’s the specific quote: (continue reading post »)

After seeing how badly they overreacted to David Geffen’s quotes in a Mo Dowd column, you’d have to think that they’re plenty rattled in the Clinton camp. It’s also obvious that Howard Wolfson isn’t qualified to be Hillary’s campaign spokesman. Let’s first look at what Geffen said about the Clintons:

“Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling,” Geffen had said.

Among other things, Hollywood and music mogul Geffen had told Dowd, “God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?” and “Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television.”

More from Dowd:

“I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they’ll wait until Hillary’s the nominee to use it. “I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat.”

She is overproduced and overscripted. “It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t,” Mr. Geffen says. “She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. (continue reading post »)

If you love dogs you’ll know how hard it is to watch. For neurological or physiological reasons, a dog may spend hours chasing his tail. If he catches it and causes injury it could, if left untreated, cause further injury and worsen the whirling behavior.

I sense five perceptions to this problem.

• To the dog: His tail preoccupies him for long periods of time. It is the reason for, and the solution to, all of his problems. Left untreated, he will chase it until hunger, thirst, or fatigue overtakes him. When rested, he will continue his pursuit. Until treatment, training, and rehabilitation are provided, the dog will likely die after breathlessly wasting his life.
• To pet owners: The disturbing behavior interferes with their otherwise healthy relationship with the family pet. Tail-chasing also distracts him from the security that comes with his territorial instincts.
• To underdeveloped adults: Like porn, a tortured dog can provide hours of entertainment, especially for those desperate to relieve their own pain.
• To disinterested neighbors: Although annoying, the dog seems active and fully engaged.
• To criminals: Whirling dogs are too busy to protect territory or confront evil.

So how did whirling dogs get my attention? If you said “global warming” you would be correct!

Let me explain:

The dog’s tail presents an imagined source of anxiety. Healthy dogs hardly notice their tails until caught in a door or stepped on. But to mentally disturbed animals, their obsessive compulsion resembles the paranormal hysteria that preoccupies our global warming alarmists.

Except for the meteorologists and climatologists who have studied our skies for centuries, most people hardly notice the weather until the game gets rained out. But to Al Gore, hot and cold days, thickening and melting ice, rain and drought, day and night, deserts and mountains all remind him of his scabbed little tale. If Gore was alone in this endeavor he’d be viewed as a deranged mongrel that needs help. The difference is that, this time, Gore has convinced other dogs to enlist more dogs to chase their tails and to recruit other whirling crazies, as if scouting for the canine version of Dance Fever.

The pet owners represent the grown-ups of America. Those of us who embrace what Thomas Sowell describes as a “significant stake in society” look at the weather as the inexact science it is. Unless you belong to the Flat Earth Society you’ll agree that the planet has warmed considerably since the Ice Age. But how can we believe scientists can predict the next 100,000 years when AccuWeather barely grasps the next 100 hours? And when leftist politicians dismiss internationally-recognized climatologists (1,2,3) for their heliocentric blasphemy, it’s time for America’s grown-ups to call the dog whisperer.

America’s underdeveloped adults will resist. After all, these cultists have invested much time and energy in the global warming tale. The orgy of concerts, fundraising, domestic terrorism, moonbat romances, and political enablers feel too good to surrender to the dysphoric sobriety of a wasted life. Like the seduced child who is suddenly too old for his priest, America’s moonbats have wasted too much of their lives to chase another tale. But before they start passing the Kool-Aid I have some good news – there’s always Obama and “racial profiling.”

America’s disinterested neighbors are too preoccupied with their own lives to worry one way or the other. They hear Al Gore’s growling snarls and suppose he’s doing what dogs do. Gore sounds really busy, he stays active, and he makes lots of impressive noises, so he must know what he’s doing. And regardless of what Gore’s up to, the neighbors are too busy working, raising families, punching clocks, baking cookies, and suing corporations to worry about Gore’s tale. They know that when the dust settles, Gore will take a well-deserved nap. After all, he’s been busy protecting the planet from greenhouse gases. I’m amazed that secular moonbats so willingly genuflect to cow farts. No wonder they chase their tails.

Criminals are a threat. While America is distracted by the growls, dust, and snapping of fake issues like global warming and racial profiling, immediate problems like Islam, medicine, Social Security, gangs, and public schools, are killing and crippling Americans today! To avoid any agreement with the Bush Administration, politicians seeking the moonbat vote will finance the ambitious scientists to promote the global warming issue, as long as those politicians keep the grant money coming in.

I must admit, ever since I learned that global warming will drown San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Boston I’ve been burning old tires in my back yard. But the reality is that the planet will continue to warm and humanity will adapt as we always have, as long as we survive the present global crisis.

America’s grown-ups see the dog chasing its tail. We’ve looked for parasites and mange but see nothing but bite marks and scars. We gather information, study the behaviors, and take steps to calm the animal.

As much as I like Rudy, Newt, Condi, and Mitt, I think America needs Cesar Millan in ‘08!

Patrick Ruffini is linking to this AP article on John Kasich announcing his interest in running for governor of Ohio. Pat says that they should count him in if Kasich runs. I’d gladly join that campaign. Here’s Ted Strickland’s response to Kasich’s announcement:

Strickland, a longtime colleague of Kasich’s in Congress, said he isn’t surprised Kasich is considering returning to politics. “If I do a good job, I don’t think anybody will be able to beat me if I chose to run again,” Strickland said. “And if I don’t do a good job, probably a whole lot of people could beat me if I chose to run again.”

I agree with the second quote in that statement but I think John Kasich would still beat Strickland whether Strickland did a good job or not. Kasich is a charismatic leader who believes in and who has a strong record of cutting taxes, balancing the budget and reforming government. Ted Strickland doesn’t have any of those qualities. I found this quote utterly laughable:

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern expressed skepticism that Kasich could win statewide office, calling him “an apologist for President Bush and his administration’s policies, and those policies have hurt states like Ohio.”

John Kasich isn’t a Bush apologist. He’s a true movement conservative who disagrees with the President on immigration policy and spending restraint. (continue reading post »)

One thing became abundantly clear in reading the Baltimore Sun’s editorial on the Iraq War: that they’re obsessed with the politics of the war and utterly disinterested in winning the war Here’s an example of what I’m referring to:

Within the administration, there are those who worry that the White House and Congress are heading toward a dangerous constitutional crack-up. (Naturally, their hope is that Congress backs off.) But if opponents of the president’s direction of the war succeed in carefully building a solid and ever-larger base of public opinion on their side, they must eventually prevail. A constitutional crisis over the appropriate war powers of Congress can be averted by sound political spadework.

Bills that will put the administration on the spot are not a bad way to start. Make the president’s allies vote against proper equipment and training. Make them reaffirm their support for a resolution that justifies the war on the basis of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. The important thing then is to keep the pressure up, and keep it building.

These editorialists didn’t mention winning the war, a sign that they either think that the war isn’t winnable or isn’t worth winning. (continue reading post »)

During the FNS roundtable, Brit Hume unleashed a devastating, and long overdue, attack on John Murtha. Here’s what Hume said:

HUME: That sound bite you played from John Murtha suggests that it’s time that a few things be said about him. Even the Washington Post noted that he didn’t seem particularly well informed about what’s going on over there, to say the least. Look, this man has tremendous cache among House Democrats, but he is not…this guy is long past the day when he had anything but the foggiest awareness of what the heck is going on in the world.

And that sound bite is naivete writ large, and the man is an absolute fountain of such talk. And the fact that he has ascended to the position that he has in the eyes of the Democrats in the House and perhaps Democrats around the country tells you a lot about how much they know or care about what’s really going on over there.

I’ve been pointing this out since last May when Murtha declared that the Haditha Marines were guilty of cold-blooded murder before the investigation was complete and before he’d been briefed on the issue. I ridiculed Murtha for saying that 80% of Iraqis want us out of their country, which was patently absurd since the Shi’ites didn’t want the US out of Iraq because they knew Saddam’s forces would destroy their newly elected government. I said then that it’s mathematically impossible for 80% of the people want us out ASAP when 60% of the people want us to stay until the Iraqi military can secure the country. (continue reading post »)