All the proof I need is a quote in this Newsweek article. Here’s the specific quote:

“Jon Bruning is just an ambitious and aggressive young man and he’s taken a gamble on Senator Hagel not running for re-election,” said Hagel’s political director, Kevin Chapman. “If Senator Hagel does run for re-election, then Jon Bruning will likely step down for the good of the party.”

To set that quote up properly, let’s take a look at that section of the article:

How substantive a threat does Bruning pose? No reliable independent sounding has yet been taken. According to a poll recently commissioned by Bruning’s office, he finds himself 9 percentage points ahead of Hagel in a head-to-head contest. A study undertaken by Nebraska’s Democratic Party has Hagel’s “positive” rating at 51 percent compared to Bruning’s 61.

Hagel’s camp dismissed both sets of data as unreliable and almost certain to change. Bruning, they argued, is an opportunist positioning himself to capitalize should Hagel decide to make a White House run or, perhaps, retire. “Jon Bruning is just an ambitious and aggressive young man and he’s taken a gamble on Senator Hagel not running for re-election,” said Hagel’s political director, Kevin Chapman. “If Senator Hagel does run for re-election, then Jon Bruning will likely step down for the good of the party.” (Bruning’s campaign replies that he is in the race to win, regardless.)

The truth is that they know Hagel has betrayed conservatives by being the media’s ‘Sunday morning darling’. They know that he’s voted against the war funding supplementals and voted with Ted Kennedy on immigration. (continue reading post »)

Now that Ted Kennedy’s immigration ‘reform’ bill has died a humiliating death, Democrats are trying to change the subject by announcing a new plan to unilaterally surrender in Iraq.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are expected tomorrow to announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war, according to Democratic insiders.

Reid has already publicly declared that Senate Democrats will offer four Iraq-related amendments to the upcoming 2008 Defense authorization bill, including a proposal by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to set a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring.

Pelosi is planning to announce that the House will also vote on a bill setting a new withdrawal timetable of April 1, 2008, although the details of the proposal were still up in the air at press time, according to Democratic sources. The House will consider this proposal as a freestanding bill, said the sources.

Pelosi is also planning to force a vote on a proposal by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to repeal the 2002 use-of-force resolution for Iraq. This “deauthorization” proposal may be offered as an amendment to the 2008 Defense spending bill, which the House is scheduled to take up following the week-long July 4th recess.

One of the oldest tricks in the political playbook is to change subjects after you’ve been humiliated. The tactic has a couple of benefits. One benefit is that it plays to your political base to keep them energized. The other benefit is that it takes your humiliation off the front page. In this instance, though, Reid’s and Pelosi’s move is fraught with peril. (continue reading post »)

According to this article, a British bomb squad defused a “potentially massive bomb”. Here’s what we know thus far:

A terror attack appeared to have been foiled in Haymarket, London on Friday morning when a suspected bomb was found and defused by sappers. Sky News sources said that the device, which was found in a silver Mercedes, was potentially “massive.”

Terrorist police were investigating after explosives officers were called to The Haymarket road, near Piccadilly Circus, shortly before 2 a.m., police said in a statement. “They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device,” police said. “It was made safe.” Britain’s Press Association quoted an unidentified police official as saying: “The indications that we have got so far are that it was certainly a big device.”

The area around the vehicle was cordoned off as a precaution while explosives officers examined the vehicle. London transport officials said the Piccadilly Circus Underground train station was closed. An eyewitness told Sky News that he saw a car being driven “erratically” before crashing into some bins. Bouncers from the nearby ‘Tiger Tiger’ nightclub saw the driver of the vehicle running away.

Here’s what CNN’s article said:

CNN’s International Security Correspondent Paula Newton said the initial indications were that the suspected bomb was “a relatively crude device that was made with possibly petroleum or gas.”

She said it was potentially aimed at theatergoers or nearby nightclubs, echoing plots recently thwarted by anti-terror police in which Islamic militants intended to attack prominent dance venues and shopping malls.

Friday’s incident could prove to be the first major test for new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the former finance minister who succeeded Tony Blair just two days earlier, appointing new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, in charge of domestic security.

Let’s hope Mr. Brown passes with flying colors.

Technorati Tags: Gordon Brown, Piccadilly Circus, London, Terrorism, Tony Blair

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

The opening segment of Thursday night’s Glenn Beck show was great if you love great slam quotes. Here’s a sample from the opening segment:

DOBBS: Well, the Democratic leadership in the Senate distinguished itself for complete incompetence, ineptitude and deceit throughout the entire process.

I don’t often agree with Mr. Dobbs but I totally agree with that statement.

BECK: You’re more of an optimist on this than I am, then. Because I look at this, and I see…you know, look, eagles fly high, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines. Why were so many people…

DOBBS: I’ve got to think about that.

BECK: Think about that one. Why are so many weasels being…being willing to be sucked into a jet engine? They were willing to buck the system.

You can’t say that Glenn Beck isn’t entertaining to listen to. He’s right, though, in saying that the Washington weasels didn’t care about our voices until we melted down the Capitol Hill switchboard. I’m fairly certain they noticed then.

DOBBS: I truly believe that what we will remember this day for…you know, one of my favorite quotes of the day, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who as far as I`m concerned should be…I hope the voters of South Carolina come to their senses.

He said this: “Remember this day if you vote no.” I think every American ought to remember this day, because for the first time in a long time, Glenn, the American people actually heard their voices being heard…

Our voices were heard because we demanded that they be heard. We demanded that they be heard by voicing our opposition to this bill loudly, persistently and logically. We let them know that we disagreed with them. What’s better is that we could tell them what specific parts of the legislation we disagreed with.

That exchange led to this great TV moment: (continue reading post »)

That’s how this article characterizes the immigration bill’s defeat:

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

After the stinging political setback, Bush sounded resigned to defeat. “Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress’ failure to act on it is a disappointment,” he said after an appearance in Newport, R.I. “A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn’t find common ground. It didn’t work.”

Let’s see. Ted Kennedy wrote the legislation. Harry Reid tried ignoring the will of the people by using an extraordinary measure known as ‘clay pigeon’ maneuver to revive immigration bill.

A majority of Democrats voted for the bill (34 of 50) while a bigger majority of Republicans voted against cloture (37 of 49).

After taking all that into consideration, it’s still President Bush’s bill? The AP must figure we’re the most gullible idiots on planet earth.

Speaking of treating people like idiots, Mort Kondracke is getting on my nerves. Every time they talk about immigration, Mort launches into an anti-conservative talk radio diatribe. Tonight was no different. He said that conservative talk radio should be blamed for the immigration bill’s collapse. When Fred pointed out that 50 percent of the public was opposed to the first defeat of the bill and that 80 percent of the public were opposed to this bill, Mort simply said “Well, that’s because all they heard was negative” stories about the bill from the conservative talk radio hosts. (continue reading post »)

Now that the McCain/Kennedy/La Raza Open Borders Act has been defeated (badly, I might add), it’s time to lobby President Bush. No, I don’t think that’s an easy job but I’m certain that it’s the next logical step. Here’s why:

1. Heroes like Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions and John Cornyn pointed out that the tools to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants were included in last year’s bill. President Bush signed into law a bill that authorized and funded the building of the fence, “more vehicle barriers, checkpoints and advanced technology to bolster border security.”

2. Congress has given President the tools to take a bite out of illegal immigration but he’s been reluctant or unwilling to use those tools. Therefore, it’s vital for us to lobby him to have the Justice Department and DHS to take enforcement seriously.

The sham that they just tried to perpetrate was disgusting. One benefit of the debate, though, was that it’s unified the GOP like it hasn’t been united since 1994.

3. President Bush still wants to get other things accomplished before his term expires, things that will require the base to be on board with. It’s essential that we point that out to President Bush. If he wants us engaged and pulling with him, he needs to accelerate the building of the fence so we know that he’s serious about border security.

If we put the intensity into lobbying President Bush that we sustained while lobbying the Senate, we have a chance of taking a serious approach to border enforcement. In other words, it’s fine to give yourselves a pat on the back but it’s important that we roll up our sleeves to get the next step accomplished, too.

Technorati Tags: President Bush, Illegal Immigration, Lobbyists, Grassroots Activism, Domestic Agenda, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This YouTube video says it all:

It doesn’t sound like Ms. Pelosi is winning the ‘hearts and minds’ battle these days. Who could’ve imagined that?

Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Campaign Promises, New Direction, Approval Ratings, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

According to this article, the Flying Imams’ attorney, Omar Mohammedi, lost a frivolous motion yesterday. I characterized it as frivolous because of this quote:

“You have provided no legal authority supporting your request to limit public access to this case,” Montgomery wrote.

In other words, Mohammedi’s motion was likely a way of manipulating the press. It obviously didn’t work. Powerline’s Scott Johnson nails it with this quote:

CAIR is a master of media manipulation, but I doubt that it has previously sought to enlist a federal judge in its media management efforts. This story represents an almost unbelievable combination of chutzpah and bad judgment.

I couldn’t disagree with what Scott said. What I can do, though, is say that CAIR has lots of practice being the whiniest fake ‘civil rights organization’ in US history. It’s also worth noting that Mr. Mohammedi is the executive director of CAIR-NY. In fact, that isn’t the only thing that isn’t mentioned in this AP article. Here’s some information about the imams from a FrontPageMag article I did with Joe Kaufman:

The President of NAIF (and one of the removed imams) is Omar Shahin. Before NAIF’s founding in 2004, Shahin was the imam and President of the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT), a mosque that represented one of Al-Qaeda’s main hubs in America, prior to the ‘93 attack. One of Shahin’s predecessors at the mosque was Wael Hamza Julaidan, a former colleague of Osama bin Laden and bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam. Shahin, himself, has admitted to once supporting bin Laden. (continue reading post »)

Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and La Raza fell well short of the 60 votes they needed to invoke cloture and proceed to a final vote on the bill. Simply put, the good guys won! Almost all of the wobblies that I referenced yesterday voted to extend debate. In other words, YOUR CALLS AND EMAILS turned the tide. Congratulations. This is the short across the bow that we needed to send. Give yourselves a hearty pat on the back. I’m proud of you!

UPDATE: My bad. I reported the vote as 53-46. I didn’t make clear that there were more votes cast against than for. I should’ve titled the post 46-53 like this article did:

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The bill’s supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.

Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.

Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, La Raza, Activism, Border Enforcement, Cloture, Debate, Democrats, Republicans

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Much was made about the $4.4 billion enforcement package to the latest version of the Open Borders Act. (I refuse to call it immigration reform because that implies that its objective is to secure the US-Mexico border.) At the time, I voiced my skepticism that this money would be used on enforcing the border. The increasingly indispensable Jim DeMint has issued a press release that shines the light of truth on this despicable piece of legislation. Here’s what it says:

According to the CRS report provided to Senator DeMint, the mandatory spending in the bill could immediately be used for Z visas. It says, “(r)eceiving, processing, and adjudicating applications for the Z visa authorized by Title VI of the Act is one of the trigger mechanisms outlined in Section 1; this means that funding from the Immigration Security Account could be used for this purpose.”

In addition, the report says the funds could be used for Y visas and other programs once the trigger mechanisms have been met but it does not require the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify the trigger. The report says, “S. 1639 does not explicitly stipulate whether the certification required by Section 1 would have to take place prior to funding being made available for the additional purposes outlined in Section 2(C).”

This memo should be circulated before the vote to every Republican senator and every Democrat up for re-election next fall. If Kennedy’s and NCLR’s disinformation hits the airwaves, the wobblies will vote against cloture.

This has Ted Kennedy’s fingerprints all over it. If I were a millionaire, I wouldn’t bet a penny that he has an ounce of integrity. He’s a lying scumbag who should be treated like he’s radioactive. He isn’t the only deceitful person or organization involved in this mess. I can’t say that NCLR wants open borders but I’ll confidently say that they’d love seeing the federal government to expand the visa program to such an extent that it wouldn’t be appreciably different.

Here’s the link to the PDF file that CRS sent to Sen. DeMint. It’s well worth reading.

Most importantly, fill the senators’ inboxes and dial the phone until your fingers are numb.

Technorati Tags: Border Enforcement, Sovereignty, Jim DeMint, Ted Kennedy, President Bush, La Raza, Illegal Immigration, Amnesty

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog