That’s the unmistakable message of this Washington Times article by Audrey Hudson.

Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani yesterday endorsed a provision to protect citizens from being sued for reporting potential terrorism-related activity and criticized congressional Democrats for blocking the legislation.

“Congressional Democrats are once again showing they just don’t get the terrorists’ war on us, by attempting to strip important protections for those who report suspected terrorists on airlines,” said Mr. Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Rep. Stephen Pearce, (R-NM), initially wrote the bill protecting the John Doe passengers immediately after CAIR filed a lawsuit against US Airways, MAC and John Doe passengers on behalf of the imams.

“Peter King is doing the right thing by putting our national security first and political correctness run amok second,” said Mr. Giuliani, who also criticized Democratic presidential candidates for failing to acknowledge “Islamic terrorism” in public debates, including Monday night’s YouTube gathering. “The terrorists are at war with us, whether or not Democrats in Washington and on the campaign trail choose to acknowledge it. And we must stay on offense to prevail,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Predictably, CAIR’s Parvez Ahmed is denying Islam’s ties with terrorism:

This perception is greatly assisted by a veritable cottage industry of neo-experts pontificating with great certainty about the cause-effect relationship between Islam and terrorism. Such mischaracterization is at odds with the reality that Islam unequivocally condemns terrorism and advocates the preservation of life, honor and dignity of all human life as a supreme endeavor. Thus, terrorism even when carried out in the name or defense of Islam cannot be called jihad but is rather an unholy war. Robert Pape in his seminal work Dying to Win contends that military occupation, not religious ideology, is the primary enabler of terrorism.

That is pure nonsense. It isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Consider the fact that it’s written by a man with extensive connections with Hamas. That alone disqualifies the editorial. The truth is that CAIR is expert at spinning things. They don’t know the meaning of the word truth.

Thanks Rudy for standing up for good legislation.

Technorati Tags: Rudy Giuliani, Peter King, Stephen Pearce, CAIR, Hamas, Terrorism

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

I’ve written a couple times about the weakness of the prosecution’s case against the Haditha Marines. This SD Union article offers a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about:

Special Agent Michael Maloney testified on the fifth day of a pretrial hearing for Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum. He is charged with seven counts of murder, negligent homicide and assault for his alleged role in a shooting spree that left 24 Iraqis dead after a roadside bomb blast killed a member of his squad. Maloney said at least 17 bullets had been fired. He said the women were shot first, and that the children were killed as they scrambled to escape.

But under defense cross-examination, Maloney acknowledged that he based his conclusions on photographs. He said a brief, on-site investigation four months after the killings revealed no physical evidence tying the Marines to the scene.

This is a major hit against the prosecution’s case. If they can’t prove that Marines were the people who did the shooting, then their case isn’t worth much. In fact, their case is essentially nonexistent. Let’s put it this way: In a civilian court, based solely on this testimony, it’s impossible to prove if these people were killed by Marines or by terrorists. That’s called reasonable doubt, which guarantees an acquittal. The same standard should apply to LCpl. Tatum. (continue reading post »)

Thanks to Pamela at Atlas Shrugs for this excellent video of John Murtha’s lies:

John Murtha: Guilty of denying true American heroes their constitutional rights of due process, innocent until proven guilty and right to a fair trial.

We The People’s Recommended Sentence: Frogmarched out of the House of Representatives following his expulsion

Technorati Tags: John Murtha, Haditha Marines, Expulsion, We The People, YouTube

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

When I read this Newsmax article, I couldn’t contain my joy. Check this out:

Dear NewsMax Reader: We have helped the legal defense funds of three heroic Marines raise close to $200,000 in just a week. These Marines are Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, and Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich.

We at NewsMax are proud of our efforts, but even more proud of our readers who have risen to the challenge of helping these Marines whom we believe were falsely accused for actions they took during combat in Haditha, Iraq.

Approximately 3,000 of our readers contributed to three legal defense funds for these Marines. It is estimated the three Marines will have legal and others costs well over $750,000. If you want to help these Marines, please read NewsMax editor Christopher Ruddy’s “Urgent Letter” and find out how you can help, Go Here Now.

Please remember that 100 percent of proceeds go to the Marines’ defense funds. NewsMax pays for the credit card processing costs, and is adding an additional $10,000 donation.

We are pleased to hear that one of the investigating military officers has recently recommended that one of the accused Marines, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, be exonerated. We expect the other two will receive similar judgments. (continue reading post »)

I certainly agree that it’s our nation’s moral obligation to take care of our soldier’s medical needs, as Rep. Walz says in this Strib article. What I’m wondering is if Rep. Walz thinks that it’s his moral obligation to stand against the immoral treatment that the Haditha Marines have received at the hands of Rep. John Murtha.

Rep. Walz needs to know that this is ‘rubber meets the road’ time. For all his talk about treating veterans right, he still hasn’t lifted a finger to help out the wrongly accused Haditha Marines. It isn’t likely that he will, either, because Rep. Murtha holds the purse strings to the tons of pork Rep. Walz will need to win re-election. Crossing Rep. Murtha likely means that that pork won’t be routed to a zip code in Walz’s district.

If Rep. Walz is that concerned about these veterans’ health, why isn’t he concerned that the Haditha Marines might languish in prison for a decade or longer for a crime they didn’t commit?

I’d recommend that Rep. Walz keep his mouth shut instead of talking about morality as it relates to veterans. It seems his morality is selective and limited. That doesn’t sound that genuine to me.

Technorati Tags: Tim Walz, John Murtha, Bob Filner, Earmarks, Morality, Haditha Marines

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Despite Harry Reid’s declaration that “the surge has failed”, local Sunni and Shia tribal leaders have agreed to patrol their areas in Anbar Province.

U.S. forces said they believe they are making progress in persuading Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders to join forces against al-Qaida. The latest deal between rival Sunni and Shiite tribes was brokered by members of the First Calvary Division based at Camp Taji some 20 miles west of Baghdad, The Washington Times reported Monday.

The leaders agreed to use members of more than 25 local tribes to protect the area around Taji from both Sunni and Shiite extremists in a policy that has transformed security in western Anbar province, the newspaper said. One day later, the extremists used a suicide car bomb to punish one of the Sunni tribes involved in the accord. Three militiamen were killed and 14 others were wounded in the attack.

A Shiite tribal leader involved in the accord reportedly received a phone call saying one of his relatives had been assassinated in what was described as a warning from the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the Times said.

The bombs will still go off but they won’t spur an escalation in sectarian violence because these tribal leaders know that raising the level of violence plays into the militia’s hands. Once the militias realize that they can’t play one group off of another, their only option left is to kill people in both groups.

That won’t work based on the quotes in this Times of London article: (continue reading post »)

Former Rep. Martin Frost, (D-TX), has finally found a new retirement niche: that of being a fiction writer. Here’s the link to the Politico.com article I’m basing that off of. The fiction starts in the first paragraph:

The first six months of the new Congress are now history. Let’s step back and take a long look at how the new Democratic leaders (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) have fared. The answer is that they have done remarkably well under difficult circumstances. The first thought that crossed my mind was “You’ve got to be kidding me.” As I read along, it soon became apparent that Mr. Frost’s delusions run exceptionally deep. Here’s another dose of Frost’s delusions:

First, Sen. Reid has a very narrow one-vote margin (51-49) to work with in a body that requires 60 votes to conduct most business. Speaker Pelosi enjoys a slightly larger margin but far from the large majorities enjoyed by previous Democratic speakers like Tip O’Neill, Jim Wright and Tom Foley.

It’s true that Sen. Reid is working with a slim majority but hinting that Ms. Pelosi doesn’t have a big margin for defections is pure fiction. Tom DeLay’s House usually had this sized margin and got lots accomplished. Nancy Pelosi’s ineptitude has been so bad that she couldn’t even get the minimum wage bill right the first time. Harry Reid’s ineptitude has been so overwhelming that moderate Sen. Arlen Specter, (R-PA), chastised him for the all night session: (continue reading post »)

Tim Harrington, a friend close to the Sharratt family, sent me an email about Darryl Sharratt’s recent conversation with John Murtha. Here’s the content of that email:

Haditha Marine Dad speaks to John Murtha
Darryl Sharratt

Throughout this Haditha investigation our family has believed in the innocence of our son LCpl Justin Sharratt; we knew he was innocent. There are things I do not understand and I would like to find the answers. We do not seek revenge, but we
would like to see justice. In a conversation with Congressman John Murtha, my questions still remain unanswered. With the help of the American people, I hope to find justice.

On Wednesday morning, July 17th I spoke with Congressman John Murtha via telephone from his Washington, DC office. We had a courteous conversation. I knew what to expect from a career politician and Congressman Murtha did not disappoint. Mr. Murtha avoided answering the hard questions and I was unable to press him for the answers. I wanted the conversation to remain amicable and decided to let him speak and avoid a heated confrontation.

At no time during the dialogue would Mr. Murtha acknowledge the impending exoneration of my son. I pressed him to use the word exoneration but the best I could get was “things seem to have gone well in your son’s Article 32. The General is a fair man and I believe he will do the right thing.” I replied, “Lt. Col Paul Ware presented a strong recommendation for exoneration and we are anticipating Lt. Gen James Mattis following this recommendation.”

Mr. Murtha asked me if I had served in the military. He recalled his visits with injured Marines, soldiers and sailors. He said he supports our troops and it is the war he does not condone. Mr Murtha believes combat operations in Iraq have put an
enormous strain on our Armed Forces. The stress of combat situations has led our troops to kill innocent civilians. I pointed out to Mr. Murtha, “Our Haditha Marines are innocent until proven guilty.” It seems he is again denying our Marines their
Constitutional rights of due process and the presumption of innocence. Mr. Murtha replied that we have a Marine(Mendoza) testifying that innocent women and children were killed in Haditha. I retorted that he is again believing the reports of the
media and Mendoza was granted immunity for his lies. Mendoza has changed his testimony at least two times. NCIS may have threatened him with deportation and denial of US citizenship. This time I scolded him, “I witnessed their (NCIS) conduct
first hand in my son’s Article 32.”

I questioned Congressman Murtha as to his statements of 17 May 2006. On national television, in front of millions of Americans, he stated “Marines killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” I asked him why he denied these Marines their Constitutional rights of due process and the presumption of innocence. Again the Congressman used his experience to side step the answer. (continue reading post »)

That’s the first thing I thought when I read this Philadelphia Inquirer editorial. In fact, I should check to see if it wasn’t written by the DSCC or DCCC. Here’s how misguided the editorial is:

In particular, a proposal by Sens. Ken Salazar (D., Colo.) and Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) had a chance to attract enough support from lawmakers of both parties. It would adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, calling for redeploying U.S. troops, training Iraqi soldiers, and focusing on counterterrorism.

Such a gradual redeployment offers the best hope of preserving something short of sectarian apocalypse in Iraq.

Rush has said for years that journalists are lazy, something that I’ve agreed with. With bloggers, like myself, taking advantage of Al Gore’s inventing the internet, this is becoming more apparent. Yesterday, I wrote a trio of articles talking about the dramatic changes happening as a direct result of Operation Arrowhead Ripper.

This editorialist is either willfully ignoring the facts from Iraq or they simply believe the Democrats’ talking points without question. Either way, they aren’t dealing with the facts. (continue reading post »)

According to this Robert Novak article in today’s Washington Post, Harry Reid is planning on eviscerating the ethics/earmark reforms passed just six months ago. It appears as though Sen. Reid is intent on driving his JA rating so low as to rival the most despicable villains in history.

That Reid’s action had this effect was mere coincidence. He knew that Sen. Carl Levin’s amendment to the defense bill mandating a troop withdrawal from Iraq would fall short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, and Reid planned from the start to pull the bill after the all-night session, designed to satisfy antiwar zealots, was completed. But Reid is also working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine earmark transparency and prevent open debate on spending proposals such as Nelson’s.

If ever there was a writer who knew what was happening on Capitol Hill, it’s Robert Novak. When he says that Sen. Reid is planning on eviscerating the bill, I’d bet the ranch that that’s Reid’s goal.

This is just more proof that Sen. Reid’s political instincts are pathetic at best. Last fall, Democrats ran promising reforming Washington while eliminating the Republican’s ‘Culture of Corruption’. Now they’re the ones legislating against transparency. They’re the ones making the status quo proposals. They’re the ones who will have to defend their actions when voters demand to know why they broke almost every campaign promise they made during the 2006 campaign. (continue reading post »)