Crush Liberalism

Quote of the day

Today’s QOTD brought to you by Leaky Leahy (D-VT), via Big Lizards:

I’m listening to Hugh Hewitt, who (after a completely inaudible “interview” with Mark Steyn via bad cellphone) is now broadcasting the Senate blathering of Sen. Patrick “Leaky” Leahy (D-VT, 100%) about the military tribunals bill. And this is what Leahy just said, word for word, near as I can recollect (and it is seared, seared in my memory):

Even though they [the Bush administration] had him [Osama bin Laden] cornered at Tora Bora, they yanked the special forces out of there to send them to Iraq.

Is it just me?

I was evidently misinformed that the Battle of Tora Bora took place sometime in December of 2001. There was not even a resolution on the table to invade Iraq at that time… the resolution was not even introduced into the Senate until October 2nd, 2002; it passed the Senate without amendment on October 11th, and was signed by the president on the 16th. And we did not send troops there until March of 2003.

So in the consensus reality — rather than in Leahy’s own private version of history — more than two solid years elapsed between the battle of Tora Bora and the call-up of troops for an invasion of Iraq. Whatever caused us not to kill or capture bin Laden in 2001, it certainly had nothing to do with the not-yet-extant invasion of Iraq.

Has this been the Democrats’ plan all along, why they took over the government schools: to so damage Americans’ knowledge of history that demented demagogues like Pat Leahy can make risible claims like this on the Senate floor and not be laughed out of Congress?

I eagerly await the transcription in the Congressional Record, to see whether he decides to “revise and extend his remarks.”

I eagerly await the return of Halley’s Comet before I expect Leaky to revise his remarks.

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Foley resigns, effective immediately

From the AP:

Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.

“I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley’s abrupt decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days.

His resignation comes less than six weeks before the elections and further complicates the political landscape for Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in 1994.

Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a replacement in Foley’s district, which President Bush won with 55 percent in 2004 and is now in play for November.

If it’s all the same to you, I’m not going to dwell on this particular race’s prospects right now. This event is horrible, regardless of the outcome of this House seat’s race. Anyway, continuing:

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he had asked the chairman of the House’s page board, Rep. John Shimkus (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., to investigate the page system. “We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe,” Hastert said.

He said Foley submitted the letter of resignation to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and submitted a copy to him. A House clerk read Foley’s resignation on the House floor.

“He’s done the right thing,” Hastert said. Asked if the chain of events was disturbing, he said, “None of us are very happy about it.“

That may a candidate for “quote of the day” here. Well, DUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH! “None of us are very happy about it”? Anyway…:

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

“The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process,” the group wrote, adding that the committee, “must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House.”

In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record)’s seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.

I don’t think this has anything to do with whether or not Foley is gay. Yes, I know that the leftist hypocrites who proudly state their pro-gay credentials were screaming “Foley is queer!” back in ’03, as if being gay is OK only if one is a Democrat. However, leftist hypocrisy notwithstanding, we’re not talking about consenting adults here, are we?

Foley is innocent until proven guilty, and I recognize that. However, preliminary indications don’t look very flattering. Drudge is reporting that an exchange went like this:

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.

In another bizarre bit of cruel irony, he was chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

Just as it was wrong for darling-of-the-left Scott Ritter to try on two occasions to pick up teenie girls, it is equally wrong for Foley to be attempting horizontal encounters with teenage boys. The gender of the victim is irrelevant, but the age is most certainly relevant. I certainly hope the boy and his family haven’t been scarred by this incident. If they have been, who could blame them?

I’ve seen comments across the leftisphere that have been predictable: Foley is a perv, he’s gonna be fresh meat in the pen, etc. Hey, I don’t disagree with any of that, nor do I take offense to it. However, it’s pretty telling that the comments I’ve seen thus far from the ‘bats have not been in any way related to the victims here. In other words, they’re having too much fun rejoicing in Foley’s self-inflicted misery that they haven’t stopped to consider that his misery necessarily means that someone has been victimized. Then again, why ruin a good hoedown with such a buzzkiller like THAT, right?

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Oscoda, MI, high school cancels remainder of football season

The Oscoda Area High School is, according to principal Rex Hart, the “home of the mighty Owls.” How “mighty” are they? They’re SO mighty that they…have forfeited the rest of their football season.

The Owls are 0-4, having been creamed AND shut out in all of their games. After the first four games the Oscoda School Board decided to cancel the remainder of the football season. They forced the players to stop. Naturally, the players and parents didn’t like it. Tough toogies. The school board figured that they just weren’t going to win any games, so they needed to quit. Their purported concern? “Safety”, they said. The players might get hurt…as if a team that was 4-0 would have been LESS likely to get hurt!

The message that the “educators” are sending to the kids is loud and clear: when life gets tough, just quit. Ignore what your parents may have taught you growing up about getting back up and dusting yourself before trying again. Your parents were morons. It is easier to just stay down and not continue and not fight. Hmmm…I wonder if this is how Democrats or Frenchmen are bred? But I digress.

Abe Lincoln was defeated about three or four times while seeking public office, before finally being elected president in 1860. Had he listened to people like the Oscoda School Board at any time along the way, God knows where our country would have been and would currently be.

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Oliver Stone echos Kerry’s approach to counterterrorism

Oliver Stone, moonbat director extraordinaire, went to the Euros to profess his shame for the country a la Dixie Chicks. Color me with the “unsurprised” crayon. That doesn’t bother me, since I’ve come to expect it from the self-flagellating left. However, this is what Ollie (being that brilliant political scholar that he is) had to say about how to deal with terrorism:

We did not fight back in the same way that the British fought the IRA or the Spanish government fought the Basques here. Terrorism is a manageable action. It can be lived with.

This sounds remarkably similar (and dangerously naive) to Senator Ketchup’s approach to terrorism: it’s a mere “nuisance“. You know, like a mosquito or a sunburn or a Jehovah’s Witness at the door or your aunt who always mentions her flare-ups at the dinner table? Terrorism can be “lived with”? “Just ignore that explosion across the street, children. It’s just Hamas blowing up some more ‘Zionist pigs’ again. Hey, who wants ice cream?”

As Bush, Hastert, et al, accuse the left of not understanding the nature of the enemy, the leftists one-by-one prove the GOP’s point. Folks, don’t get mad when idiots like Stone speak. Be thankful. After all, the more that he and his kind talk, the further they reinforce the notion in normal America’s head that they haven’t the foggiest idea as to how to keep the country safe and destroy our enemies.

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

House Speaker wannabe Pelosi: The Golden Rule should apply to terrorists

Please forget that I ever openly advocated Republicans losing the elections this year. The more this moonbat speaks, the more clear it is that she and her crazy-ass leftist ilk must be stopped. How would Pe-loser handle terrorists? Listen to her own words and decide for yourself:

This is a time when the Golden Rule really should be in affect [sic]. Do not do unto others, what you would not have them do unto your troops, your CIA agents, your people in the field.

Nancy is saying that if we just install a few hot tubs at Gitmo, maybe have some personal masseuses stroke the jihadist detainees’ crust-infested weirdbeards with some disinfectant-soaked combs, and give them a nice hummus face mask to go with their cucumber-mint body rub…the poor misunderstood heathens will implore with their terrorist brethren in Satan’s Armpit (better known as the Middle East) to take it easy on us infidels. Sorry, Nancy, but they’d still want you in a burqa or your head to decorate their tents’ mantles.

The President and Speaker Hastert, among others, yesterday accused Democrats of wanting to coddle terrorists. Way to show America just how correct they were, Nancy! Nothing says “We’re tough on terrorists” quite like upgrading Gitmo to the “Cubano Cabana and Salon”, oui?

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Sen. Inhofe mocks MSM outraged by his "attack" on global "warming"

This is a follow-up to my prior post describing where Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) mocked the global “warming” Chicken Littles and their allies in the MSM. Predictably, the MSM got madder than Bubba in a Fox News interview. Hilarity ensues. From Sen. Inhofe:

This past Monday, I took to this floor for the eighth time to discuss global warming. My speech focused on the myths surrounding global warming and how our national news media has embarrassed itself with a 100-year documented legacy of coverage on what turned out to be trendy climate science theories.

Over the last century, the media has flip-flopped between global cooling and warming scares. At the turn of the 20th century, the media peddled an upcoming ice age — and they said the world was coming to an end. Then in the 1930s, the alarm was raised about disaster from global warming — and they said the world was coming to an end. Then in the 70’s, an alarm for another ice age was raised — and they said the world was coming to an end. And now, today we are back to fears of catastrophic global warming — and again they are saying the world is coming to an end.

Today I would like to share the fascinating events that have unfolded since my floor speech on Monday.

CNN CRITICIZES MY SPEECH

This morning, CNN ran a segment criticizing my speech on global warming and attempted to refute the scientific evidence I presented to counter climate fears.

First off, CNN reporter Miles O’Brien inaccurately claimed I was “too busy” to appear on his program this week to discuss my 50 minute floor speech on global warming. But they were told I simply was not available on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I did appear on another CNN program today — Thursday — which I hope everyone will watch. The segment airs tonight on CNN’s Headline News at 7pm and repeats at 9pm and midnight Eastern.

Second, CNN’s O’Brien falsely claimed that I was all “alone on Capitol Hill” when it comes to questioning global warming.

Mr. O’Brien is obviously not aware that the U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly rejected Kyoto style carbon caps when it voted down the McCain-Lieberman climate bill 60-28 last year – an even larger margin than its rejection in 2003.

Third, CNN’s O’Brien, claimed that my speech earlier contained errors regarding climate science. O’Brien said my claim that the Antarctic was actually cooling and gaining ice was incorrect. But both the journals Science and Nature have published studies recently finding – on balance – Antarctica is both cooling and gaining ice.

CNN’s O’Brien also criticized me for saying polar bears are thriving in the Arctic. But he ignored that the person I was quoting is intimately familiar with the health of polar bear populations. Let me repeat what biologist Dr. Mitchell Taylor from the Arctic government of Nunavut, a territory of Canada, said recently:

“Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.”

CNN’s O’Brien also ignores the fact that in the Arctic, temperatures were warmer in the 1930’s than today.

O’Brien also claimed that the “Hockey Stick” temperature graph was supported by most climate scientists despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences and many independent experts have made it clear that the Hockey Stick’s claim that the 1990’s was the hottest decade of the last 1000 years was unsupportable.

So it seems my speech struck a nerve with the mainstream media. Their only response was to cherry pick the science in a failed attempt to refute me.

It seems that it is business as usual for many of them. Sadly, it looks like my challenge to the media to be objective and balanced has fallen on deaf ears.

Gee, big surprise there. Continuing:

SPEECH BYPASSED THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Despite the traditional media’s failed attempt to dismiss the science I presented to counter global warming alarmism, the American people bypassed the tired old traditional media by watching CSPAN or clicking on the Drudge Report and reading the speech online.

From the flood of overwhelming positive feedback I received, I can tell you the American people responded enthusiastically to my message.

The central theme was not only one of thanks, but expressing frustration with the major media outlets because they knew in their guts that what they have been hearing in the news was false and misleading.

Here is a brief sampling:

(Letters from thankful Americans here. – Ed.)

My speech ignited an internet firestorm. So much so, that my speech became the subject of a heated media controversy in New Zealand. Halfway across the globe, a top official from the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition challenged New Zealand’s television station to balance what he termed “alarmist doom-casting” and criticized them for failing to report the views of scientists in their own country that I cited here in America. ( http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0609/S00306.htm )

As the controversy in New Zealand shows, global warming hysteria has captured more than just the American media.

The reaction to my speech keeps coming in: Just this morning, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper wrote an editorial calling my speech “an unusual display of reason” on the Senate floor.

I do have to give credit to another publication, Congressional Quarterly, or CQ for short. On Tuesday, CQ’s Toni Johnson took the issues I raised seriously and followed up with phone calls to scientist-turned global warming pop star James Hansen’s office. CQ wanted to ask Hansen about his quarter of a million dollar grant from the left-wing Heinz Foundation, whose money originated from the Heinz family ketchup fortune.

As I have pointed out, many in the media dwell on any industry support given to so-called climate skeptics (i.e. “the study that debunks global warming was financed by Big Oil!” – Ed.), but the same media completely fail to note Hansen’s huge grant from the partisan (i.e. leftist – Ed.) Heinz Foundation. It seems the media makes a distinction between ketchup money and oil money. (Ouch! He nailed the MSM on THAT one! – Ed.)

But Hansen was unavailable to respond to CQ’s questions about the ‘Ketchup Money’ grant, which is highly unusual for a man who finds his way into the media on an almost daily basis. Mr. Hansen is always available when he is peddling his increasingly dire predictions of climate doom.

Some more well-deserved pounding of the MSM follows, but let me cut to the ending, which is another home run:

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll in August found that most Americans do not attribute the cause of recent severe weather events to global warming, and the portion of Americans who believe that climate change is due to natural variability has increased over 50% in the last five years.

Given the diminishing importance of the mainstream media, I expect that trend to continue.

I hope my other colleagues will join me on the floor and start speaking out to debunk hysteria surrounding global warming. This issue is too important to our generation and future generations to allow distortions and media propaganda to derail the economic health of our nation.

My admiration for Sen. Inhofe will increase as the left squeals like Ned Beatty in Deliverance.

September 29, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment