Free Republic

George Bush hates astronauts.

R. Emmett Tyrell has a good piece on Webb's history of, er, eccentric behavior, dating back to his short tenure as Reagan's Sec. of the Navy.

This guy is a loose cannon of the worst sort, and I think history shows the President deserves the benefit of the doubt with respect to who turned that exchange in an unpleasant direction.

I found the choice of example (Webb versus Bush) to be interesting as a means of illustrating Noonan's point. Once again, she's found a way to make this Bush's problem, or at least used an example that she portrays as uniquely his fault, to illustrate her sense that we lack "grace".

That she dislikes Bush is hardly news. The extent to which she will stretch to make her antipathy for Mr. Bush clear is.

Yep. I read somewhere that if he gets over 20% of the black vote he's almost a lock to get elected.

The good news is that the Democrats and their MSM allies have already overplayed this hand and will continue to flog this dead horse until the "mushy middle" gets thoroughly sick of it and the right is completely energized to strike back.

The best players on the GOP team are the Democrats and the Media.

What's with this sudden penchant for "divided government" among certain conservatives?

What they don't seem to understand is that it ain't Tip O'Neil's Democrat party anymore.

It's Pelosi's.

If these conservatives expect "vigorous" debate and a satisfying compromise, they are sadly, delusionally mistaken.

Today's Democrat party is in danger of becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Moveon.org and the far-left nutroots blogtards like Atrios and Kos. Victory in November for the current crop of Democrats is only going to enhance the power of the hard-left fringe, to the detriment of not just that party, but the country as a whole.

We'll get impeachment hearings, obstructionism, progressive "wish list" bills that will be deposited on the notoriously veto-averse President Bush's desk, and a steady stream of MSM and pop culture nonsense about how the Left is back.

Dreaming of a Roe v. Wade reversal? Well, roll back over and hit the snooze bar, because if the Democrats gain seats in the Senate, you can FORGET about another conservative Supreme Court nomination and confirmation because its NOT going to happen.

I agree with all of my disgruntled fellow conservatives that the GOP is, shall we say, less than satisfactory on many issues and in many ways. But, my friends? The proposed cure (divided government, with today's Democrats in charge of Congress) would be far worse than the disease.

While I don't support this Church's particular interpretation of the Bible, it is interesting to me that the MSM (and the Left, but I repeat myself) like to raise examples like this of evangelicals sending money to Israel to, you know, build settlements or defend their country because they think it will speed the return of Christ, but the MSM and the Left never mentions the fact that the friggin' President of Iran thinks that the 13th Imam will return and inaugurate the Islamic version of the "end times" if he detonates a nuke in Tel Aviv.

Which religious belief is more dangerous?

I regularly read Goldstein's blog (you should too) and occasionaly comment there.

I watched this nut lose her shite in real time, and let me tell you, what a show.

Ready to vote 3rd party yet?

More like "ready to slit your wrists, yet?"

Umm, sure, if things are that bad, yeah, maybe.

Let's not let it come to that, mmm-kay?

Peggy lost me with this line:

"Nancy Pelosi seems to be pretty much in favor of anything that hurts Republicans, and Ken Mehlman is in favor of anything that works against Democrats."

That's just moral equivalence and a cop-out. Mehlman does not equal Pelosi on any reasonable standard of measurement. I agree that Pelosi does appear to oppose just for the sake of opposition, but I do not agree that Mehlman is equally guilty of that alleged crime and it simply won't do for Peggy to make the assertion wholly unsupported by any facts.

Look, Hastert has played the buffoon recently, Frist looks ineffective and hapless given the nature of the Senate and Bush has continued to struggle to articulate any sort of vision for the remaining years of his Administration, appearing to stumble from one fire to the next. I'm not happy with the national GOP.

But the alternative is simply unthinkable to anyone who cares. The moderate dems like Lieberman are being run right out of that party. The nutroots like Kos and Atrios increasingly pull the policy strings of the only viable political entity other than the GOP and, if I have anything to say about, I won't be governed by politicians who are in thrall to the extreme left wing kooks.

Nobody has to like it and there are ways to try and improve the GOP, but voting third party and helping to elect a Dem Congress and Hilary in 2008 ain't the way.

In the event of an attack on Israel with a nuclear weapon, I suspect that the domestic political landscape will look quite different than it does right now. Feel me?

No. They wouldn't charge the same amount.

The reasons for higher gas prices at the pump right now are not that complex and there is no damn conspiracy:

1. Increased demand (summer in the USA, rapidly expanding economies in China and India)
2. Static supply
3. Market uncertainty because of Mid-East, African and South American political situations
4. Ridiculously inadequate refinery capacity and equally ridiculous refined fuel grade requirements that vary from locale to locale in the US
5. Confiscatory taxes

There is little to nothing that can be done about 1, 2 and 3 in the short term.

We could do something about 4 and 5, but the dems (and depressingly, a significant faction in the GOP) won't let us.

But, there is no conspiracy by Exxon/Mobile/BP and only drooling morons, low functioning retards and grandstanding politicians think that there is one.

I've been to the Detroit Zoo as recently as the Sumemr of 2001. It was, and I presume is, a true regional treasure in an area that very badly needs family oriented venues and destinations.

I moved away from Detroit in December of 2001. I check the Detroit News and Free Press virtually every day at their websites.

This type of story is all too typical of the area.

Fools like Barabara Rose-Collins get elected time and again to positions of authority in the City. Gives the yahoos, suburban cynics and out-state haters all the cover they need to continue to write off the city. And the cycle continues.

These retards have been running a world class city into the crapper since the 60's and there are no signs of them ever slowing down.

I haven't regretted moving away from that dysfunctional icebox for 2 seconds.

Reverse the roles. Let's say Al Gore injured someone in an accident and it wasn't reported for 24 hours. Would you have been so cavalier about that?

Yes. Wanna know why? Cause I was never one of the obsessed haters that seized on everything as a cudgel with which to pound the heads of my political opponents. In short, because there are more important issues facing the country, both then and now.

You can't be serious.

This is a nothing story in a long line of "nothing stories" that have been touted by an extremely partisan press corps in an effort to hurt this administration.

They are getting more and more desperate as time goes on. Frankly? I think Cheney's office should have waited longer if it would make these fools do more free campaign ads for the GOP. I mean, honestly.

So its a "black" thing, huh? Let me guess: we wouldn't understand?

I reject the notion that it is par for the course for black ministers to take off topic shots at the sitting president of the united states when he comes to honor the deceased at her funeral. In fact, one might say that this justification for the Rev's comments about WMD and "weapons of mass deception" is another example of the liberal bigotry of low expectations: "Ya'll can't expect them there nee-grows to act respecful. It jess ain't they culture."

Baloney.

And comparing Martin's words at the memorial for the Birmingham Four to the inartful and ham-fisted spew from that "reverend" (and of course that fool Jimmy)? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

...just as the eulogists at the Funeral of a Ronald Regan [sic] would have no responsibility to downplay his opinions and polices for the comfort of Democrats present.

And yet, one searches their memory in vain to recall any partisan political vitriol being spewed at Reagan's funeral.

Oh, that's right there was some vitriol. From Ron Reagan, Jr. who decided to seize the opportunity of a public gathering to celebrate the life of his father and take a cheap shot at President Bush's religious observance.

Look, those who want to claim some "middle ground" on this incident should save themselves the effort and embarrasment. The left acted like an ass at Wellstone's memorial and they did it again at Mrs. King's and there's no two ways about that. Regardless of speculation about where Martin would have stood on Iraq or Bush's domestic policies.

That this needs to be pointed out is another road sign on the highway to hell that our politics is clearly on.

Molly Ivins writing in the 80's and early 90's practically begged for the creation of an analogue on the Right. That analogue eventually emerged and her name is Ann Coulter.

Ivins has been writing nasty little screeds and bitter ad hominem attacks against conservatives for as long as I can remember. Decline in civility? With her, the political discourse has NEVER been civil and its ALWAYS personal. She's just a nasty piece of work and always has been.

With that out of the way, on the substance of her article (such as it is), this is just another example of how the Left has been on the wrong side of history since, well, since forever.

Cold War redux man. It's almost too GD easy. I'm sure anyone with a modest amount of time and a subscription to Nexus could dig up all of Ivins nasty poison pen diatribes against Reagan's policies in conducting the Cold War.

Wrong then, wrong now.

There is zero point in having a debate with the Left. We inhabit different worlds.

I will lay a substantial portion of the blame for a nuclear Iran at the left's doorstep. Their unpatriotic and anti-American caterwauling (and by "caterwauling" I mean "lies") about the Iraq campaign have effectively tied Bush's hands on how to deal with Iran.

That said, ultimately, Bush will have to decide whether armed confrontation with Iran to take out their nuke capacity is worth the risk and downside. He may have to decide to take the domestic political heat in order to spare the world another North Korea, except this one run by fanatics that expect an afterlife rich with virgins, etc. just for killing infidels. At least the Norks think they need to stay alive to reap the benefits of their perfidy.

I just got around to reading this piece.

Wow.

If this is what passes for ideas for the future over at The Weekly Standard, I'll keep looking to National Review as the "house organ" of conservative thought.

Wage subsidies? Paying people to stay home and take care of the kids? A federal income tax AND a federal sales tax? Universal mandatory health insurance? I could go on.

These aren't "conservative" policy prescriptions by any stretch of the imagination. This read like a Hilary! 2008 campaign platform. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a "moderate" (i.e. not crazy) democrat embrace many of these concepts. But a conservative republican?

Look, I'm all in favor of a "big tent" party, but this kind of thinking needs to be countered. Forcefully. I totally understand that, with the Democrat party imploding and becoming the home of batshit crazy anti-American leftards, many of the moderate Democrats are going to start migrating over to the GOP. We'll take the votes. But that doesn't mean we have to accept their liberal policy prescriptions.

This is one of those times that I think Drudge is an ass. I found that story by visiting the Drudge Report and got a little nervous when I read his headline.

The truth of the matter is that the influenza virus mutates all the time. Nothing particularly newsworthy about that, unless you're a viral geneticist. The newsworthy mutation is when it jumps from animal-human transmission to human-human transmission.

Drudge trumpeting that headline was a real yellow journalism moment.