The Great Dick Cheney Strikes Back

Joe Biden? Yeah, he's not going to be as powerful as Cheney. That's becasue he's not nearly as smart as Cheney. It appears that Cheney knows this. Does Obama?

Vice President Cheney mocked Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grasp of the Constitution, defended former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and said President Bush "doesn't have to check with anybody" before launching a nuclear attack.

In a blunt, unapologetic interview on "FOX News Sunday," Cheney fired back at Biden for declaring in October that "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history."

"He also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution," Cheney said in a interview that was conducted on Friday. "Well, they're not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch."

"Joe's been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can't keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive. So I think I'd write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don't take it seriously."

Cheney, who is often called the most powerful vice president in history, also challenged Biden's claim that the Bush administration has amassed too much executive authority, a trend Biden reportedly plans to reverse.

"If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that's obviously his call," Cheney shrugged. "President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time."

Biden bit back, however, in a dueling Sunday morning interview that aired on ABC's "This Week" in which he said he stood by his statements.

"His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken. I think it caused this administration, in adopting that notion, to overstep its constitutional bounds, but, at a minimum, to weaken our standing in the world and weaken our security. I stand by that -- that judgment," Biden said..

Cheney defended the administration's aggressive prosecution of the War on Terror, which he said was a major reason the nation hasn't been attacked in seven years. He said the 1973 War Powers Act is a violation of the Constitution because Congress does not have the right by statute to alter presidential constitutional power.

"That it is an infringement on the president's authority as the commander-in-chief," Cheney said. "It has never been resolved, but I think it's a very good example of a way in which Congress has tried to limit the president's authority and, frankly, can't.

"The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States," Cheney said. "He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen.

"He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in."

Cheney also made clear that he had tried, in vain, to convince Bush not to fire Rumsfeld in 2006.

"I did disagree with the decision," Cheney said. "The president doesn't always take my advice."

Cheney said he supports Rumsfeld's successor, Robert Gates, "but I was a Rumsfeld man. I'd helped recruit him and I thought he did a good job for us."

Cheney also was unapologetic about using an expletive in 2004 to tell Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy what to do to himself. The incident occurred after Cheney heard that Leahy had suggested the vice president used his position in the White House to get contracts for his former firm, Halliburton.

"I thought he merited it at the time, and we've since, I think, patched over that wound and we're civil to one another now," Cheney said in the interview.

Cheney, who has low approval ratings, predicted that history would vindicate him and Bush.

"We've been here for eight years now, eventually you wear out your welcome in this business but I'm very comfortable with where we are and what we've achieved substantively," he said. "And frankly I would not want to be one of those guys who spends all his times reading the polls. I think people like that shouldn't serve in these jobs."

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Angry Left Endorses Middle-East Immaturity

The shoes had hardly left the hand of the Iraqi who tossed them at President Bush during the Baghdad press conference yesterday when the leftwing blogosphere began cheering him as some sort of hero. The incredible success of the Surge in Iraq has been very frustrating for the left. Along with Joe Biden they claimed that the Surge could never work. Problem was that it worked. That is why they have been so silent recently on the topic of the Iraq. The complete turnaround there has been much too embarrassing for them to mention Iraq very much...until now. The shoes tossed by that Iraqi journalist let loose a river of pent up frustration in the form of hailing the shoe tosser. Here is a sampling of the the reaction from the Daily Kos:

Is the Iraqi reporter eligible for a Pulitzer?

What will happen to this reporter? Do we need to send money for his representation in court or is he dead already? My concern is for this guy. I understand that Dana Perino got a black eye from a microfone in the melee. I'm sorry but retribution is sweet! If we could help this shoeless person I would.

We can throw 9000+ combat boots at him as he waddles to Marine 1 for the last time.
Michael Ware Was Grinning From Ear to Ear! Iraq journalist Michael Ware was shown on CNN telling Blitzer about the shoe throwing incident. He was positively gleeful.And it wouldn't surprise me if quite a few other American journalists, whether based in Iraq or not, were also grinning from ear to ear in solidarity with the Kossacks over this incident. Meanwhile the

Huffington Post comments were very similar to those of the Daily Kos:

All I can hope for is that bubble boy takes a real good look at what he has wrought. He should rot.

Find out who it was the guy deserves a medal of honor.
you go iraqi guy! wooohooo! we should all be chuckin our shoes at him! lmao!!!! the shoebomber! lmao!!!

I would love to throw something at Bush.. not a shoe though.. maybe a brick.. or cinder block.
Give that man who threw his shoes at the shrub an award...or better yet a statue built in his own likeness.

Shall we say thank you Al-Jazeera?

The next time you see Bush's motorcade rush by, don't let anyone keep you from giving him your shoe, too...
does anybody know the name and address of the man who threw the shoe? I'd like to buy him a new pair and throwing lessons.And finally, last but least, we have the input from the loons at the

Democratic Underground:
F---ing shame he missed.
Too bad Shrub didn't get his teeth knocked out, that guys a true hero!
*sigh* why can't anyone ever hit their targets? is it asking too much too see Bush hit in the face with a shoe, or Coulter with a pie, or Rove with flaming poo?
I soooooo wish I could throw something at the idiot too. You can see a larger collection of the DUer rantings at the DUmmie FUnnies

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A LIBERAL'S Favorite Quotes of 2008

Taken From Michelle Malkin's Blog


What happens when liberals decide “Quotes of the Year”
By Michelle Malkin • December 15, 2008 02:28 PM
Fred R. Shapiro is a Yale historian. He compiles an annual “memorable quotes of the year” list and has publishes the “Yale Book of Quotations.”
MSM outlets love Shapiro’s lists.
Shapiro, you see, is an admitted liberal historian.
And the omissions on his authoritative list of quotes are revealing.
Topping the list are quotes from Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. John McCain made the list, too.
But out of all the gaffetastic gaffes committed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Professor Shapiro couldn’t find a single noteworthy quote to include on his definitive list. Because, you see, he did not find the Democrat ticket’s gaffes “memorable” or “remarkable:”
Sarah Palin lost the election, but she’s a winner to a connoisseur of quotations.
The Republican vice presidential candidate and her comedic doppelganger, Tina Fey, took the top two spots in this year’s list of most memorable quotes compiled by Fred R. Shapiro.
First place was “I can see Russia from my house!” spoken in satire of Palin’s foreign policy credentials by Fey on “Saturday Night Live.” Palin actual quote was: “They’re our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Palin also made the third annual list for her inability to name newspapers she reads. When questioned by CBS anchor Katie Couric, Palin said she reads “all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.” Palin’s quotes were pivotal, said Shapiro, associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School who compiles the list. “This quote helped shape the election results,” he said of the Russia quote. “As it sank in the public realized this was someone really, really inexperienced and perhaps lacking in curiosity about the world.” Shapiro issued his Yale Book of Quotations, with about 13,000 entries, two years ago after six years of research. He expects to release the next edition in about five years, but in the meantime plans to issue annual top 10 lists.
…Palin’s running mate, Sen. John McCain, also made the list twice, once for his “the fundamentals of America’s economy are strong” comment in April and again for saying “maybe 100″ when asked last January how many years U.S. troops could remain in Iraq.
Shapiro said the quotes may have been somewhat unfairly construed. “Nonetheless, these quotes cemented his image as someone who was out of touch with economic realities or indifferent to economic realities and being someone who was fanatical about prosecuting the war in Iraq,” he said.
Shapiro relies on suggestions from quote-watchers around the world, plus his own choices from songs, the news and movies, and then searches databases and the Internet to determine the popularity of the quotes.
Phil Gramm, a McCain advisor, made the list for saying “We have sort of become a nation of whiners” in July in reference to Americans concerned about the economy.
President-elect Barack Obama didn’t make the list, not even for his much-criticized remark in which he said some small-town Americans “cling to guns or religion.”
“To me it didn’t seem like a very remarkable or very foolish quote,” said Shapiro, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat. “Ultimately I decided against it, but it was a close call.”
No “Gird your loins.” No “mark my words.” No “J-O-B-S is a three-letter word.” No FDR on TV.
No “57 states.” No “states in the middle.” No “Iran doesn’t pose serious threat.”
No “typical white person.” No “not the person I knew.”
No “first time in my adult lifetime.”
And no “they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
Some gaffes, as we saw over and over again over the last year, are more equal than others

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An Important Moment For The G.O.P

Last night I was lucky enough to witness the first step in the effort to build an army of Young Republicans, strong and organized enough to stand up to the youth movement of Barack Obama .

The event was a meeting organized by several groups, all of which have web sites and principles, dedicated to the cause of bringing young conservatives together in the same efficient way that the Democrats have managed to over the last four years.

Held at the Capitol Club, nestled snugly against the Capitol building on the Hill, several things really struck me about the meeting.

First off the place was packed full of young people. There were at least two hundred of us who showed up, anxious to become involved in the movement on the ground floor.

Next, the energy in the room was incredible. There were no glum faces or pity parties being thrown by those who were near suicidal because of the incoming administration. To the contrary, these Republicans seemed incredibly optimistic and excited about having the opportunity to rebuild the party from the ground up while at the same time leaving their own unique mark on the party machinery to aid future generations.

There was no hateful rhetoric against Obama or the Democrats, no talk about how we can destroy the other guys and not a single mention of Rod Blagojevich. The talk at the meeting was limited to pro-growth ideas on how we as young people can use our energy and passion for politics to make our party competitive again in all fifty states.

Finally, what shocked me the most was the high number of young African Americans who attended the meeting. Barack Obama got nearly 70% of the youth vote, and 96% of the black vote. Basic math would lead one to believe that the number of Republicans who fit into both of those groups would be limited.

Not so. Not only was there a high percentage of African Americans in the audience, but two members of the panel were black as was the individual who organized the event, American Solution’s Princilla Smith who deserves a great big “thank you” from everyone who cares about the future of the G.O.P.

At the end of the meeting one of the events organizers, Arlington’s Kenneth Ryan James, introduced a motion, which would have sent a unanimous resolution to the RNC, asking them to add a delegation of Republicans under 40 to the group that would be voting on the next RNC chairman.

Instead of just shouting out “Yes We Can!” in unison the group thoughtfully and raised concerns and asked questions about the amendment and in the end decided to table it in order to discuss it further.

This is the kind of levelheaded pragmatism that our party needs going forward. Of course, we young Republicans have never been the type to give our unquestioning allegiance to an idea or an individual who sounds good but has little to offer in the way of substance.

So spread the word. A movement is being built.

Here are the websites that are leading the charge. These are our versions of MoveOn.org so sign up with them and keep an eye on their event listings. Next time one is happening, get of the couch and go.

http://hiphoprepublican.com/

www.yrnetwork.com/

http://www.rebuildtheparty.com/

http://www.americansolutions.com/

Thanks to everyone who attended. Let’s get this thing started.

I'm the guy on the right side in the middle who is staring off into space.

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The Corruption State

Note: Of the last 8 governors the state has had, 4 of them have served time in prison.

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Obama Won....

....so I gues that means the American people agree with me!

Dec. 7 is Pearl Harbor Day Reverend. It happened shortly after FDR got on the TV after the Great Depression hit.

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Some Good News You Probably Missed

This is the money in the freezer guy.


Anh 'Joseph' Cao beats Rep. William Jefferson in 2nd Congressional District
by Michelle Krupa and Frank Donze, The Times-Picayune
Saturday December 06, 2008, 11:40 PM
Indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson suffered what may be the final blow of his storied political career in the most improbable way Saturday, when an untested Republican opponent took advantage of Louisiana's new federal voting rules -- and an election delay caused by Hurricane Gustav -- to unseat the nine-term Democrat.

With the upset victory, Anh "Joseph" Cao, a eastern New Orleans attorney who fled war-ravaged Saigon as a child, becomes the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. He will represent a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.


His defeat came on a day of abysmally low turnout, which political pundits had predicted could be Jefferson's undoing despite his demographic and political advantages.

Ironically, had Gustav not postponed the voting schedule one month, the general election would have been held the same ballot as last month's presidential election, when high turnout among African-American voters likely would have carried Jefferson to a 10th term.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, Republican John Fleming, a physician from Minden, won the seat being vacated by retiring Congressman Jim McCrery, a Republican from Shreveport.

The two races, both delayed because of Gustav, were this season's last contests for the U.S. House of Representatives. Saturday's results mean Louisiana bucked the national trend and wound up with a congressional delegation of six Republicans and a single Democrat. Three Democrats represent Louisiana in the current Congress.

Speaking to supporters Saturday night at Palace Cafe on Canal Street, Cao, 41, made reference to Jefferson's earlier victories this season -- and to the legal problems that undoubtedly contributed to his downfall.

"I know he went through two previous primaries, and that must have been hard," Cao said. "But tonight, the people of the 2nd District have spoken. We want a new direction. We want accountability, and have it."

Cao made direct reference to his improbable political ascent, seeming as astonished as anyone else.

"Never in my life did I think I could be a future congressman," he said. "The American dream is well and alive."

Though he was a relative unknown before this race, Cao was flanked Saturday night by a number of local political power brokers.

U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican from Metairie, introduced him to screaming supporters. City Councilwomen Jackie Clarkson and Stacy Head, both Democrats, were in attendance, along with former TV news anchor Helena Moreno, who was defeated by Jefferson in the Democratic Party runoff. Several GOP party leaders, including former City Councilmen Jay Batt and Bryan Wagner, also joined the crowd.

At Cao's side was his wheelchair-bound father, who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese prison camp during that country's civil war. In his closing, Cao offered thanks to the local immigrant community, and he made a special plea for peace in the country of his birth.

"I'd like to thank my Vietnamese community," he said, "and I'd like to encourage young Vietnamese in this country to work peacefully for a free and democratic Vietnam."

Meanwhile, at an Uptown art gallery, Jefferson, 61, a Harvard-educated attorney and former state Senator who was raised amid dire poverty in Lake Providence, La., said he thought voter fatigue contributed to his loss.

"Over three elections, I think people kind of ran out a little bit at the end of, I guess, the juice it takes to keep on going," he said. "There were three very difficult elections and on Nov. 4, a lot of folks thought we already won.

"I'm sure that if we poll, somewhere out there in the 2nd District is a vast majority of people who support our campaign and who, had they voted today, would have expressed it," he said.

Speaking to about 50 supporters who gave Jefferson a standing ovation when he entered the room, Jefferson thanked his family, labor leaders, local ministers and African-American voters, whom he praised as the "bedrock" of his political base.

"I'm so very grateful to each and every one of you, folks who are here and folks who are out there, for the warm embrace that you have given me over the years," he said.

Jefferson's demise resulted in part from Louisiana's return after 30 years to a closed primary system. As the only Republican to qualify for the general election, Cao spent September and October meeting voters, honing his message and raising money.

Meanwhile, Jefferson had to fight off six well-known challengers who together raised almost $2 million in an effort to unseat him in the Democratic Party primary and runoff, which were open only to registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

With his name appearing for the first time on Saturday's ballot, Cao was able to reach out to voters who supported the Democratic also-rans, as well as about 50,000 voters, most of them registered Republicans, who were forced to stay on the sidelines during the Democratic Party races.

As predicted, there was a dramatic drop-off in turnout Saturday compared with the Nov. 4 election that featured Barack Obama, now president-elect.

Last month, nearly 164,000 Democrats and independents in the 2nd District cast ballots. Even with the universe of voters expanded Saturday to include all registered voters, only 66,846 showed up to the polls.

In a rare radio interview in advance of the general election, Jefferson had expressed concerns that his base of African-American supporters might assume that he had won re-election last month and stay home Saturday.

Cao, who came to the United States when he was 8, holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Baylor University and a master's degree in philosophy from Fordham University. After a stint as a Catholic seminarian, he earned a law degree from Loyola University in 2000.

Married with two daughters, he now runs a law practice in Venetian Isles specializing in immigration.

Cao took an interest in local politics after his home and office were swamped during Hurricane Katrina.

His first bid for public office last year, when he sought the open 103rd House District, was inauspicious. Running then as an independent, he finished fifth in a six-candidate field.

Cao said he began eyeing a run for the 2nd District seat shortly after a Virginia grand jury indicted Jefferson last year on charges of bribery and public corruption following revelations in 2005 that FBI agents found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer and linked him and several relatives to a wide-ranging bribery scheme.

Counting among his backers Gov. Bobby Jindal and Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, Cao attracted solid support from local, state and national Republican organizations. He raised almost $90,000 from a slate of party operatives, local executives and members of the Vietnamese community. He also pumped $70,000 of his money into the campaign.

Hoping to pad his war chest further, Cao joined the Republican National Committee and the state GOP last month in filing a lawsuit challenging a decades-old cap on the amount of money the groups can spend on coordinated advertising efforts. As of late last week, the suit had gone nowhere.

Cao maintained a generally cordial tone during the campaign, limiting his criticism of Jefferson to questions about the congressman's effectiveness and ethics and rarely mentioning the criminal charges.

However, as election day neared, the National Republican Congressional Committee stepped in with a series of harsh mail pieces and an automated telephone call to voters that highlighted the allegations of money laundering, racketeering and bribery and labeled Jefferson as "crooked."

Organizers of Cao's campaign denied having a hand in the attack.

On election day, the Cao campaign launched a surprise, last-minute offensive with a pair of automated phone calls urging voters to pull the lever for Cao. The messages were recorded by Moreno and former Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick. It was both supporters' first foray into the general election campaign.

Though Jefferson will pack up his Capitol Hill office, he will remain in the news: Originally scheduled to begin last week, his trial is likely to start in early 2009.

Also in the cross-hairs of federal prosecutors are Jefferson siblings Betty Jefferson, the Orleans Parish 4th District Assessor, and political consultant Mose Jefferson, who were indicted last year on charges that they conspired to loot more than $600,000 in taxpayer money from three charities.

In a separate case, Mose Jefferson was indicted on charges that he bribed the former president of the Orleans Parish School Board.

Those trials are set for early next year.

Jefferson's defeat also marks the latest and most severe blow to the Progressive Democrats, the Central City-based political organization that he founded.

Among Jefferson allies who have been forced from public office since news of the FBI probe into Jefferson's dealings broke are: Renee Gill Pratt, the congressman's former legislative aide who lost her seat on the City Council; close ally Eddie Jordan, who was forced to resign as Orleans Parish district attorney; and Jefferson's daughter, then-state Rep. Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, who lost a bid last year for the state Senate.

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It's Official

After posting the now widely talked about Zogby Poll and accompanying video showing ignorant Obama voters getting stuff wrong in the new film "How Obama Got Elected" there was pretty much a unanimous cry of outrage from my Obama supporting acquaintances. They told me that the poll didn't mean squat if it didn't have similar results showing how uninformed John McCain's supporters were.

So a new Wilson Research Strategies Poll was done. Here were the results:

The 12 "Zogby" questions were duplicated, one on the Keating scandal was added for extra balance. The results from Obama voters were virtually IDENTICAL in both polls.

Here are the highlights:

35 % of McCain voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

18% of Obama voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

McCain voters knew which party controls congress by a 63-27 margin.

Obama voters got the “congressional control” question wrong by 43-41.

Those that got "congressional control" correct voted 56-43 for McCain.

Those that got "congressional control" wrong voted 65-35 for Obama.

The poll also asked voters to name all the media sources from which they got information.

Those “exposed” to Fox News got "congressional control" correct 64-25 (+39)

Those “exposed” to CNN got “congressional control” correct 48-38 (+10)

Those “exposed” to Network news got “congressional control” correct 48-39 (+9)

Those “exposed” to print media got “congressional control” correct 52-37 (+15)

Those “exposed” to MSNBC got “congressional control” correct 55-35 (+20)

Those “exposed” to talk radio got “congressional control” correct 61-29 (+32)

Voters in the "South" had the best response rate on “congressional control” (+22)

Voters in the "Northeast" had the worst response rate on “congressional control” (+9)

Those “exposed” to Fox News voted 70-29 for McCain.

Those “exposed” to CNN voted 63-37 for Obama.

Those “exposed” to MSNBC voted 73-26 for Obama.

Those “exposed” to network newscasts voted 62-37 for Obama.

Those “exposed” to national newspapers voted 64-36 for Obama.

Those “exposed” to talk radio voted 61-38 for McCain.

Those that could associate Bill Ayers' name/story with Obama voted 52-48 for McCain (We added Ayers name to the "Zogby" question and it significantly increased the rate of correct response, indicating a very superficial grasp of the overall story).

Those that knew Obama had made negative comments about “coal power plants" voted 76-24 for McCain.

Those that knew Obama had his opponents knocked off the ballot in his first campaign voted 66-34 for McCain.
McCain voters did poorly (only 42% correct) onteh Keating question and,in general, the voters did universally worse on questions where the negative information was about their candidate

Women under 55 did worse than they might have by guessing on four of the thirteen questions, and yet 95% of them knew that Palin was the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter. Even 95% of those in this demographic group who didn't know “congressional control” got this question correct.

Those “exposed” to MSNBC “scored” 90% correct on the three Palin questions (including an incredible 98% on the “pregnant teenage daughter” question), while those not “exposed” to MSNBC averaged 84% correct on those three questions.

Here's a link to the original Zogby poll:

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1642

And here's the original video that brought this to light. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

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Four Reasons To Be Thankful

I wasn’t blogging over the holiday weekend. I was eating. I assumed that you were doing the same thing so I saved my annual list of things we have to be thankful for until today.

This year, all Americans find themselves in a nervous state regarding the economy and if you’re a conservative, about the coming changes which are sure to follow President-Elect Obama’s inauguration.

However, recent events should ease our minds a bit and lead us to be grateful for our good luck and to be optimistic about our future in this ever-resilient nation of ours. So here is a partial list containing some things to be happy about in these tumultuous times.

1.Obama’s Apparent Pragmatism

Last week the President-Elect made two decisions which should give us all great confidence that he intends to put common sense over ideology. The first was his decision to keep Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates at the Pentagon. This signals that, despite his constantly evolving campaign message of failure in Iraq, Obama has finally come to terms with the fact that our recent efforts in the region have been successful and that defeat is not an option.

At around the same time as the Gates news was being floated, another balloon was released suggesting that Obama’s plan to hike taxes would be put on hold until the economic crisis was over.

Again, it would appear that, once out of campaign mode, Obama has wisely admitted what Republicans have always known: raising taxes is bad for the economy. Especially in the short term. Especially when you’re in a recession. Especially when there is so much uncertainty regarding the financial markets.

These two moves should instill great hope among those who didn’t vote for Obama that he is more pragmatic and less radical than we once thought.

It should also send a clear message to liberals that even though Obama ran against the Bush Administration, your great savior is not going to overturn two of his predecessor’s biggest policy initiatives. If he’s smart, he won’t touch the Patriot Act either.

2.We didn’t Elect/Re-Elect John Kerry

Throughout the course of this campaign, Democrats liked to hype this election as the most important in out lifetime. Four years ago Republicans dubbed 2004 with the same title. Despite which one you think was more important, everyone should be happy about the fact that John Kerry was not running for re-election this year.

Had Kerry prevailed in ’04 many events would have unfolded in the same way as they have under President Bush. New Orleans would still be under water and the financial crisis would have gone down the same way.

The difference would have been that when the situation in Iraq got really bad in 2005-06, Kerry would have packed it in. This move would have once again saddled America with the label of a weak-willed nation which doesn’t stand up to its enemies when the going gets tough. Al-Queda would then have free-rein over the world, knowing that if they shed enough blood, America would inevitably back off.

The Democrats who love Obama can be grateful that Kerry lost as well, since had he won, Obama would have at least had to wait until 2012 to run for the White House. Had Kerry lost in ’08, a likely outcome given the economic situation, Obama would have had to face an incumbent GOP president. That’s much more difficult than running against an unpopular lame duck.

3.Gay Marriage Protests


In the wake of the financial crisis and the weakening economy, our enemies and even some of our citizens have jumped at the chance to label the American experiment a failure. Some folks are saying that capitalism has failed, even as shoppers are trampled by plasma TV craving consumers at Wal-Mart.

Of course, anyone with a sense of history realizes that reports of America’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Nowhere is this more evident than in the left’s reaction to the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in that state.

The reaction among many people, especially the young folks who thought it was so important that they elect anti-gay marriage candidate Obama, was to go out and protest, and to shoot petitions around Facebook. This reaction should show us that we Americans are not so troubled by dwindling 401k’s or terror, that we don’t have time to debate relatively trivial matters such as who gets to call themselves “married” and who does not.

While many Americans shake their fist in outrage at “greedy” CEO’s and repeatedly remind us of how much the rest of the world hates us, deep down they must know that everything is going to turn out all right. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be so riled up about this.

Now before you call for my head or say that I'm full of H8(which is an oversimplification and a cop-out, I might add), ask yourself this: if unmemployment was 25% and the Mumbai attacks had happened in Chicago, would anyone's immediate concerns dwell on gay nuptuals? I think not.

4.The State Of The Planet

Finally, there’s some good news about Global Warming. IT DOESN’T EXSIST! Seriously though, new findings by NASA and a statistics firm called Hadley-data recently released a report which stated the following:

- In every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased

-There has been no warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995.

Now, I have never jumped on the Global Warming bandwagon, but there’s really no bandwagon to jump on unless you completely accept the Al Gore vision of environmental apocalypse.

Hopefully, the election of Barack Obama will signify an end to the knee-jerk alarmism, which has come to define the left during the Bush years. That same alarmist sentiment that gave us such liberal favorites, as “We’re becoming a fascist state!” and “Our civil liberties are disappearing!”

What is needed is vigorous debate and a thorough fact-check before our nation starts throwing money at a problem that may or may not actually be a problem.

-Dan Joseph

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Deepak Blames America

Deepak Blames America
The media look within to explain the sick delusions of the Mumbai killers.
By DOROTHY RABINOWITZ

If the Mumbai terror assault seemed exceptional, and shocking in its targets, it was clear from the Thanksgiving Day reports that we weren't going to be deprived of the familiar, either. Namely, ruminations, hints, charges of American culpability that regularly accompany catastrophes of this kind.


APSoon enough, there was Deepak Chopra, healer, New Age philosopher and digestion guru, advocate of aromatherapy and regular enemas, holding forth on CNN on the meaning of the attacks.

How the ebullient Dr. Chopra had come to be chosen as an authority on terror remains something of a mystery, though the answer may have something to do with his emergence in the recent presidential campaign as a thinker of advanced political views. Also commending him, perhaps, is his well known capacity to cut through all sorts of complexities to make matters simple. No one can fail to grasp the wisdom of a man who has informed us that "If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules."

In his CNN interview, he was no less clear. What happened in Mumbai, he told the interviewer, was a product of the U.S. war on terrorism, that "our policies, our foreign policies" had alienated the Muslim population, that we had "gone after the wrong people" and inflamed moderates. And "that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay."

All this was a bit too much, evidently, for CNN interviewer Jonathan Mann, who interrupted to note that there were other things going on -- matters like the ongoing bitter Pakistan-India struggle over Kashmir -- which had caused so much terror and so much violence. "That's not Washington's fault," he pointed out.

Given an argument, the guest, ever a conciliator, agreed: The Mumbai catastrophe was not Washington's fault, it was everybody's fault. Which didn't prevent Dr. Chopra from returning soon to his central theme -- the grave offense posed to Muslims by the United States' war on terror, a point accompanied by consistent emphatic reminders that Muslims are the world's fastest growing population -- 25% of the globe's inhabitants -- and that the U.S. had better heed that fact. In Dr. Chopra's moral universe, numbers are apparently central. It's tempting to imagine his view of offenses against a much smaller sliver of the world's inhabitants -- not so offensive, perhaps?

Two subsequent interviews with Larry King brought much of the same -- a litany of suggestions about the role the U.S. had played in fueling assaults by Muslim terrorists, reminders of the numbers of Muslims in the world and their grievances. A faithful adherent of the root-causes theory of crime -- mass murder, in the case at hand -- Dr. Chopra pointed out, quite unnecessarily, that most of the terrorism in the world came from Muslims. It was mandatory, then, to address their grievances -- "humiliation," "poverty," "lack of education." The U.S., he recommended, should undertake a Marshall Plan for Muslims.

Nowhere in this citation of the root causes of Muslim terrorism was there any mention of Islamic fundamentalism -- the religious fanaticism that has sent fevered mobs rioting, burning and killing over alleged slights to the Quran or the prophet. Not to mention the countless others enlisted to blow themselves and others up in the name of God.

Nor did we hear, in these media meditations, any particular expression of sorrow from the New Delhi-born Dr. Chopra for the anguish of Mumbai's victims: a striking lack, no doubt unintentional, but not surprising, either. For advocates of the root-causes theory of crime, the central story is, ever, the sorrows and grievances of the perpetrators. For those prone to the belief that most eruptions of evil in the world can be traced to American influence and power there is only one subject of consequence.

Jew Haters Deserve Ostracism in the West
Accustomed as we are by now to this view of the U.S., it's impossible not to marvel at its varied guises -- its capacity to emerge even in journalism ostensibly concerning the absurd beliefs about the 9/11 attacks held by so many Muslims. It's conventional wisdom in the region -- according to a New York Times dispatch from Cairo, Egypt, last fall by Michael Slackman -- that the U.S. and Israel had to have been involved in the planning, if not the actual execution of the assaults. No news there. Neither was the information that there was virtually universal belief in the area that Jews, tipped off, didn't go to work at the World Trade Center that day. Or that the U.S. had organized the plot in order to attack Arab Muslims and gain access to their oil.

The noteworthy point here was the writer's conclusion that the U.S. itself was to blame for the power of these beliefs. "It is easy for Americans to dismiss such thinking as bizarre," Mr. Slackman allowed. But that would miss the point that the persistence of these ideas represents the "first failure in the fight against terrorism." A U.S. failure? Nowhere in the extended list of root causes here was there any mention of the fanaticism and sheer mindless gullibility that is the prerequisite for the holding of such beliefs.

Its very ordinariness speaks volumes about this report. A piece written with evident serenity, the perversity of its conclusions notwithstanding, it's one emblem among many of the adversarial view of the nation that is today entrenched in the culture. So unworthy is the U.S. -- an attitude solidly established in our media culture long before the war on terror -- that only it can be held responsible for the deranged fantasies cherished in large quarters of the Arab world. So natural does it feel, now, to hold such views that their expression has become second nature.

Which is how it happens also that the U.S. is linked to the bloodletting in Mumbai, with scarcely anyone batting an eye, and Larry King -- awash perhaps, in happy molecules -- thanking guest Dr. Chopra for his extraordinary enlightenment.

Ms. Rabinowitz is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

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