On Iraq: Dems predict 68 votes, get 47

The party of defeat, the Democrats, made Amer– er, make that MoveOn.org, who they are more interested in pleasing than actual Americans — let’s start over.

The party of defeat, the Democrats, promised MoveOn.org 68 veto-proof votes on an attempt to end the war in Iraq by Congressional subversion of the President’s role as commander in chief, but when roll call was taken, according to Politico.com’s in-house blog, The Crypt, the actual tally came to 47 in favor, 47 opposed and six abstaining from making their opinion known in a run-up to an election year.

The Crypt offers this analysis:

The rejection of the Levin-Reed [withdrawal from Iraq] proposal means the only amendment passed by the Senate this week was a resounding 72-25 condemnation of the now infamous MoveOn.org ad that portrayed Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.” While Republicans have enjoyed a good ride ripping MoveOn and the anti-war movement for the past two weeks, Democrats have scaled back the expectation that many Republicans would join them and vote on binding measures to end the war.

Some moderates that have been targeted by Democrats as possible vote-switchers on the war seem to be turned off with the no-compromise attitude of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Keep in mind, these are the same Democrats predicting they will gain 60 House seats and sweep the Senate races in ’08 to create a veto-proof, filibuster-proof Congressional majority.

Yeah. Right. That’ll happen, too. Sounds like SOME political party needs to put their 11-percent-approval-rating-ignoring ego on a hoodia diet.

NASA ’71: Humans the cause of coming ice age

Thanks mainly to a maniacal Algore and his mind-numbed robots (whom I will from hereon term “zittoheads” given the eco-friendly unwashed state of these idiots), most people think the planet is hurtling headlong into transforming into a ball of fire due to “global warming” caused by man’s use of fossil fuels.

But at least one scientist on Algore’s list of “qualified scientists” who agree with him actually was a “new Ice Age” proponent only 36 years ago. And he blamed the same culprit.

According to Investors.com, “On July 9, 1971, the [Washington] Post published a story headlined “U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming.” It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man’s use of fossil fuels.”

The Investors.com tale spins this way: one of the folks who helped Rasool come to his “new Ice Age” conclusion was a computer scientist named Dr. James Hansen, who was apparently a Columbia University research assistant at the time.

Dr. Hansen’s views have run the gauntlet in the past 36 years, from a new Ice Age believer to someone who didn’t worry about fossil fuels affecting global temperatures, to his current position of being an Algore zittohead.

Yes, we all know scientific theories are supposed to be disprovable; no one ever expected, however, that scientists like Dr. Hansen would treat scientific theories like a game of hopscotch. Apparently his scientific positions change almost as rapidly as market research results.

Way to pick some “qualified scientific opinions” to form your mythical “consensus” there, Al! With buddies like Dr. James Hansen, your enemies can just stand on the sidelines and watch you and your convenient lie implode all on its own.

After all, as Investors.com opined, “If Hansen wants to change positions again, the time is now. With NASA having recently revised historical temperature data that Hansen himself compiled, the door has been opened for him to embrace the ice age projections of the early 1970s. Could be he’s feeling a little chill in the air again.”

OJ behind bars at last

It may not be for murder, but Orenthal James Simpson looks like he’s finally headed to prison where he belongs for the decade-old murder of his ex-wife and a restaurant worker who was returning a forgotten item.

Yes, it’s not as good as seeing Simpson sit in a confined space for the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, but the incident he is incarcerated for shows Simpson’s tendency toward rage and poor judgment and even violence.

Simpson, allegedly upset that a sports memorabilia collector was in possession of some of “his stuff,” resorted to armed robbery tactics in an attempt to get it back.

Like I said, it’s not ideal, but then Al Capone got buckled for tax evasion. At least something has finally forced Simpson to leave behind the Bush furniture comfort of his estate and exchange it for prison togs and a thin-mattressed bunk bed.

Nebraska Senator just being an ass

Claiming that it’s all to make a point about frivolous lawsuits, Nebraska radical Ernie Chambers – who is not a member of any political party, but is a confirmed agnostic – filed a lawsuit against “God” last week, demanding the Almighty’s appearance and asking the court for a summary judgment for the L-rd’s failure to appear. His request is for the Divine Being to “cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.”

The media, who always get behind a good G-d hater, are making him out to be some sort of free-speech hero. But this isn’t about freedom of speech, which he obviously enjoys and is making full use of.

This is simply about a politician being an ass. (So he better steer clear of Senator Larry Craig!)

The media’s favorite label for Chambers is, “the angriest black man in Nebraska,” but this has nothing to do with race, either. Just like recent outbursts by Sally Field and Barry Manilow (see my HollywoodIdiocy blog), it’s an attention-getting ploy. And he’s received what we wanted, from write-ups nationwide to enjoying a session of political paparazzi attention, to being approached by new admirers armed with digital cameras.

Enjoy it while it lasts, State Senator Chambers; there are many of us who see through the cheap publicity stunt.

Bush goes lame duck

It took until September 2007, but President George W. Bush has finally gone lame duck. In nominating former Federal Judge Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general, following Alberto Gonzales, who steps down this month, Bush signaled that he’s tired of fighting Democrats to win victories for the conservative cause.

I suppose it was inevitable; not everyone is a Ronald Reagan. But with a much more solid conservative, Ted Olson, husband of former conservative commentator Barbara Olson, who perished in the 9-11 attacks, waiting in the wings, choosing Mukasey was definitely the easy way out.

Here’s the first sign of trouble: the Democrats approve of him. Don’t expect any conservative the Dems approve of to be anything more conservative than jumpin’ Jim Jeffords or John McCain – RINOs through and through.

Here’s the second sign of trouble: the press generally approves of Mukasey. Before you know it, Osama bin-Laden and Satan himself will be saying Mukasey’s a darn good guy for the job.

Time to flee to that Orlando rental home.

Sorry, but no…

I recently received a handful of comments to this blog. Normally, I will publish most comments to my blog and rebuttal them in the comments section if I feel I must, even though I don’t always offer a rebuttal.

But I do have some ground rules, and they have nothing to do with whether someone agrees with me or not.

One of the primary ground rules I have is, don’t be a coward. If you’re gonna rip me or rip someone I’m writing about, put your name to your opinion. Anonymous posts won’t see the light of day here on Wonderful Pessimist, and that includes names that are obviously Web handles or some other form of alias.

That wasn’t the problem with this latest round of comments, though. They had real (or what seemed to be real) names attached to them.

I also run a family-friendly blog for the most part, so a potty-mouth gets you booted here as well.

Again, that wasn’t the problem this time.

No, these comments were a different sort and something I am equally opposed to: you do NOT get to use comments to MY blog to promote the candidate of YOUR choice. Whether it’s a candidate I like or a candidate I hate, you don’t get to campaign for someone via comments to MY blog.

I realize it can be a fine line at times, discriminating between what’s a fair comment and what is campaigning. And you know what? I’m not going to define it here in definite terms. This is, after all, MY blog and I – I ALONE – get to decide what goes on and what doesn’t go on it.

Sound unfair and dictatorial? Too bad. This is a private, personal blog and while I welcome comments and will usually publish most of them whether they agree with me or not, when push comes to shove, Wonderful Pessimist is MY space, not anyone else’s. I say what goes and what doesn’t and I make no apologies for it.

And right now, I am saying that comments that are disguised campaign ads DON’T GO.

Don’t like it? Get your own blog. Then you can publish and reject whatever you want, too! Heck, they’re even free! www.blogger.com is the address. Use it and get your own blog and then you can say whatever you want to say, campaign for whoever you want to campaign for and do or don’t do whatever pleases you.

But not here. This is not YOUR campaign central. If it’s ANYONE’S campaign central, it’s mine. If you want your comment to appear here, keep your campaigning out of it or it never will appear here.

Oh, and for all those “politics of feelings” liberals who might be reading… all the “campaign comments” I rejected were for GOP candidates, so no, I’m not suppressing just Dems on this site. I’m suppressing anyone who’s not me. So relax.

And in reality, I’m not truly suppressing anyone, because Wonderful Pessimist is NOT a public forum; it’s mine.

If you think this isn’t a religious war, listen to the enemy

There are those who would say the war against terrorism has no religious aspects to it, that it is made religious only by virtue of President Bush’s “short-sighted, personal evangelical beliefs.”\

Horse hockey.

If anyone doubts there is a deep religious aspect to the War on Terror, just listen to the words of the enemy.

In his most recent video release – the first in about three years – terrorist leader Osama bin-Laden had this to say:

There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out. The second solution is from your side. I invite you to embrace Islam. It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam.”

I doubt anyone but Democrats are going to suddenly convert to Islam, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see one of the Dem contenders, like Dennis Kucinich at least attempt it to draw attention to his never-was candidacy.

Remember, those were not RC airplanes that slammed through the World Trade Center buildings. They were the real thing. The enemy is serious about winning this war, even if the Democrats are not.

People trust military more than politicians

I’ve always agreed with Mark Twain that there are three levels of falsehoods: lies, damn lies and statistics. Polls are a universal proof of this; if we went by polls, George W. Bush never would have been nominated, let alone elected, and we’d always elect a Democrat in the White House, just like the Aaron Sorkin-created drama, NBC’s now-defunct The Left Wing (known to most as the West Wing) told us life should be.

But sometimes the media screws up and the truth slips out, as in the recent CBS News-New York Times poll that said America trusts its military leaders like General Patraeus to navigate the US through the clean-up and stabilization operations in Iraq, far more than it trusts any politicians, be they in the White House, the US House, the Senate, or running to be the next resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.

At last, some common sense from the media? Nah… that’s too much to hope for. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to offer Hillary a Florida vacation… before the hurricane season is over!

Book review as hit-job journalism

Under the guise of a book review, major media outlets are using the occasion of journalist Glenn Kessler’s new book, “Confidante,” to rewrite the history books on Condaleeza Rice’s service in the Bush administration.

Repeating his talking points without question, sources even as respected by conservatives as Breitbart.com are allowing Kessler’s quotes to color the tone of their book review of his tome, without raising so much as a critical eyebrow to his conclusions.

Communication is key in any venture, be it government or business and strong intranet software can help smooth things out. Did not one single editor do more than skim the book and pull relevant quotes out of it in order to meet deadline? The need for in-depth personalization and seamless back-end integration would be obvious to most.

But nothing seems to have worked for most media outlets and Kessler is able to wheeze on like so:

“She was one of the weakest national security advisors in US history. Her inexperience and her mistakes in that job have shaped the world and colored the choices she must handle as secretary of state,” Kessler, who covers US diplomacy for The Washington Post, writes in Confidante. “The invasion of Iraq, the missed opportunity with Iran, the breach in relations with Europe, the Arab anger at a perceived bias against the Palestinians — all of these problems were the direct result of decisions she helped make in the White House. Now, as secretary of state, she tried mightily — and with limited success — to unravel the Gordian knots she tied in in George W. Bush’s first term.”

I guess it’s refreshing to see some windbag journalist choose a target other than George W. Bush for a change; but Kessler’s portrayal of Rice and his conclusions about her are not above question or reproach. Whatever happened to the critical media?

Islamic Jihad attempts to bomb Israeli day care

A Palestinian militant group believed to be funded in part by Iran attempted to bomb an Israeli day care on Monday.

While the bomb, launched from the Gaza Strip, did not detonate and no children were hurt, the incident has been condemned by most international leaders – who then turn right around and tell Israel not to retaliate in even the most mild of ways, such as cutting off the flow of supplies until Hamas and Islamic Jihad call a cease fire. These same international leaders warn that such action would be, “morally indefensible.”

Some of these leaders apparently need brighter home lighting, since they can’t see the forest for the trees. That’s like having someone attempt to shoot a presidential candidate, but then tell the Secret Service not to take the shooter down because, “Well, he missed, so no harm done.”

Would that make sense? Certainly not!

Neither does telling Israel not to retaliate in any way at all.

Edwards off the deep end

For whatever reason, Iowa seems to undo even the sturdiest of Democrats candidates. Last time around, it was Howard Dean who lost it in the “field of dreams,” with his Ric Flair-style, “Woooo!” speech. This time around, it’s former ambulance chaser and former Senator John Edwards who showed off his “Crazy Dean” credentials.

Speaking in Tipton, Iowa about his Hillary-style universal health care plan, Edwards promised:

“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care. If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK. The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death.”

Does this plan include indemnifying doctors from ambulance-chasers like Edwards in this mandatory care system? Not likely.

Edwards is off the deep end on this one, and while he’s unlikely to get the Dem nod for the top of the ticket, if he’s chosen as someone’s running mate, just remember all the damage Al Gore did when the previous Clinton was at the top of the ticket. It’s enough to require most people to seek out a headache treatment.

One has to wonder exactly what the penalty would be for a prospective patient who didn’t go for his or her annual physical, and whether it would be a better or worse fate than he has in mind for Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, if he ever does achieve power.