Blog Chez Jacq'

billingsgazette.com:

"A comment by Howard Dean about Confederate flags and pickup trucks has embroiled the leading Democrats in Iowa's presidential caucuses in a name-calling donnybrook.

'I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks,' the former Vermont governor was quoted as saying in Saturday's Des Moines Register. 'We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats.' "

And then there's Claire Wolfe's comment from her blog...

What if, someday, there was a mainstream candidate gutsy enough to say: "Pandering to the NRA? Hell no! I wouldn't pander to those wimps. I'm pandering to Gun Owners of America, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and KeepandBearArms.com!"

Wouldn't you love it? In some other lifetime, perhaps ...

...

CNN.com: "PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters)—Rudy Susanto, 25, who had exposed himself to teen-age girls on as many as seven occasions outside St. Maria Goretti School, struck again on Thursday just as students were being dismissed, police said.

But this time, a group of girls in school uniforms angrily confronted Susanto with help from some neighbors, police said.

When Susanto tried to run, more than 20 girls chased him down the block. Two men from the neighborhood caught him and the girls took their revenge.

'The girls came and started kicking him and punching him, so I wasn't going to stop them,' neighbor Robert Lemons told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Susanto was later treated for injuries at a local hospital. Police said he would be charged with 14 criminal counts including harassment, disorderly conduct, open lewdness and corrupting the morals of a minor."

Jude Wanniski quotes Paul Craig Roberts who quotes Herman Goering:

"The quagmire in Iraq might make a wider war seem unlikely. But where there's a will, there's a way, and the neocons have the will. Nazi Herman Goering told Gustave Gilbert that it is easy to lead people into war:

'Of course, the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.'

For the coming bloodshed and national bankruptcy, Americans have no one to blame but neocons and their own gullible selves."

Insanity reigns in the army? Prison for saving his troopers?:

A U.S. army colonel who allegedly frightened an Iraqi into disclosing details of an impending attack by firing a pistol into the air near his head, faces up to eight years in prison on assault charges.

The army wants this outstanding black officer to resign or be court-martialed one day before he is eligible to retire on 20 years service. Perhaps the white elitist officer corps has its means of destroying those it despises. The Washington Times has been following this travesty. Where are the Washington Post / New York Times / Los Angeles Times? Even the Telegraph reported the story.

"I accept being retired at the grade of major and paying whatever fine required, but resignation and prison seems an attempt to destroy me," Col. West says. "All I wish is to go away, re-establish my family and retain some of my dignity."

Capt West was published in the Kansas State publication back in '94. Has he always been so controversial?

Write your senators, your congress critter… Tell them to save this officer as he saved his troopers.

Michael Peirce understands war. Does our president?:

Now we have real war going on every day and we have allowed a crazed group of neo-conservative warmongers to put our soldiers in an un-winnable situation. History shows us that it is next to impossible for an invading power to defeat a determined insurgency. But who reads history?

Read the piece by Mr. Peirce. He has been there.

Gary Aldrich understands the insanity prevailing at the TSA: "Does anybody besides me think we are way off the track on screening the passengers at our nation’s airports? Forget about the box cutters! Arm the pilots like we said we were going to, and you have instantly solved the problem of box cutters. But it is the passengers, not the box cutters, who are the dangerous components that must be stopped at the gate. An 80-year old woman with a box cutter does not scare me. Right now, “PC” TSA screeners are what scare me."

Anti-Reagan series has the right [as in correct] in a swivet:

The firestorm over CBS-TV’s upcoming attack on Ronald and Nancy Reagan got a bit hotter today as a boycott was launched by angry conservatives at www.BoycottCBS.com.

Blaming “Hateful Hollywood” for “smearing” the Reagans, the campaign is promoting a two-pronged approach to protest the show:
1) urging a viewer boycott of the Reagan mini-series; and
2) urging a 30-day Holiday season boycott of all advertisers of the mini-series.

This time, Hollywood has gone too far,” said Mike Paranzino, who designed the site with the help of some like-minded colleagues. “What cruelty must lie in the hearts of CBS executives to smear the Reagans while Nancy Reagan copes every day with her husband’s devastating Alzheimer’s disease. The vast majority of Americans respects the Reagans and will find CBS’s dishonest tale revolting.

I eagerly look forward to the list of those firms foolish enough to sponsor the shows.

Joe Farah of WorldNetDaily says:

Just as important as his great accomplishments as president is Ronald Reagan's character. And that is really what seems to be under attack by CBS.

And that's why we should all boycott CBS. We should all say "no" to this trashy show. We should all punish the network for its attack on Reagan and its contempt for our intelligence.

Amen.

Gary North says:

No weapons of mass destruction
No Osama bin Laden-Saddam Hussein connection
No Saddam Hussein
No Osama bin Laden
No oil revenues to pay us back
No welcoming committees with open arms
No democracy
No end to the daily death toll
No troops home by Christmas – any Christmas
No end in sight to the rebuilding expenses
No payback to France and Germany
No victory parades
No winning general

Read it all?

David Hackworth is not invariably correct. He is right on with this rant:

Today, sadly, too many of our top brass like [Gen.] Myers are out of touch with the bottom – the root cause of most bad organizations. That's because these above-the-fray commanders aren't leaders; they're well-educated, pass-the-buck managers whose bottom line is to avoid any blame.

Leaders, on the other hand, live up to the job description. They take responsibility for the bottom line. They stand tall, and they lead.

Maps of the fires in the U.S. with more details than you wish to see...

Ron Paul also invariably tells it as it is:

Congress passes 13 huge appropriations bills each year, along with a 14th known generously as the “supplemental” bill. These bills fund a vast array of federal departments, agencies, and programs, including more than a trillion dollars worth of entitlements. Each bill is stuffed with hundreds of pages of goodies for countless favored groups, industries, individual companies, and foreign governments. It’s common for dozens or hundreds of amendments to be added to each bill, always with more money for somebody.

This process gives members of the House Appropriations committee unwarranted power, because so many special interests depend on receiving a piece of the government pie. Members of Congress play along if they hope to bring home as much pork as possible to their districts, and this includes making deals with a variety of devils. Any member who hopes to solidify his reelection chances by delivering pork will find himself agreeing to vote for all kinds of unsavory bills in exchange.

Lobbyists also play a central role, acting as shadow legislators and pushing to ensure their clients get a healthy share of the federal largesse. Lobbyists wield power over legislators either by promising campaign funds, or threatening to support an opponent. Members of Congress understand this very clearly, and they work hard to avoid alienating any group represented by a powerful lobby.

The group least represented in the whole sordid affair is American taxpayers.

Are there no other Jeffersonian Constitutionalists extant?

Thomas Sowell invariably tells it as it is.

Black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and black organizations like the NAACP, must maintain a monopoly because they cannot risk everything in a free market of ideas. Therefore they must demonize Clarence Thomas and cut off at the pass anyone who might become another nationally visible black voice with alternative ideas.

The whole Democratic Party has a huge vested interest in a solid black vote today that is like the “solid South” which Democrats relied on in national elections back in the days of Jim Crow. As a Republican, Justice Brown is a threat to that monolithic solidarity, even if she never says a word about politics.

Democrats—black and white alike—realize that she must be stopped right here and right now, before she can gain national prominence as a federal appeals judge, who might well end up on the U.S. Supreme Court in future years. Janice Rogers Brown and Clarence Thomas both on the same Supreme Court is a liberals' nightmare.

Put pressure on your Senators.

I admire Paul deParrie's headwear and even more his thoughts:

… [I]t is all lies. The false use of words - clever euphemisms like 'fetus' instead of 'child' or (heaven forfend) 'baby' - misdirections like 'choice' instead of 'abortion' - or flat-out lies like 'gay' - is the tender of today's pagan forces.

Read the close of the John Hancock, "Boston Massacre Oration," 5 March 1774:

I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our God, and for the cities of our God; while we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as he pleases; and with cheerful submission to his sovereign will, devoutly say: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our salvation.”

Thanks to cc.
You may wish to read the entire oration—although it is way beyond the ability of a bit challenging for today's readers to comprehend.

As you walk up the steps to the Capitol Building which houses the Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view—it is Moses and the Ten Commandments.

As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door. As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall right above where the Supreme Court judges sit a display of the Ten Commandments.

There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.

James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law—an oligarchy—the rule of few over many.

The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said, "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 200 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?

Thanks to Mike Campbell for passing this along. You may wish to do the same.

After winning their first seven games, the Kansas City Chiefs finally played like a team that can't lose. Dante Hall's 67-yard catch-and-run got them rolling and Priest Holmes scored three touchdowns as the Chiefs (8-0) became the league's only unbeaten team Sunday night with a 38-5 rout of Buffalo. Minnesota lost 29-17 to the New York Giants earlier Sunday. And now the Chiefs get a week off to savor their perfect half season.

Fred Reed journeys to a land of past war:

"… I asked about the French. They were gone, said one of the drivers with approval. After them came the Americans, he said, who were also gone, and then the Russians, who too were gone. They clearly thought that gone was the proper condition for all of these groups.

I don’t think that Americans quite grasp that countries don’t like having foreigners bomb them. We tend to justify our wars in terms of abstractions: We are attacking to defeat communism, impose democracy, overcome evil or, now, to end terrorism. The countries being bombed, devastated, and occupied usually think they are fighting invaders who have no business being there. The distinction is lost on many. I know aging veterans who to this day do not understand why the Vietnamese weren’t grateful that we had come to help them fight communists.

Southeast Asia is full of the moldering offal of deceased foreign policy..."

Reed graces us with another of his irreverent but insightful columns...