Too Bad

Peggy Noonan on how both Presidents Bush wasted their inheritance.

The White House doesn’t need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don’t even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.

I hope he’s working on that right hook

Fred Thompson gets serious.

Up to now, Fred Thompson has brilliantly remained coy about his presidential ambitions — to the point of exasperation among some of his would-be fans. Now, however, Fred has made clear that he intends to run, and in a USA Today interview, how he plans to do it:

Red on Red

Iraq The Model corrects the AP’s story on bad guys pounding the crap out of each other in Amiriyah.

Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda often clash with the pan-nationalist, less Islamic elements of insurgent groups which are largely made up former military officers and Baathists, so this is not the first time that such clashes occur in Amiriyah or Adhamiyah where both groups have strong presence but this time the clashes are fiercer and lasted longer than any previous incident.

Omar also sees a battle brewing in Diyala.

[N]on-Iraqi elements of al-Qaeda do not negotiate, they either fight or relocate to another region if they see the case is totally lost, so I think the group allegedly seeking negotiations is made of Iraqi insurgents who don’t want to be swept along with al-Qaeda. But that really doesn’t change the fact (if true) that they are expecting a serious crackdown that they prefer to not be considered among the very bad guys when the action begins.

Ten Principles

I confess complete ignorance of Russel Kirk until he was brought up on The Corner the other day. His Ten Conservative Principles has convinced me to read more of him.

The Final Option

Michael Yon has an amazing story about corruption, the rule of law, and cool-headed initiative in the town of Hit (heet). A lot of people could have died, and none did. Impressive.

I’m not the only one who’s had it.

Check out the anger and disappointment over at The Corner.

To what Laura Ingraham had to say, I can only add amen.

Right now I want to see Fred Thompson walk up to Bush and sock him in the gut. That’d pretty much guarantee his victory in ’08.

God’s Rottweiler?

More like Mohammed’s Poodle, it seems.

I guess all the Religion of Peace needs to do to prove it isn’t violent is murder a few nuns.

What a disappointment.

Fred Calls It Quits

Wait — this is good news.

What No One Is Telling You About Our Talks With Iran

Pat Dollard puts a happier face, if you will, on our negotiation strategy with Iran.

For some reason, no one told you that just 5 days before Monday’s talks, an entire floating army, with nearly 20,000 men, comprising the world’s largest naval strike force, led by the USS Nimitz and the USS Stennis, and also comprising the largest U.S. Naval armada in the Persian Gulf since 2003, came floating up unnanounced through the Straight of Hormuz, and rested right on Iran’s back doorstep, guns pointed at them. The demonstration of leverage was clear. And it also came on the exact date of the expiration of the 60 day grace period the U.N. had granted Iran.

Well, I did notice when the Big Stick passed through Hormuz. But, then, I don’t rely on the MSM for my news. I didn’t connect the dots with the 60-day period. But I’m still not happy about the choice of Memorial day.

It’s official

Bush has gone completely off the rails on this “immigration” bill.

This reform is complex. There’s a lot of emotions around this issue. Convictions run deep. Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don’t like. If you want to kill the bill, if you don’t want to do what’s right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it, you can use it to frighten people. Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all,

Mark Steyn was thoughtful and civil in his reaction.

Me? I say, “Yeah, George? You and the horse you rode in on.” The gall of the man to insinuate that opponents of his Christmas Present to illegals are arguing from emotion and fear!

Yes, I want leadership, George. Leadership is someone pointing to the border and saying, “That’s where I draw the line.” Leadership is someone pointing to the Constitution and saying, “And here’s the law of the land.” Right now you wouldn’t know leadership if it snuck up and bit you in the horse you rode in on.

Fred Thompson Watch

This just in:
KLO reports on The Corner that they’ve heard from an NBCer…

[via] Chuck Todd, tells us that Fred Thompson had a conf. call with over 100 donor/fundraisers to formally explore a presidential run.

They are going to open their “testing the waters” phase on June 4th, when they’re expected to launch a one-day blitz to raise a significan amount of money…

Could this possibly be the first presidential election of my life when I can vote for someone instead of against someone?

The man who makes Neville Chamberlain look like Dirty Harry

Yes, it’s a multi-part roundup of the marvelous works wrought by the worst President of the last half century, and worst-ever ex-president, the Nasty Little Man.

Shame

I hope everybody in the State Department, and everybody in the Bush White House who is behind the idea of “negotiations” with Iran watch this video.

Pay careful attention to what the man is saying.

I think I’ve officially had it with the Bush Administration

On the short list of things Bush has mostly done right has been, up to now, the war.

This is an outrage.

Yon Yawns in Hit

(Pronounced heet, as you’ll recall.)

He sent a note to Instapundit with more in the situation in Hit.

I am becoming very interested by the city of Hit and surrounds; the fighting turned-off abruptly in February after Task Force 2-7 Infantry arrived. Why did the fighting end so suddenly?

Blogging The Qu’ran

Wow. Over at Hot Air, Robert Spenser is going to blog the Qu’ran (Koran). The whole thing.

So over the course of the next few months, I’m going to read it, and discuss it in a series of columns. All of it. Not “cherry-picked” or “out of context.” The whole thing, beginning to end. Some of you may be familiar with David Plotz’s series on Slate, “Blogging the Bible.” This series will be similar to that one, but rather than just write about what I think or feel about a certain passage, I will, unlike Plotz, refer to commentaries – all Muslim ones – on the Qur’an. I’ll try to explain how mainstream Muslims who study the Qur’an will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims.

You now have something to read every Sunday.

Memorial Day

I can’t think of a better Memorial Day message than this one from Michael Yon.

Going to the Dogs in Sacramento

The Brain Trust we call a legislature in Sacramento is a deep well of craziness. That’s when they’re not being just plain crazy, stupid and corrupt.

Experiment Update

About 24 hours ago I posted some bait to see just how much I could chum the waters.

The first comment came in within an hour. While I’ve had only one additional comment, the article has registered 44 reads and my blog traffic jumped to 77 hits. I know those are tiny numbers. The point is that this is a blog that gets a total of about 20 hits on a good day. So that’s a big spike. And looking at the nice report I get here on WordPress I can see that this candidate’s name is being fed to technorati and other search engines as a search term very regularly.

You Are Not Alone

That’s the message over at Eject! Eject! Eject! where Bill Whittle has posted another of his long essays. You Are Not Alone is broken into Part 1 and Part 2.

This is hard to sum up (which is why it’s so long), but he makes a fascinating connection between the Prisoner’s Dilemma, a concept from game theory, and the Greek/Biblical idea of the “Remnant”.

At the risk of spoiling his surprise, he is proposing “Ejectia” an on-line community which hopes to use the internet to perform an end-run around the end of Western civilization.

I still have a lot of reading to do (the real meat is in the comments). A couple of quick observations: I think his analysis leading up to the proposal is insightful. He may be on to something with the observation that the internet allows we, “the masses” to communicate with each other without the interference of the elite. I’m less enthused by his idea of everything in Ejectia being “free”. That smacks uncomfortably of “from each according to his abilities, and to each according to his needs”. It could be all the Adam Smith I’ve been reading lately, but I really don’t see how any self-sustaining community is going to succeed without a free market. Maybe I’m misreading his proposal, though. The links are here for you to see what you think, and for me to have handy.

Hordes of Invisible People Descend on D.C.

This Ain’t Hell reports on the Rolling Thunder/Gathering of Eagles event in Washington today. Note how they are getting wall-to-wall coverage on the MSM.

Fudd or Gantry?

Alan Nathan ponders which Elmer John Edwards is.

Ron Paul Experiment

Another blog, which I shan’t yet name nor link to so as not to bias the test, has run an experiment. He chummed the waters with a few remarks about Ron Paul. Kind of like this:

Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul. And Ron Paul. Is Ron Paul Crazy? Is he a real Republican?

I thought I’d try it on this blog, being a relatively unknown backwater of the blogosphere. Oh, I know, I have a handful of faithful, regular readers for whom I write.

Actually, I’ve long admired Ron Paul, and considered him one of the most principled members of Congress. On many issues he’s certainly right on the money. I happen to think he’s missed the point entirely in the war, which is the number one issue right now since, duh, we’re at war.

I was recently disappointed to see video of him consorting with Truther morons. I understand that a man campaigning needs to be polite, but he could (and should) have distanced himself. Instead he mumbled darkly about government conspiracy and the Kennedy Assasination.

Unless Ron Paul distances himself forcefully from the tinfoil hat crowd, he’s going to get tarred as one of them. It’s rather moot, though, since he’s not even registering on a single poll right now. But I’d like to have him stay in the race just to keep the other guys honest – as long as he doesn’t go all Ross Perot on us.

So here’s the test. Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul. Earth to Ron Paul: We need you.

Comments are open.

Pro-Lifers Rejoice!

Apparently there are no more abortion doctors anywhere in California.

Meanwhile in California, the state could not find enough doctors willing to perform executions. Doctors there said executing inmates would violate the Hippocratic oath.

It’s not a good day for Raiders fans, though.

A Voice I’ve Been Waiting To Hear

Tawfik Hamid, former Islamist terrorist, with the message we (and, more so, Muslims) need to hear.

It may seem bizarre, but Islamic reformers are not immune to the charge of “Islamophobia” either. For 20 years, I have preached a reformed interpretation of Islam that teaches peace and respects human rights. I have consistently spoken out–with dozens of other Muslim and Arab reformers–against the mistreatment of women, gays and religious minorities in the Islamic world. We have pointed out the violent teachings of Salafism and the imperative of Westerners to protect themselves against it.

Yet according to CAIR’s Michigan spokeswoman, Zeinab Chami, I am “the latest weapon in the Islamophobe arsenal.” If standing against the violent edicts of Shariah law is “Islamophobic,” then I will treat her accusation as a badge of honor.

The Goracle in Marin

Could anything be more ironic and more predictable than what kind of car the Goracle’s minions drove to his book promo appearance in Marin? Perhaps the title of his book.

Zombie has the goods. (Just keep scrolling. You’ll find it.)

Scroll all the way down for your chance to contribute. I sent my picture in last night, but he hasn’t posted any yet. Should be fun to watch.

Update:

Here they are in Al Gore’s Secret Message. Mine’s this one, about 20th down the page.

Dialog Box as Political Commentary

My inner geek loves this.

The Film PBS Doesn’t Want You To See

Apparently a deal has been brokered between CPB and OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) to make Islam vs. Islamists available to any PBS stations wanting to air it.

It’s a partial victory. Let’s see how many stations choose to actually air it. Any near Dearborn willing to risk it?

Faster, Please!

I don’t know how I missed it for so long: Michael Ledeen has a blog.

Michael has been way out in front on Iran for a long time now. I only wish someone at the White House had been reading him these past few years.

It’s been duly added to the Honor Roll here at Buttle’s World. Read it often.

Torture

The Smoking Gun has posted the Pentagon’s release of an al Qaeda torture manual. (Warning: Graphic images)

Standing by for the outrage from all those who think the pranks at Abu Ghraib were “torture”…