Put This Bill To Action

Key to his plan is a $15,000 tax deduction for families to buy private health insurance, instead of getting insurance through employers. Any leftover funds could be rolled over year-to-year for medical expenses, under Giuliani's plan. - AP News

There's your alternative to socialized medicine. Here's an idea, let's give people BACK money to buy private health care instead of taxing them more to get crappy government controlled health care.

If there's a Republican opposed to this plan, they'd better have a REALLY good reason for it.

Thanks Wyatt!

Thanks to Wyatt for the free advertisement and bragging on my 386 fantasy points on Yahoo!'s fantasy auto racing. I was a mere 13 points shy of making it on the top 50 list! But on the other hand, I gained over 100 points on almost everyone in the league. This puts me alone in 4th with 4916 points, but I'm still about 150 points out of 3rd place, and Wyatt lost 50 points to The Godfather by only scoring 221. Yikes.

On top of that I gained 41,700 positions and almost 10% points in the national rankings. I'm ranked 65,761, which is in the top 84th percentile.

Hopefully I can keep up the momentum, and bring home the gold!

The Quick Wit I Wish I Had

There's a reason I stick mostly to serious subjects, and not so much in the way of humor. It just doesn't come to me very quickly.

However, it comes pretty quick to Allahpundit over at Hot Air.

(After discussing a prank the DNC pulled in giving the Fred Thompson campaign a life jacket) "Coming soon: the RNC has 1,000 ham/bacon/sausage pizzas delivered to Murtha’s district office with a note inviting him to enjoy the pork. Har dee har."

Other Pranks that could be pulled:

Giving John Kerry a box of Bland-Aids.
Giving Senator Harry Reid a white flag to wave every time he talks about Iraq.
Giving John Edwards a comb and hairspray.
Giving Ted Kennedy a list of locations and times for A.A. Meetings.
Giving Al Gore a second place trophy.
Giving Hillary Clinton a leash to put Bill on.

Name some other good pranks and put them in the comments section.

From the NYT Editorials

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit. He and his men had built an Arab-style living room, where he met with the local Sunni sheiks — all formerly allies of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups — who were now competing to secure his friendship.

In Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, which has seen some of the worst sectarian combat, we walked a street slowly coming back to life with stores and shoppers. The Sunni residents were unhappy with the nearby police checkpoint, where Shiite officers reportedly abused them, but they seemed genuinely happy with the American soldiers and a mostly Kurdish Iraqi Army company patrolling the street. The local Sunni militia even had agreed to confine itself to its compound once the Americans and Iraqi units arrived.

We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq. All across the country, the dependability of Iraqi security forces over the long term remains a major question mark.

But for now, things look much better than before. American advisers told us that many of the corrupt and sectarian Iraqi commanders who once infested the force have been removed. The American high command assesses that more than three-quarters of the Iraqi Army battalion commanders in Baghdad are now reliable partners (at least for as long as American forces remain in Iraq).

In addition, far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.

In the past, few Iraqi units could do more than provide a few “jundis” (soldiers) to put a thin Iraqi face on largely American operations. Today, in only a few sectors did we find American commanders complaining that their Iraqi formations were useless — something that was the rule, not the exception, on a previous trip to Iraq in late 2005.

The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave.

In war, sometimes it’s important to pick the right adversary, and in Iraq we seem to have done so. A major factor in the sudden change in American fortunes has been the outpouring of popular animus against Al Qaeda and other Salafist groups, as well as (to a lesser extent) against Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

These groups have tried to impose Shariah law, brutalized average Iraqis to keep them in line, killed important local leaders and seized young women to marry off to their loyalists. The result has been that in the last six months Iraqis have begun to turn on the extremists and turn to the Americans for security and help. The most important and best-known example of this is in Anbar Province, which in less than six months has gone from the worst part of Iraq to the best (outside the Kurdish areas). Today the Sunni sheiks there are close to crippling Al Qaeda and its Salafist allies. Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor.

Another surprise was how well the coalition’s new Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams are working. Wherever we found a fully staffed team, we also found local Iraqi leaders and businessmen cooperating with it to revive the local economy and build new political structures. Although much more needs to be done to create jobs, a new emphasis on microloans and small-scale projects was having some success where the previous aid programs often built white elephants.

In some places where we have failed to provide the civilian manpower to fill out the reconstruction teams, the surge has still allowed the military to fashion its own advisory groups from battalion, brigade and division staffs. We talked to dozens of military officers who before the war had known little about governance or business but were now ably immersing themselves in projects to provide the average Iraqi with a decent life.

Outside Baghdad, one of the biggest factors in the progress so far has been the efforts to decentralize power to the provinces and local governments. But more must be done. For example, the Iraqi National Police, which are controlled by the Interior Ministry, remain mostly a disaster. In response, many towns and neighborhoods are standing up local police forces, which generally prove more effective, less corrupt and less sectarian. The coalition has to force the warlords in Baghdad to allow the creation of neutral security forces beyond their control.

In the end, the situation in Iraq remains grave. In particular, we still face huge hurdles on the political front. Iraqi politicians of all stripes continue to dawdle and maneuver for position against one another when major steps towards reconciliation — or at least accommodation — are needed. This cannot continue indefinitely. Otherwise, once we begin to downsize, important communities may not feel committed to the status quo, and Iraqi security forces may splinter along ethnic and religious lines.

How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

I was going to attempt to send this article to each of the Senators and Congress members who have been voting no to the funding of the Iraq War, but the legislator's all have forms to fill, as opposed to stand alone e-mail addresses.

WAY TO GO TOYOTA!!!!

Congrats to Jason Leffler for giving Toyota their first NASCAR Busch Series win! As a staunch Toyota driver, all I can say is...











WOOHOO!!

You Know What Sucks?

The way NASCAR does qualifying now. It used to be that the first round of qualifying was on Friday, and the top 25 were locked in. Then the second round was on Saturday to set positions 26-38. You had the option to either stand on your time, or shoot for something better. Then positions 39-43 were based on Champion's Provisionals. If you weren't fast enough, then you sat out. Plain and simple.

Now the top 35 teams in owner points are guaranteed, allowing at most 8 cars to get in on time. I don't like it because if a driver who is guaranteed a spot runs 1 second slower than a "go-or-go-home" guy, the go-homer gets the shaft. The change was made to "encourage people to race every week," but NONE of the Toyota's who have been there every week are in the top 35. They are always some of the faster cars in qualifying, but because of this rules change, they've been getting hosed all season.

NASCAR in my opinion should either go back to the way it used to be done, or they should run like the Saturday night local racers and have last chance qualifying races for the lower positions.

The Patton Of Today

Amen.

People Underestimate Human Ingenuity

I'm watching a show about how "Aliens must have built the pyramids because prehistoric humans weren't that smart."

But apparently they were.

A simple mix of lime stone diluted in water, with salt and ash added will form a concrete as the water evaporates. For years archaeologists stated simply that copper tools were used to cut stones, and they were hauled by thousands up to the pyramids from the quarries. One problem stood with that theory. Stone is stronger than copper, making it a *little* difficult to cut the stone.
A material scientist looked at the crystalline structure of the stones and realized that they were not in the formation htat comes from natural formed stones, but more like that of poured concrete.

GOP and College Caption Contest 15

It's time to announce the winners of GOP and College's 15th Caption Contest.

5th: Even gay-rights advocates had to agree that the Massachusetts wedding cerimonies were getting out of hand. - jimmyb

4th: "Slide 17: Kama Sutra position #417" from Barack Obama's sex education course for Kindergartners. - J Wookie

3rd: "... but Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia took the brown acid anyway. What happened after that... let's just say it wasn't pretty". - Harvey

2nd: President Bush's colonoscopy went off without a hitch as doctors were able to remove some polyps and a couple of Hindus - The Man

And the winner:
Management training session #8: Learning How to Stick Head up Own Ass. - Chris A

Source: Yahoo!

Other Contests:

OTB
Willisms
Cowby Blob
Gone Rick Motel (Back on Blogger!)
Bullwinkle Blog
Right Pundits

Liberals...Read This

The New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief is telling PBS anchor Charlie Rose, that we need to stay in Iraq, or else a REAL civil war will erupt.

But it seems to me incontrovertible that the most likely outcome of an American withdrawal any time soon would be cataclysmic violence. And I find that to be widely agreed amongst Iraqis, including Iraqis who strongly opposed the invasion. And especially amongst Sunnis, a minority who ruled here, whose power was usurped by the invasion and who now find themselves facing Shiite militias and 350,000 man and woman Shiite-led Iraqi security force, that`s to say army and police, which is overwhelmingly Shiite and would be likely, first of all, to disintegrate in the face of a civil war, but with its principal units falling on the Shiite, not the Sunni side of that war.

So in the short run, I think the people who would have the -- the most to move -- to lose, would - would in all likelihood to be the Sunni minority, who would be driven west into the redoubt of Anbar province, which is approximately a third of Iraqi on the western side, bordering Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. But that wouldn`t be the end of it by any means. Those Sunnis have the support. It`s been - it`s been explicitly stated -- Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states, which have large amounts of money to invest -- in fact, they`re already putting money in here in very large sums in support of the insurgency.

Hmm, a major news voice comes out and says that we MUST stay in Iraq, or else massive violence will erupt, but no one is picking it up outside of the right. John has even written articles in the NY Times, one of which tells of a general who demand the surge stay in place, but still, no shouts of stay in Iraq. But flash back to March when Bill Maher interviewed him; a completely different picture is painted about the war, and his thoughts on it.

...but whether it can prevail, that's very uncertain and I'm sure that at this moment in Washington D.C. they've reach a real crunch point. They've got to decide and they've got to decide within a matter of a couple of weeks, whether or not they're going to start drawing down troops and I think that the military commanders know that although much progress has been made in building up the Iraqi security forces, they are not strong enough and not foreseeably will be strong enough to carry the main brunt of this fight. And if they are not and American troop withdrawal start there will be a destabilization. On the other hand, if the decision is made to delay those withdrawals, it seems to me there's going to be a major political problem in this country. I've been here 24 hours. I haven't met a single person yet who has... I haven't met a single person yet who speaks in favor of this war. There seems to be a wide tidal wave of opinion against it.

Quite a differnce, and you won't see the likes of the Huffington Post, Code Pink, or Think Progress mentioning the interview on PBS demanding that troops stay in Iraq.


I must say though, Hugh Hewitt interviewed John in February of this year and the story was consistent with what he said on PBS.

Well, let me put it to you this way, and I’ve said this before, so…one Iraqi I know well, who lives in an area of Baghdad known as Adamiya, Adamiya was the birthplace of the Baath Party in Iraq. It was the last place that Saddam appeared before he went underground, I recall, on April the 9th, 2003, with American troops already in Baghdad, your listeners may remember. Saddam appeared in Baath Party uniform, his green uniform, standing on top of a vehicle outside a Mosque. That was Adamiya. Adamiya is a Sunni stronghold on the East side of the river in Baghdad. That places it within two miles of the principal Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. My friend who lives in Adamiya said to me a few weeks ago, after a major suicide bombing in Sadr City which killed 225 people and injured three or four hundred, a multiple suicide bombing, that American troops moved in between Adamiya and Sadr City, that’s to say between the Shiite stronghold and the Sunni stronghold, anticipating that Shiite sectarian death squads might come out of Sadr City to avenge the killing of Shiites in this multiple suicide bombing, and attack Adamiya. So there were tanks and other American military units placed between Sadr City and Adamiya. My friend said to me, if the United Nations is correct in saying that 3,700 Iraqi civilians died in October, and that’s a morgue’s count. It may be an underestimate, we don’t know. But he said if it’s correct that 3,700 people died in October across Iraq, think about this. You take the American troops away in this situation, leaving Shiite death squads to move into Adamiya in force without any kind of protection, he said it won’t be 3,700 dead in a month, it’ll be 3,700 dead in the night in Adamiya. Now that may be an exaggeration, but it reflects the kind of fears that are quite widespread, amongst Sunnis in particular, but also to some extent amongst Shiites in Iraq, about the consequences of an American troop withdrawal.

H/T: News Busters

Apparently I Was Wrong?

Democrats have proven once again that they don't care about your safety if getting caught *might* hurt some one's feelings.


Amazingly Hillary voted to keep the protection of citizens who report suspicious activity. Malkin has the roll call of the vote.

H/T: Hot Air
Picture Kudos: Right On The Right

The Media Definition Of A "Staunch Republican"

The Chicago Sun-Times uses massive amounts of media dis-information in this report that states that Democrats are gaining ground. Take this section:

After watching the top five Democratic candidates for president speak before a trial lawyers' group Sunday, attorney Jim Ronca of Philadelphia, a staunch Republican, became certain of one thing: He is not going to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election.

He will support the Democrats.

"I'm not only going to vote Democratic, I'm going to financially support the Democrats," Ronca said after a luncheon forum of the American Association for Justice, featuring Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden. "The Republicans in Washington are an embarrassment."

Ronca said he was impressed with the Democrats' opposition to recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, the refusal of the White House to hand over documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors, and the war in Iraq.

He will support the Dems. That's all good and great, but it's actually nothing new. Look at what the Opinion Journal found;

Here is a list of Ronca's campaign contributions from the last four election cycles:

• 2006: $500 to Bob Casey, Democratic candidate for Senate.
  
  
• 2004: $2,000 each to John Edwards and John Kerry, Democratic candidates for president; $1,000 to Allyson Schwartz, Democratic candidate for the House.
  
  
• 2002: $500 to Arlen Specter, Republican senator.
  
  
• 2000: $1,000 to Ron Klink, Democratic candidate for Senate; $250 to Patrick Casey, Democratic candidate for the House; $250 to Stewart Greenleaf, Republican candidate for the House.

So Ronca has given $6,750 to Democrats, nine times as much as the $750 he has given Republicans; and his most recent GOP donation was three elections ago. That is what the Chicago Sun-Times calls a "staunch Republican"? Seems to us there are probably stauncher ones.

11% of his donations were to Republicans, and 89% were to Democrats. That's one crazy right wing nut-job huh?

GOPAC Awarded "Thinking Blog" Award By SYLG

Many thanks to Wyatt for the "award," and part of being given requires me to announce my 5 "Thinking Blogs"

So now, the blogs that make me think.

1) No Silence Here - Michael Silence is an editorial writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel, and I've been a reader of his blog for about as long as I've been blogging.
2) Ankle Biting Pundits - Pat was one of the bloggers I started reading over at Kerry Haters
3) Michelle Malkin - If there's anyone who I've read more, I'd like to know.
4) Hot Air - The other big hitter in the blog world. A combination of Malkin, Allah, and others for a giant right wing site.
5) The Man of GOP and the City/Urban Elephants - How can I not have my brother on this list? He's the one who got me into this stuff!

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

After Watching This

With as little explosive is used, are you so concerned about not carrying on your make-up bag anymore?

Considering the damage that ONE DROP did, 2 ounces is still a LOT of liquid.

Now It's Too Easy...

What is this...the ump-teenth time the MSM has been suckered?

Is gullible written on their forehead?

Apparently so.

Liberals Go 2-0 In Losing Last 2 Wars

First Vietnam's slow bleed turning victory into defeat, and now with massive assistance from the media, Liberals have made it 2 for 2 in losing wars for America.

American Revolution, American Victory
War of 1812, American Victory
Mexican American War, American Victory
Spanish-American War, American Victory
World War 1, Allied Victory
World War II, Allied Victory
Korean War, American Victory

*Onset of Modern Liberalism in the 50's and 60's*
Vietnam War, American Defeat

*Reagan/Conservative Revolution Begins*
Cold War, American Victory
Gulf War, American Victory

*Liberals Regain Power in 2006*
Iraq War, Congress votes 223-201 for defeat.

The votes were 219 Democrats and 4 Republicans voting yea to withdraw, to 191 Republicans and 10 Democrats casting Nay votes. (For those looking to Ron Paul as a presidential hopeful, he did not vote) But democrats still want you to believe they don't want us to lose.

Now more than ever, The (D) stands for Defeat.

“Democrats in the House once again this evening put themselves on record in support of a strategy of surrender in Iraq – this time passing a bill that satisfies their temporary political needs, but fails to consider the needs of our troops and commanders in the field.

“Far from providing a ‘new way forward’ in Iraq, this bill offers not a single policy recommendation or point of strategy to keep our troops safe and secure, and put them in a position to be successful. The only thing it offers is a symbolic gesture of defeat paired with the necessary means of delivering it.

“The conditions on the ground in Iraq right now need to improve – a fact understood well by this Congress, the American people, and the president himself. But instead of coming together with a common purpose to craft a long-term strategy for success – a strategy that’s informed by facts on the ground and driven by a shared commitment to win – the majority continues to play politics at the expense of those who put themselves in harm’s way in service of our nation.

“In the same afternoon, Democrats also rejected a measure that would have closed the terrorist surveillance loophole in the FISA process – rounding out a day in which our mission in Iraq was dealt a further blow, and our ability to keep Americans safe at home was diminished right on the floor of the U.S. House.” - Roy Blunt

H/T: Malkin

Hillary Hypocrisy

"This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice." - Hillary Clinton, July 2, 2007

"A lawsuit that accuses Sen. Hillary Clinton's brother of failing to repay a loan from a couple who were pardoned by President Clinton will not go to trial in Nashville today.

The trial has been continued until next month. Tony Rodham's attorney said last week that the suit will be settled.

The bankruptcy court case asks Rodham to pay $107,000 plus interest to the estate of United Shows of America, owned by the late Edgar Gregory and his wife, Vonna Jo. Rodham says the money was for consulting services and not a loan.

The couple received pardons in a bank fraud conviction in March 2000, two years after Rodham became a paid consultant to United Shows, a carnival business.

Rodham has said he mentioned the possible pardons to his brother-in-law but said Clinton made the decision to grant clemency to the Gregorys on the merits of their case." - The Tennessean, July 12, 2007

Commentor Reaper states, "Oh, yeah, because there's absolutely no difference between a farewell pardon of a small businessman with no political influence whatsoever and a senior White House aide pardoned in the middle of a term."

However I found this interesting bit of information;

Tony Rodham advocated a pardon for Edgar and Vanna Jo Gregory. The Gregorys, who owned a carnival company, defrauded a federal bank. When the pardon was publicized, Hillary stated that Tony was "not paid" by the Gregorys for his work on the pardon. Tony repeated that line on the Larry King Show.

After an investigation, the House Government Operations Committee disagreed and announced that Hillary's statement was inaccurate. Now, a federal bankruptcy court overseeing the carnival company's bankruptcy is about to rule on whether over $100,000 paid to Tony Rodham at the time of the pardons was a loan or payment for "consulting."

The Gregorys contributed over $100,000 to Hillary's campaign and other Democratic causes. These folks were well known to the Clintons — they visited them at Camp David and were hired to stage two carnivals on the White House grounds — paid for by the taxpayers."

No political influence what-so-ever huh?

The Clintons; The real masters of cronyism.

H/T: The Man (Ret, through E-mail)

See Something, Say Something

Kudos to American Airlines for questioning a suspicious action. I'd rather act on a false alarm then let the real threat pass by because of "political correctness."

So, if you see something, say something, because terrorists are like sperm; Even if thousands are stopped, it only takes one.

Environmentalism...

Good for the planet, not so good for computers!

Read this and get a good laugh.

H/T: Instapundit

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congrats to my sister who has officially said no to 3652 cigarettes and saved $1,113 by quiting smoking A WHOLE YEAR AGO!!!

I'm so unbelievably proud of you sis! WAY TO GO!!!

GOPAC Is NC-17??!!

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* torture (9x)
* gun (5x)
* abortion (2x)
* kill (1x)