Month: March 2006

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is considering a run for president in 2008.

“I haven’t ruled anything out or anything in at this point,” Daschle said in an interview Saturday night after a hometown dinner in his honor.

“I’m encouraged by the strong support many people have voiced for my candidacy around the country and in South Dakota. I’ll make a decision at some point later on this year,” he said.

Daschle said President Bush and Republicans have overemphasized the importance of the war on terror, and he said the U.S. is no safer now than it was before the Iraq invasion.

And that exactly why the Democrats won’t win back power. By claiming that Republicans overemphasize the importance of the war on terror, they admit their lack of belief in the need to remain on war-footing status to preempt a future terrorist attack. They discount the continued threat against this country. But I suppose that is easy to do if you are among those that believe American brought the September 11th attacks upon ourselves. This mindset is truly baffling to me. It’s a belief that says we should stop being a super power and transfer our national security needs to the United Nations. That somehow if we were just a nicer country, if we were just a bit more tolerant, if we simply understood the terrorists needs we’d be soooo much better off. I just can’t imagine that a majority of sensible Americans believe this psycho-babble.

Ah, the times in which we live.

Today, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) called for the censure of President Bush over the NSA program which gathers intelligence on our terrorist enemies. The Senator announced his censure call on ABC’s This Week.

“This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors,” said Feingold, D-Wis., a three-term senator and potential presidential contender.

He said President Bush had, “openly and almost thumbing his nose at the American people,” continued the NSA domestic wiretap program.

As you would expect, the moonbats are all over this story today. It doesn’t matter that it’s Feingold this time, for any Democrat could have said the same thing and the kool aide drinkers would fall in line.

The fact is, reasonable people agree with Bush and believe that we should do everything possible to prevent the next terrorist attack. They believe that government eavesdropping is a risk to those who are guilty, not innocent Americans. That’s why this pre-9/11 argument put forward by Feingold and other Democrats falls on deaf ears.

Oh, please please please, oh yes please please please let it be true. Watching him campaign a second time along with tear-aye-zaa will be priceless.

Natural causes, or…

Slobodan Milosevic, the ousted leader of the former Yugoslavia who was on trial for war crimes, will be the subject of a full autopsy and toxicological examination in the Netherlands.

Milosevic was found lifeless on his bed yesterday at the United Nations detention unit in The Hague, according to a statement on the Web site of the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The autopsy of the 64-year- old will begin today with the involvement of Serbian and Russian medical experts, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the tribunal.

One can’t simply call this death ‘natural’ just yet, which is why a thorough autopsy is a have-to. There are just too many ‘live’ people who would love to see Slobo dead. It’s worth entertaining the thought that his departure was sped at the hand of a victim’s family member, former military officer, or better yet, Ratko Mladic. His lawyer said the 64 year-old former leader feared being poisoned. Milosevic’s brother thinks the tribunal was to blame. We shall see.

UPDATE: It was a heart attack.

I’m going to be away from the computer most of the day. I’ll be back later though. Have a great Saturday.

John Hawkins of Rightwing News comments on the supposed death of the port deal:

The number of Americans opposed to this deal outnumber those who support it roughly 3 to 1 and they’re much more passionate about their position. Furthermore, this single issue, has hurt Bush significantly at the polls and has damaged the GOP’s reputation on national security. Moreover, if the public hasn’t turned around by now, they’re not going to be turned around.

So, let’s cut to the chase: are the supporters of this deal willing to give up seats in the House and Senate in order “to be right”? Here’s another question along similar lines: are the supporters of this deal willing to lose control of the House and Senate in order “to be right”? Because, if this deal would have somehow been forced through, despite the sort of enormous opposition to it we’ve seen from the American people, at a minimum it would have cost us seats and it could have possibly cost us control of Congress.

Maybe some people think that’s a price worth paying “to be right”. But, ask yourself: is making sure that a company from the UAE is allowed to handle stevedoring duties a “core conservative value”? Are they an important constituency group? Can people from the UAE vote?

Since the answer to all those questions is “no,” Bush made a huge political mistake by waving around a veto threat and the Republicans in Congress were right to kill the deal, although the over-the-top way some of them have behaved was not appreciated (I’m thinking about Sue Myrick and Peter King in particular).

What it all comes down to is that this is a big issue with the voting public, those of us who don’t think this deal is a risk to our security are in the minority by far, and sometimes you just have to accede to political reality. That may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s where we’re at, and it’s why whoever had a talk with Dubai Ports World and convinced them to fall on their sword, did the right thing.

Politics is not for the weak of heart, and this whole thing is a great example of that. I’ve never been very good at the ‘win some, lose some’ game, so the ‘fall on the sword’ thing is a difficult pill to swallow.

For me it’s not about whether a UAE company gets to manage a port or not. It’s the fact that the news media took hold of 35% of the truth, manipulated it into a controversy, shoveled it into the mouths of the public and created a hot potato that no Republican wanted to be left holding. With the thought of losing a mid-term election, the Republicans reacted to the 35% and turned on themselves. And now, who wins? Dubai Ports World? Nope. Republicans who opposed the deal? Nope. Voters will forget about this by July. Bush? Uh uh. Lame duck. Democrats? Hardly. No plan and one of their trophy’s (Bill Clinton) was in on the deal.

Politics is not for the weak of heart.

This sounds familiar.

US and EU want UN Security Council to give Iran two-week deadline to halt suspect nuclear work, according to a draft text for Council action obtained by AFP

Dancing with the UN. Hopefully this time, and with the leadership of John Bolton, we won’t have to play the game as long.

Yet for the moment, Bush is willing to negotiate.

Can you imagine what it would be like if nearly every week, someone wrote a news story focusing on how many people liked you and’thought you were doing a good job? And what if those news stories were consistently negative? What if those stories also included interviews with friends who say they’re distancing themselves from you because of the bad funk you bring?’That would pretty much stink wouldn’t it?

Welcome to George W. Bush’s world.

More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush’s performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq — the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.

“Obviously, it’s the winter of our discontent,” said Rep. Tom Cole (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla.

Republican Party leaders said the survey explains why GOP lawmakers are rushing to distance themselves from Bush on a range of issues — port security, immigration, spending, warrantless eavesdropping and trade, for example.

The positioning is most intense among Republicans facing election in November and those considering 2008 presidential campaigns.

Yeah, I know – this all comes with the territory. If you’re President of the United States, politics can be the god that delivers all things glorious or the demon that torments. Even so, for those of us who support Bush, we mustn’t get bogged down in the negatives.

Instead, take time on this Friday to compare and contrast leadership. Take time to Find the Leader.

MORE: Bush on poll numbers – whatehvah.

Reuters is at it again.

After an incredibly long day of travel (tube rides, Heathrow Express, waiting in Heathrow terminal for hours, boarding the plane, barely surviving the 9+ hour flight, landing, immigration, getting hassled by an over zealous immigration cop, retrieving my bag, getting out of the Vancouver, Canada airport, traveling home in 60+ mile per hour winds and beating rain…phew!) I get home and I’m sick. Actually, I was nursing a cold in London and it got worse by the smoke filled convention center. This is the second time I’ve come home sick after a business trip. Hmmm, what does it mean? (It means I should take better care of myself, I guess.)

Today, I feel pretty miserable. The wife has been pumping me full of all sorts of naturopathic junk. She’s trying to convince me that it’s helping. I’m doubtful, but we’ll see. I absolutely have to go into work tomorrow so here’s hoping it works.

All this is to say that the ‘Light Blogging’ sign remains illuminated.