PunditGuy

…to this question is…

YES.

They think ideas like this actually work.

I’m a believer in a tried and true doctrine.

You won’t find any believers among this crowd, especially among the “leaders” who come up with statements like this one.

Marianne Williamson is chairwoman of the Peace Alliance, a grassroots campaign supporting legislation before the U.S. Congress to establish an American department of peace.

Williamson said the legislation “represents a more spiritual, progressive and enlightened consciousness.”

Ah, but there’s one big problem with legislating peace.

It only works on paper.

Blah blah blah.

Blah blah.

Bl-bl-bl-bl-blah blah.

Blah.

Thanks for writing, Bill.

The Gentleman from Pennsylvania can’t seem to stop babbling.

American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.

A former Marine and a prominent critic of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, Murtha reiterated his views that the war cannot be won militarily and needs political solutions. He said the more than 100,000 troops in Iraq should be pulled out immediately, and deployed to peripheral countries like Kuwait.

“We do not want permanent bases in Iraq,” Murtha told the audience. “We want as many Americans out of there as possible.”

For the good of the country, the Democrats need to relieve Jack Murtha of his seat and send him to a nice home where he can play checkers on the patio, sit in the TV room to watch the Price is Right, and eat salisbury steak every other Thursday night.

What do you do when a government you helped form in a country you liberated turns around and proposes to forgive the terrorists who have been trying to kill you?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has presented a national reconciliation plan to parliament aimed at stemming sectarian tensions and violence.

The 24-point plan offers an amnesty to some insurgents, but not those from groups who have targeted civilians.

It outlines plans to disarm militias and beef up Iraqi security forces ahead of a takeover from coalition forces.

Although the plan is still being evaluated by the U.S., it’s hard to ignore the fact that the plan clearly states that amnesty will not be offered to insurgents who have targeted civilians.

So, what about the insurgents terrorists who have targeted U.S. and Coalition troops?

And then there’s this…

Compensation will also be offered to former prison detainees “and those who were killed by Iraqi and American forces”.

Yeah, that’s right. Being pardoned isn’t enough it seems. No, the terrorists should be paid too, apparently.

And so it goes.

This is a difficult matter. The U.S. and our allies have worked hard to liberate and help start a new democracy in Iraq. Yet now that the government is formed and is exerting its power through new plans and programs for the country, it will be hard to step aside and let them do it their way. Especially when they propose asinine ideas like amnesty to killers in the hopes that the bribery will somehow miraculously stop the fighting.

Won’t that kind of be like letting the terrorists win?

Can we fully support a newly democratic, sovereign Iraq, no matter what choices they make?

JonBenet Ramsey’s mother Patsy died today of cancer.

UPDATE: 08/17/06 – John and Patsy Ramsey appear to be vindicated as John Mark Karr is arrested and confesses to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

Former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale (yes, he’s still alive) suggests a U.S. strike on North Korea. Clinton’s defense secretary William Perry agrees.

The feds busted up a terrorist plot in Miami. Good thing they did it before the New York Times had access to the surveillance information.

The “jihad” was intended to be “as good or greater than 9/11,” beginning with destruction of the 110-story tower and FBI buildings, according to court documents obtained Friday by CNN.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a news conference Friday, described the men as examples of “homegrown terrorists” who “may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al Qaeda” and who have come “to view their home country as the enemy.”

Named in the grand jury indictment is Narseal Batiste, who allegedly told an informant — posing as a member of al Qaeda — that he was organizing an Islamic army to wage a jihad in the United States.

The document said that Batiste wanted to “attend al Qaeda training, along with five of his soldiers, during the second week of April and further detailed his mission to wage a ‘full ground war’ against the United States in order to ‘kill all the devils we can’ … beginning with the destruction of the Sears Tower.”

Actually, it’ll be the U.S. that kills these devils.

More: Hot Air

Looks like the New York Times and L.A. Times couldn’t help but take another toke off the ‘anonymous source‘ crack pipe. They leaked classified counterterrorism information revealing a successful program used to capture the most wanted al-Qaida figure in Southeast Asia.

Well, the program was successful, up until Eric Lichtblau and James Risen decided to listen to the leakers and agree that it shouldn’t be secret anymore.

Nice.

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to al-Qaida by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.

Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaida figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said.

Bill Keller, the newspaper’s executive editor, said: “We have listened closely to the administration’s arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We remain convinced that the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”

Blood pressure…rising…must control…fist of death!

One step forward, two steps behind. Let see how proud these blabbermouths are when America gets hit again.

More: Backlash