Some months ago I read an article in National Review authored by Otto Reich. Mr. Reich served as assistant secretary of state and special envoy for Western Hemisphere affairs under Pres. George W. Bush, and is president of Otto Reich Associates. He and his family fled Cuba in 1960, eighteen months after Castro seized power. He is unapologetic in his hatred of dictators, and as a result, he is despised by the left. He wrote this particular article about the conditions in Cuba, and one paragraph jumped off the page:

After 50 years, Cubans are convinced that the government surveillance system, Orwell’s Big Brother put into practice, is so effective that it knows even what they are thinking. Though Orwell’s books are banned in Cuba (they are far too close to reality for Castro’s comfort), Cubans have another name for Big Brother. They call it “the policeman in the head,” the most pernicious kind of mind control: self-censorship, the fear that leads to intellectual paralysis and prevents a citizen from even thinking thoughts that could be deemed counterrevolutionary, leading him to jail or worse.

After reading that, it became clear to me that the main objective of the left is making space in our heads for this Policeman. The success of the disjointed, warped, ever changing and mostly implausible belief system they lay claim to depends on his presence. He lives in their head, and they want him in ours. The Policeman thrives in this climate of political correctness, destroying the reputation of anyone who has ever said anything that may even hint of racism. He darkly warns of “violence” when he speaks of Tea Parties or Sarah Palin rallies, he calls anyone who dares challenge him “dangerous”, and he has made the worship of the earth the law for us all.

The presence of The Policeman causes us to hesitate, doubt ourselves, stop, and avoid. He makes real discussion impossible while crying out that we are cowards because we shy away from the conversation. He badgers us into changing our lives because of the climate while hiding the supporting data. He is the Prince of Dithering, he excuses the broken window and the one who breaks it while hounding anyone who tries to fix it, and no one is exceptional because we are all equal under his law.

The worst thing that could possibly happen has happened, aided and abetted by Barack Obama and his army of lemmings. The Policeman has taken up residence in the military. The last noble warriors on earth now must stop and hesistate and debate, when doing that compromises their mission and will most certainly cost them their lives. The ultimate goal of the left has seeped in to the last stronghold of self-reliance, and four Navy SEALS find themselves at his mercy, and the mercy of those who have invited him in. Haditha and Abu Gharib and every other false accusation, from “baby killers” in Vietnam to Tailhook to “abusers” in Iraq have finally opened the last steel door, which may never again be shut. The left will cry out at the failure of the CIA and the FBI and the armed forces to protect us, while their Policeman puts up the Gorelick wall and prosecutes our interrogators.

This is about control and conformity, it is about having things both ways, and we need to call it what it is when we see it and resist it until the bitter end.

A German government official says the nation will send an observer to the upcoming trial in New York of the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and four accused henchmen.

Justice Ministry spokeswoman Katharina Jahntz on Saturday confirmed a report in Der Spiegel that a German observer would attend the trial to ensure that no evidence provided by Germany would be used to apply the death penalty.

It seems that the President Of The World now needs to answer to the world. I must confess that I was only considering mundane things like safety of U.S. citizens, pain inflicted on the members of the families as the trial drags on, an incompetent Justice Department which is unable to answer even the most basic questions in a Senate hearing - stuff like that. I really never got to this part.

Can you imagine similar, or worse,  pronouncements from all the thug regimes in the world as the trial proceeds? Or other countries, even allies like Germany, not allowing witnesses to testify because of some concern about one obscure issue or the other? Perhaps allies will wilt under threats from Islamic fascists, witholding their cooperation. The possibilities are endless, and not one of them points to a positive outcome. Remember, all the countries and individuals who have acted bravely thus far have been shafted by the United States. I highly doubt they are willing to extend their necks too far over the chopping block now.

The simple fact is that trying KSM in a civilian court is a terrible idea, through and through. I feel sure it was done to put George Bush on trial in absentia, but the untintended consequence will be to put our country on trial in a world court. Blaming George Bush during this circus will work among the hundreds of viewers of MSNBC, but it has worn quite thin with the rest of the country. We will soon be able to see that the Apology Tour really didn’t do much to improve relations with the rest of the world, and that the oppressive and freedom sucking thugs - including the U.N. - will not miss this most excellent opportunity to use the trial as a platform for even more America - bashing. They have us on the ropes because of our servile and weak President, and they know it.

Nice work. Looks like we will have a repeat of Copenhagen - smug assurance of a victory through the One’s mere presence which will devolve into further humiliation of the United States. And the choices have all been this administration’s. Perfect.

UPDATE

It just keeps getting better. Again, from the AP:

The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but “would explain what happened and why they did it.”

Geez - didn’t see that one coming….

Still, one notable e-mail from the hacked (Hadley CRU) files clearly describes how to squeeze dissenting scientists from the peer review process:

“I think we have to stop considering Climate Research as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board…What do others think?”

I wonder who came first - Anita Dunn, or the author of this e-mail? Or perhaps Anita Dunn is the author of this e-mail…at any rate, the abject panic the left experiences when the thought of actually defending their ideas or research comes to mind is telling. I pray that the Wizard of Oz taught Americans all we need to know about men (and women) who hide behind curtains.

Cuccinelli announced this morning that his transition will be led by former Attorneys General Andrew Miller, a Democrat, and Republican Richard Cullen, as well as former state GOP chairman Pat McSweeney.

Miller, an unsuccessful candidate for governor and U.S. Senate in the 1970s, practices law in Washington. He’s from a storied Democratic family; his father ran for governor in the 1950s, opposing the conservative machine of the late Harry Byrd Sr. (emphasis mine)

Can we go one friggin’ day without reaching across the aisle? One friggin’ day? We’ll see how this turns out, but when a Democrat is involved it is normally not good.

McDONNELL: He’s a good family man. He’s worked hard to represent his district well for 18 years. To me, he’s a good story of somebody living and accessing the American dream. You know, he tells the story about … first guy in his family to go to college with four $20 [bills] in his pocket and now he’s competing for the job held by Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. To me, that’s a great story. I think there’s a hundred reasons why I’d be a better governor than him, but for the way, and this is his own personal life story, the way he has told it — it obviously happened because of tremendous hard work, tremendous perseverance to be able to get to the level that he is at, and I think that’s very admirable.

And you know what? Bob McDonnell is exactly right. Creigh Deeds is a decent man, a left of center Democrat that is pretty well tolerated in Virginia. He is not a rabid liberal, but cut from the same cloth as the two Democrat Senators that represent Virginia right now, Mark Warner and Jim Webb.

The reason that he is going to lose, and lose badly, is that this election is a referendum on Barack Hussein Obama. Period. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Virginians are horrified at the hairpin left Pelosi, Reid and Obama have taken, and this is their first chance to express their outrage. Republicans, Independents and moderate Democrats are energized, turnout among them will be high, and Republicans will sweep statewide office. Is there any doubt that this abrupt turning of the tide is the reason both Webb and Warner voted against the $250 billion ”Doc Fix” bill that recently was put to a vote?

Virginia is coal and Second Amendment friendly, business friendly, independent, modern (Virginia’s Doug Wilder was the first black elected governor in the nation) and does not take kindly to bullying or the heavy hand of the federal government. One of Obama’s lame efforts at support came at Old Dominion University in mostly African-American Norfolk, which is hardly wading into the teeth of the storm. Anywhere else in the state and he would have been met with an even greater number of protests than he was at this friendly venue. AP confirms the new Obama / Deeds template, which cynically counts on race to pull out a victory:

The Deeds campaign’s new Obama ad is airing only in the Richmond and Hampton Roads markets for now, but will likely be expanded statewide.

Those regions also include heavy concentrations of African-American voters. A heavy black turnout is integral to any Democratic plan for victory

It’s too late for Creigh Deeds, who belatedly embraces the man that cost him the Governorship. Democrats will downplay the significance of this race, and play up a possible victory in NY-23 and New Jersey, but Virginia is the cowbell of the nation. Bet on it.

We all know they’ve been after the Joooos as well, and the assailant was a little better shot this time. Two worshipers were shot today at a synagogue in Los Angeles. From Fox News online:

The victims, identified as 38-year-old Mori Ben-Nissan and 53-year-old Allen Lasry, are said to be in good condition at local hospitals.

The men, both members of the synagogue, had arrived at the partking lot in separate cars shortly before 6:30 a.m. when the gunman approached one and, without speaking, shot him and the other man

The sad thing? The hate is an everyday occurence - sort of like a G-20 protest rally or a RAINBOW / PUSH meeting.

Michael Bloom, 30, an Orthodox organizer with Hatzolah, a Jewish volunteer medical response team, grew up in the diverse neighborhood. He said there had been instances of Jews being insulted as they walked to the synagogue on the Sabbath.

“This has been going on for years. Everything from “death to Israel” to “dirty Jew,”‘ he said. “There are gangs in the area. It’s not the safest neighborhood.”

One of the problems with the meme that conservatives are prone to turn their passion into violence is the fact that we respect the rule of law and value order. On the other hand, as they have proven time and time again, foamy-mouthed liberals are not burdened with that belief.

As the lefty nutjobs view it, second in command to Dear Leader is Keith Olbermann. Like any good pooch, Olbermann has taken his marching orders from the White House very seriously and is coordinating the ground game in the War On Those Who Disagree (not to be confused with an Overseas Contingency Operation, because Obama is actually paying attention to the War On Those Who Disagree). At any rate, Lou Dobbs has been always been a particular point of emphasis for the servile Olbermann (partly because Dobbs said that Olbermann was “hanging from a highly medicated string”), and on the morning of October 5th he was finally able to enlist some foot soldiers in his effort. From Joshua Rhett Miller of Fox:

A gunshot was fired at the New Jersey home of CNN’s Lou Dobbs after a series of threatening phone calls earlier this month, the host told listeners on his nationally syndicated radio show.

I gotta hand it to Olbermann, he has learned the benefit of thuggery from the best Chicago has to offer. I mean, to Dobbs, the threatening phone calls are just routine.

Dobbs continued, “But this shot was fired with my wife not, I don’t know, 15 feet away, and we had threatening phone calls that I decided not to report because I get threatening phone calls.”

At least Dobbs is aware of the high stakes of Obama and Olbermann’s war.

Dobbs, who claimed the “national liberal media” has in part created a hostile environment regarding immigration, said enduring such incidents has become a “way of life” for him.

“It’s become a way of life — the anger, the hate, the vitriol — but it’s taken a different tone where they’ve threatened my wife,” he said Monday. “They’ve now fired a shot at my house while my wife was standing next to the car.

“It’s become something else. And if anybody thinks we’re not engaged in a battle for the soul of this country right now, you’re sorely mistaken.”

Looks like Obama has fostered a “new tone” all his own. Although Olbermann is likely sorry the shooters missed, I am not. America needs differing views, and America needs to understand how fully this White House and its lackeys in the media have embraced Chicago Thuggery. I guess it is revenge for being picked last on the playground and being part of the Wedgie A Day Club, but it sure isn’t the way to run a country.

Here is the info, with bonus info for the team stealing coward Irsay of the Colts:

NFL Offices

Phone: 1-212-450-2000

Fax: 212 – 681 - 7573

Commisioner’s e-mail:

roger.goodell@nfl.com

Send mail here :

National Football League
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017

NFL staff members can be reached via-email by first.last@nfl.com.

Bonus contact info:

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 7001 West 56th Street Indianapolis, IN 46254

Phone: 317 – 297 - 2658

Fax: 317 – 388 - 0982

PR: CRAIG KELLEY/CR: STEPHANIE MATHES

We are coming, and hell is coming with us.

Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads. 

The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted. 

Of course, we got something for this incredible ceding of authority and sovereignty - right?

On another critical issue, Lavrov declared that it would be counterproductive to threaten Iran with more sanctions over its nuclear program — as he resisted efforts by Clinton to win agreement for tougher measures should Iran fail to prove its program is peaceful. 

I am not sure the button that Clinton gave to the Russians means what she thinks it means. This group is by far the most sophmoric and naive bunch that has ever been in charge of foreign policy in the history of this country. Period.

We will get to witness, in all its glory, the sycophants in the media prattling on about what a “bold” choice this was for the committee, and how “revealing” it is that the world is so grateful for the leadership on the world stage. Any questions or outrage (or laughter, for that matter), will be viewed as “Un-American” and “not pulling for America”, and will be used as an excuse to pull out of Afghanistan.

Come to think of it, this may give Obama another excuse to stop a war he is not interested in and not qualified to lead - I mean, how many Peace Prize winners escalate an ongoing war by sending in more troops?

The Nobel Peace Prize has long since become irrelevant. Obama’s cheerleaders in the press, who have known absolutely no shame prior to this point, will have to gyrate like no one ever has in order to spin this as anything other than the complete joke that it is.

Let the games begin.

First though, we have to get something straight. Supporting the President is patriotic when he is doing something that is all about America, not all about himself. So far I haven’t seen much that isn’t Obamacentric, and that includes the recent events that you all are so apopletic about. Be assured that Barack Obama thought the Olympics were a done deal, and that by putting his personal cherry on top of the IOC sundae he could bask in the glow of victory. Sort of like the kicker that sits on the sidelines all season, then gets called in to make the chip shot to win the game. Most of the time the kicker makes the chip shot. In this instance he shanked it into the right guard’s buttocks. I’ll admit that I was pretty happy when the IOC delivered a shot to the groin of Obama, because it had not a thing to do with the United States and everything to do with him and his gold-medal ego. Not to mention his compounding of the colossal error by bringing Michelle and her BFF Oprah along for the ride.

Since you are new to this pulling for America thing, I hope I have made you aware of one of the important differences between patriotism and a seedy little personality cult.

Now for the deal.

As most of you have forgotten, there is a war going on. The Good War for you all is in Afghanistan, the war against the guys that flew the planes into the buildings (assuming you believe they were not doing so on the orders of George Bush). If Barack Obama comes out with these two sentences, consider me a full throated supporter of his policy, and consider us a team.

“I pledge to win the war in Afghanistan, no matter how long it takes, and to completely and totally defeat the enemy - Al Qaeda and the Taliban. I will listen to the commanders on the ground, and give them any resources they request, including increasing troop levels, in order to achieve victory.”

Do you feel it? THAT is patriotism - supporting the policy of the President when American lives are on the line and the objective is clear. Barack Obama campaigned on exactly this promise, you voted for him, and now is a perfect opportunity for him to unite this country and deliver something we all agree on.

Deal?

…the worst part was being perceived as a monster when he knew the truth.

“It seems more like you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Felipe told FOXNews.com.

“Our names were tarnished. We were rapists, we were dirt, we were dogs.

“We weren’t even suspects. We were rapists.”

Why did Ndonye do it? Was it because she hates all men, and wanted to see these particular men suffer? Was it because she truly felt she was raped when the men were not as respectful, or grateful, or cordial as she felt they should have been afterwards?

Or was it because she wanted – needed – them to be quiet about her mistake, her terrible lapse in judgment. Not only to be quiet, but to take the blame, to absolve her of her error, to elevate her to noble victim while casting others as the predators, the villains?

Now take the “p” out of “rapist”. Put in a “c”. Even though the two are not remotely comparable, the left is attempting to make it so. Switch the letters, and Felipe’s club grows larger, as does Ndonye’s. Let’s hear it again, from the viewpoint of Obama’s opponents:

…the worst part was being perceived as monsters when they knew the truth.

“It seems more like you’re guilty until proven innocent,” they told FOXNews.com.

“Our names were tarnished. We were racists, we were dirt, we were dogs.

“We weren’t even suspects. We were racists.”

Racist. Now the ultimate slur. Those of us who remember when racism was all around us in the 60’s, institutionalized, accepted, shake our heads at the accusations flying around these days. We shake our heads at Maureen Dowd, who channels her inner racist and hears a phantom “boy” at the end of an audible “you lie”. Able to read thoughts through her television, certain in her own mind that the accusation is true, Dowd unleashes the hate that smears Joe Wilson, the brave Americans who marched on Washington, and all those who oppose Obama in general.

Why do Dowd and innumerable others in the Old Media apparatus do it? Is their hatred of conservatives such that they waste no opportunity to slur them? Is the fact that their newfound love and respect for the President of the United States is not universally shared, and that all Americans are not as deferential as they are simply too much too stand?

Or do they fear they made a mistake? That their terrible lapse in judgment and complete docility and submission to Barack Obama will cost this country – and the newspaper and network platforms they use to shout others down - more than they can bear? Or do they believe that the only thing left to do, so very early in what was supposed to be a glorious eight years, is to use the charge of racism as both a sword to disembowel their opponents and a shield to prevent further opposition?

It has become as predictable as the sunrise. When opponents of Obama become energized, Obama plays the race card. He sends his mobsters out to do their work while he is far away, in his favorite restaurant, working on his alibi, above the troubles that he could stop with a sentence. He played the card in South Carolina when Hillary Clinton got too close for comfort. He unleashed it when Sarah Palin energized John McCain’s campaign, and Obama is doing it now, as his “Waterloo” plays out before our eyes.

He and his servants do this not to change the minds of their opponents, because a false accusation does not have that effect. They do it because they want authority without scrutiny; they want silence. They want those who waver, who are beginning to question, to feel the shock waves of the missile that hits its target and go back to their acquiescence. They want those who disagree to be convicted, not suspected, as racists capable of violence. They want silence. Silence.

Silence.

It appears that but for a few brave souls who dare to defend us we have been abandoned on the field yet again. The slurs of Nancy Pelosi and Maureen Dowd and all of the many, many others have been left unchallenged, just as all the slurs and hate of the eight years of George W. Bush were left to take root and grow, then were harvested in the electoral victory of Barack Obama.

But there is a key in the lock of the jail cell. The left has begun to overplay their hand. They have revealed to us that their support of Barack Obama was racially motivated because of their conviction that any opposition to him is. We will soon become free men and women, not because of our accusers, or because of those who we voted for that have fled the field, but because the left’s accusations are becoming more and more transparently political to all Americans.

Cases of real racism, like real rape, can be submerged in the swamp of false accusations. True victims have no one but the false accusers to blame, and they should start right now. They know exactly where to go. As for the falsely accused, they only know what is in their hearts, and they can only hope that someday their accusers will know the shame they so richly deserve.

In summary, liberals stand on the following three pillars of governance and debate, and will use what they can (such as reductio ad klanum) in order to keep them stable and solid:

1) Authority without scrutiny

2) Rights without responsibility

3) Charity without prudence

Barack Obama has cruised through his entire life without scrutiny, and is now showing how utterly incapable of handling it he is. Let’s keep it up, shall we?

1) No one talks to my kids outside of my presence without my permission. Period. Do you want to know why I go to open houses at school? Get to know the leaders at my church? Become acquainted with the parents of my children’s friends? As someone who is responsible for my child, it is important for me to know - and I mean know - what adults they spend their time with when I am not around. I know, as well as I could possibly know, that these adults are people of character and that they are on the same page as me in terms of values.

Barack Obama is planning on barging into schools without even contemplating what parents might think. He has put parents and educators in a terrible position, and he knew he exactly what he was doing. He did not ask my permission to speak with my children, he is not someone I particularly want my children being around and I do not believe his values correspond with mine. Simple as that. I don’t care how innocuous this particular speech might be - if he speaks to my children, they know that means he has my endorsement.

He doesn’t.

2) This Dear Leader / Big Brother thing needs to stop. If leftists in this country want to create and maintain some seedy little Obama cult of personality to win elections, that is their business. It was very successful last year. If they want to gather every day at lunch and chant, “Yes We Did!” until their throats get sore, have at it. Do NOT attempt to drag my children into it, and do NOT expect me not to call it what it is - creepy. Very creepy. I will not participate, and will not endorse it by allowing my children to participate.

If the speech is all plain words and common sense, why bother? The reason they are bothering is that any person appearing on TV in a classroom and who is, by their mere presence, accepted by the teacher (who has the permission of parents to educate their child, remember), is creating a favorable impression of themselves. Everything in this administration has a purpose, and every purpose is political.

3) Don’t expect me to outsource all aspects of my life. If leftists want to outsource their retirement to the government via Social Security, I can’t help it. If they want to outsource their health to the government via this health care bill, that’s their business (actually, they are trying to make it my business as well). If they want to outsource parenting to some Super Caregiver, some Parent In Chief, that is up to them. Again, do not drag me into it, and do not expect me to go along if you try.

Here is a segment from the end of the speech:

I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. 

So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you.

“I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms…”? Are you kidding me? I didn’t see him helping paint my kids’ middle school this summer - maybe I missed it.

“I expect you…”? Again, is he serious? A lecture to my children? Sorry Mr. Obama, my children will meet the expectations of their parents. Not yours. Ever.

Do you want to know how many times Barack Obama will use some form of the word “I” or the word “my” in this speech? Sixty times. I counted. That doesn’t sound much like a person who is worried about anyone but himself, and it is what we have come to expect from someone who is even more of a narcissist than I thought. Make no mistake - this speech is about him, and his plans for this country.

This is as inappropriate and outrageous now as it was when it was first announced. We will not be participating.

Besieged by leaks of several closely held secrets, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad, The Washington Times has learned.

Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said the leak investigation involved a program that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told Congress about in June and that surfaced in news reports just a month later.

I have two reactions to this. It’s about time, and why wasn’t this a huge issue when George W. Bush was President? You know, when we were actually fighting wars and killing terrorists instead of fragging our CIA interrogators? It goes on:

The vice chairman of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence declined to discuss any possible leak investigations but told the Times on Thursday that a growing number of disclosures of highly secret programs, tactics and other information had caused “irreparable damage” to the U.S. intelligence community.

“They foil our attempts to carry out classified missions,” Sen. Christopher S. Bond said in an interview. “They tell our intelligence community: We don’t have your back; we’re stabbing you in the back. Our allies ask us, ‘How can we trust you to deal in classified matters in private, when the details are leaked to the press?’”

Another thought comes to mind. That the liberal bureaucrats that have infested our national security apparatus feel it is now OK to blab about every little thing that goes on inside the CIA - almost like a grade school girl who thinks she will be more popular the more secrets she divulges. They do it to damage the agency they work for and hate. Hey, if they are able to live in America, reap its bounty and hate it at the same time, this should be a cakewalk for them.

The more ominous development, and one that follows as a natural consequence of the grade school girl approach to secrets adopted by this administration, is that no one trusts us any more. This can’t help but further erode our ability to operate our intelligence apparatus, and I can’t help think that the administration simply doesn’t care. In the Blame America For Everything Bizzaro World of Barack Obama, unilaterally disarming the CIA is an olive branch to every entity on earth, who will gladly behead all of us anyway.

Maybe Director Panetta is serious about this. Or maybe it is just one more hollow effort to quiet the revolt that is surely growing inside the agency, just like the ridiculous rumor that he - a loyal liberal footsoldier - would actually resign in protest over CIA agents being prosecuted by Obama’s administration.

Hopefully this is real. If it is, Democrats all over the country are nervously shifting their feet. Somehow I don’t think this is going all that far.

I really could not have cared less. I was the lead-off hitter, and my job was to get on base. If I had to take a pitch to the chest, fine. Walk, fine. Dropped third strike, no problem. So I was willing to do what I needed to do in order to take that trot to first, but I was a pretty good hitter and was looking forward to facing this guy.

Since we were visitors, we hit first. I stood on the on-deck circle and watched him warm up - his name was Lance or Rock or Stud or something of that nature. I got into the batters box and the home crowd started going nuts. He threw me heat on the first pitch, just like I thought he would.

I hit the ball so hard I didn’t feel anything on the bat. It was at the left field wall before the third baseman even knew what happened, and I had a stand up double. I stood on base and looked back to our dugout, giving my team mates a “Well - what’s was so tough about that?” look and hand gesture. We went on to win 6-1. He never had a chance.

It turns out that Lance was a lot like Barack Obama. He did well against inferior competition. Coddled by his handlers, he pitched against weak teams and earned legendary status without really having done anything of substance. I saw Lance for what he was when he was warming up - over rated - and likewise, some of us saw Barack Obama for what he was when he was running for President. Coddled, handled, not really all that smart, and entirely over rated.

We were willing to take a pitch in the chest for this country, and that made us unafraid. We went to tea parties and were called racists, and we didn’t care because we knew it was a lie, just like all the lies before. We are calling the health care reform bill what it is, in town halls and among friends, and people have finally begun to listen. Begun to question. Begun to look a little harder at the bill of goods who calls himself the President.

So as we go into the weekend, congrats to everyone on the double - but the game is far from over. Health care rationing is not yet defeated, cap and trade looms, and we will be paying off the “stimulus” for decades to come. What the brave people at the tea parties and in the town halls have done is hit a liner to left, but it is going to take the whole team to carry this thing through. In our homes, at work, in our precincts and in our states, we need to keep the pressure up. Every day, at every opportunity. Be relentless, because we have the truth on our side.

And a soft pitcher on the mound.

WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to raise the nation’s terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.

Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a publicity release from Ridge’s publisher. He said the episode convinced him to follow through with his plans to leave the administration; he resigned on Nov. 30, 2004.

I’m too tired to predict exactly the screeching that will pass for programming tomorrow; suffice to say that is is entirely predictable.

Nice work, Tom. Should get you in pretty good position for the GOP nod in 2012.

The inspections conducted in Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War verified Iraq’s violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of bacteriological or chemical weapons in warfare. From May 1991 to December 1998, UNSCOM and the IAEA’s Action Team on Iraq conducted several thousand inspections at over 1,000 facilities. The extent and scale of Iraq’s programs to develop biological weapons, chemical weapons, and nuclear weapons surprised even thoseknowledgeable in those areas. IAEA inspections uncovered a Manhattan-Projectlike nuclear weapons program, which employed thousands of scientists and explored many avenues of producing weapons-grade material.

I think we all agree that Saddam Hussein was a pretty bad guy. So bad, in fact, that you had a little something to say about it when you went before the U.N. a few years later. From the same report:

Secretary of State Powell addressed the U.N.Security Council on February 5 with a briefing on Iraq’s attempts to evade disarmament and the links to terrorism. The briefing included audiotapes of Iraqi military officers discussing hiding modified vehicles from inspectors and orders to eliminate talk of “nerve agents” in wireless communications. Secretary Powell shared anecdotes of documents in cars driven by Iraqi intelligence officers, removing hard drives from computers, and sanitizing all of the presidential palaces of traces of WMD, derived from human intelligence sources.

And there was more:

Secretary Powell also showed satellite photos of bulldozed chemical weapons sites and the removal of telltale vehicles and equipment from chemicalweapons bunkers at the Taji facility before the December 22, 2002 inspections. In addition, Secretary Powell cited 4 human intelligence sources about the existence of about 18 mobile biological weapons laboratories. Powell noted that it would be virtually impossible to find these mobile labs without Iraqi cooperation.

Then there was all that nuclear stuff:

In the nuclear area, Secretary Powell reported on Iraqi attempts to procure magnets and high speed balancing machines from companies in Romania, India, Russia and Slovenia to support assertions that Iraq is pursuing a centrifuge uranium enrichment program.

But did they have a delivery system?

With respect to missiles, Secretary Powell reported that Iraq had continued to import SA-2 rocket engines as late as December 2002 but did not provide further evidence. Finally, Secretary Powell showed a satellite photograph depicting a racetrack-shaped flight path of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was tested for a distance of 500km without refueling. Iraq’s December 7th declaration claimed that its UAVs had ranges of just 80kms.

It looks like you covered all the bases, Secretary Powell, and it also looks like you believed what you said. I mean, it didn’t make much sense that Saddam Hussein had made a drastic conversion since you helped defeat him in the first Gulf War.

Unless…

Unless you were lied to by the CIA, like Nancy Pelosi. Unless you were misled by President Bush, like the Democrats who voted for the use of force now say they were.

So here is the question - do you stand by the case you made to enforce UN Resolution 1441? Or do you believe you were lied to? If you were lied to, when and by whom? Or did you know what you were saying was overblown, had reservations about the use of force against Iraq, and made the case before UN under duress?

As you trot out your Republican bonafides, it would be really helpful to clear this situation up. Thanks in advance.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and the fact that he is our President. The old rancher said, “Well, ya know, Obama is a ‘post turtle’. Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said : When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle. The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain. “You know he didn’t get up there by himself. he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of an idiot put him up there to begin with.”

 

If someone could add a picture, that would really make the point. See you guys next week…

Meanwhile, Zarin mouthy co-star Kelly Killoren Bensimon, who’s celebrating her 41st birthday at The Gates tonight, continues to push buttons. In addition to squabbling with Bethenny Frankel and talking about her modeling career, Bensimon is often heard touting her Ivy League education, from Columbia University.

But a source who attended Columbia snarked, “Kelly went to the Columbia extension college. Anyone can go there.”

Bensimon’s rep said, “Kelly went to Columbia University School of General Studies and graduated in 1998.”

The General Studies program, according to its Web site, is “created specifically for returning and nontraditional students.”

Maybe she can go on the next episode, flash her framed diploma, and explain that the only reason she went there was to save money. Just like Olbermann.

Keep the faith, honey. There are many like you, one of whom has a pretty important position at the newest Government Sponsored Entity.

          It turns out that Gandhi did his own take on the Seven Deadly Sins. They follow, with commentary that the left will hopefully find helpful.

Wealth without Work

The bedrock of liberal policies is the first of Gandhi’s Deadly Sins. The left believes that everyone is entitled to the same amount of income and wealth, and that enjoying the fruits of your labor and reverence for private property rights are simply evil. This one was so easy.

Pleasure without Conscience

You can have it now! Need a house? No income? No problem! We might have a baby if we have sex? Again, no problem, right up until the baby is born and in some cases, afterwards. This sin is the bane of the guilty liberal, and is best seen in the shallow, odiferous, standing water that is Hollywood.

Science without Humanity

Barack Obama wins the award for best example of this Deadly Sin. His thoughtless, knee-jerk endorsement of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research for the sake of abortion advocates was in sharp contrast to George Bush’s thoughtful and reasoned decision on the same issue. Abandoning respect for life and the dignity of the individual has become the hallmark of the left. Of course, as Ronald Reagan said, they have the advantage of having been born.

Knowledge without Character

Sadly, education in America has become a favorite tool of the left to cut and paste hollow mantras of feel-good pseudo-values – recycling, getting along, respect for that which deserves no respect . The values that our country was founded upon have not only been left out of education, but are mocked and trivialized. As Dean William R. Inge once said, “The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact, but of values.” How far the education establishment has strayed from this goal, and how much poorer our country is for it.

Commerce without Morality

At one time, there was a free market which served the interests of the participants, not the State. This time is long past. The Obama administration is making sure that as much formerly private industry as possible serves the warped and twisted aims of government, and captains of industry have become nursing children as taxpayers take on the losses generated by the foul marriage of government and business. An innocuous regulation with seemingly good ends, The Community Reinvestment Act, was used as a sword by the government to equalize outcomes. The result has been a catastrophe, and the cure is more of the same.

Worship without Sacrifice

So many examples of this abound on the left. Nancy Pelosi claims the mantle of devout Catholic, while doing everything in her power to undermine the basic guiding principles of her faith. Leftists twist the Word of God to advance their agenda, while ignoring the tough parts of the Word that require decision and obedience. They demand sacrifice while contributing far less to charity than their conservative counterparts, and preach involvement but rely on the government to fulfill their obligations. Georgetown erases all references to God on the stage prior to a speech by Obama, and Notre Dame ignores his position on abortion in the rush to honor someone who has achieved nothing.

Politics without Principle

The last one is saved for Arlen Specter, although it could so easily apply to everyone on the left. Specter’s primary objective, from the beginning of his career to this very day, has been political self-preservation. He has sought headlines instead of making the tough decisions for the benefit of the country, and has made waves not by standing on principle but by undercutting the very people who have made his position possible. He repays loyalty with treason, and uses position for self-adoration.

Specter is nearing the end of his life here on earth, and his everlasting legacy will be the cowardice he has shown in betraying his party, not this time but so many others, and the debt he ensured would be piled on our children.

Finally, have you seen the bumper sticker that shows a quote, allegedly from Gandhi, that says, “I like your Christianity, but I do not like your Christians”? I propose a new one – “I like your Democracy, but I do not like your Democrats.”