Redstate

Posted at 11:14am on May 9, 2008 Harry Reid Has A Message For Warfighters And Consumers

Our goal is to stick it to all of you...equally

By haystack

[image via AZ Resistance ]

It's been a hectic few days for Harry the Dolt™, but his priorities have become abundantly clear: Soldiers are no big deal...there's no rush to help them...what matters is taxing big oil and lining the pockets of rich farmers.

As I mentioned here, our Warfighters are being held hostage over Reid and Pelosi's power struggle with the President. I also mentioned here that these clowns are willing to let Soldiers go unpaid unless and until they got all their own little shiny objects thrown in to the supplemental...which, by the way is an emergency supplemental spending bill that hasn't gotten done for over 440 days (and counting).

More below the fold...

Posted in Energy Bill | Farm Bill | Harry Reid | Iraq Funding | Liberals — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:24am on Apr. 11, 2008 The *Real* War On Terror Is In Afghanistan

By haystack

If you do enough acid, I suppose, you *too* can see tomcats in tophats..like that Pelosi babe...

Let's make this brief, shall we? (before my hair catches fire)

Terrorism is a means to an end. Scare the beejeebus out of enough people, making them believe horrible things will happen to their children and their aging mother if they don't do what they're TOLD to do...and terrorists will "move" a generation of people to do any number of things antithetical to what one might expect from a human being with any fundamental decency.

Posted in Alice in Wonderland | Harry Reid | Liberals | Nancy Pelosi — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:34pm on Mar. 12, 2008 Senator Reid, You're No FDR

The Funniest Fireside Chat Ever

By Bluey

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been the Democrats' top dog for only 14 months. But apparently he's letting his powerful perch get to his head.

Senate Democrats issued a press release today boasting that Reid "recorded a podcast today to honor the 75th anniversary of the first of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's groundbreaking and historic fireside chats. Like President Roosevelt's initial radio address, Senator Reid addressed the economic crises that threaten the nation's economy."

It gets better. You see, Reid is actually sitting next to a fire, replicating not only the topics covered by FDR, but the setting as well. There's not much to laugh about in Washington these days, but this is downright funny.

UPDATE: An alert RedState reader notes that Reid makes a flub within the first eight seconds of the video (emphasis added below).

It seems we have all become familiar with Roosevelt’s fireside chats even though there are not many people who are still around who watched the fireside chats...

Now I'm definitely convinced Reid has no idea what he's talking about. Roosevelt's fireside chats were on the radio!

Posted in Congress | Congress | Democrats | Harry Reid — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:10pm on Feb. 11, 2008 Nuancing Neville - Democrat Style

By haystack

There has been much mention of Pelosi's remarks on CNN's late Edition this week (10 February, 2008). Read one HERE, another HERE, and another HERE, and many of these based on stories HERE, HERE, and HERE. Pelosi has a well-enough established track record of trashing or outright denying success in Iraq, so there's nothing wildly newsworthy about her performance on CNN. However, if I might be so bold, I suggest we need just a wee bit o' context and historical perspective so that the larger point...that of our Democrat friends insisting they not learn from history, so that we might be reminded of what blindness in the face of evil might bring us. As Chamberlain de-planed after capitulating to Hitler, he said this:

"We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe.

We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe."

And before going in the house, all snuggly and warm and unwilling to "see" what he would later become (unwittingly) complicit with helping to cause:

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time...Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

The Democrats, too, want us to enjoy a nice quiet sleep...apparently.

More below the fold...

Posted in Harry Reid | Liberals | Nancy Pelosi | War on Terror — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:08pm on Jan. 14, 2008 Democrat Dementia

We're fixing Iraq because they know we're leaving

By haystack

Hillary Clinton is a lot of things, but brilliant just never seems to make it to the short list. Crafty, cagey, resilient, exonerated (err-I mean un-charged) criminal perhaps, bold-faced liar even...but she ain't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

So it came as no surprise to me that she would say so many idiotic things on Meet the Press this Sunday past. Dumb though this woman is, I must say Hillary Clinton's narcissistic naivete should scare the bloody hell out of everyone. The woman...seriously...needs counseling.

This week's trainwreck moment came regarding Iraq. When asked by Russert

"[i]f General Petraeus says, Senator, in September you called the surge the suspension of belief. It has worked, and you know it's worked, you can see on the ground. I'm saying to you, Senator, or president-elect Clinton, don't destroy Iraq. It's working, the surge is working. Keep troops there just a few more months to get this reconciliation complete"

the political savant that IS Hillary!™ gave us this little gem of genius [emphasis mine]:

The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say. And my commitment to begin withdrawing our troops in January of 2009 is a big factor, as it is with Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, those of us on the Democratic side. It is a big factor in pushing the Iraqi government to finally do what they should have been doing all along.

In other words, Hill babes...the more Democrats fight against a thing...vilify, attack, discourage and disregard...the more likely it becomes that said "thing" will ultimately succeed? I got that right, darlin'?

Hillary is claiming responsibility for Iraqi political reconciliation by making sure they know she means to pull the plug on...

wait for it...

American support for Iraqi political reconciliation. You just can't make this stuff up people.

Get out the popcorn, and let's work through this beauty below the fold...

Posted in Democrats | Harry Reid | Hillary | Iraq | NYT | War — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:02pm on Dec. 22, 2007 Before And After

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Before:

As Congressional Democrats sought to reconcile their differences and send an Iraq spending bill to the White House, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said Thursday that "this war is lost," a stark assessment that Republicans argued would demoralize American troops fighting in Iraq.

[. . .]

"I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and -- you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows -- that this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq," Mr. Reid said.

After (quoting Reid):

. . . The president said, "Let's send some more troops over there, and that will give the Iraqis the time to take care of themselves." We sent other troops over there, and there are a lot of reasons the surge certainly hasn't hurt. It's helped. I recognize that.

Posted in Flip-Flopping | Harry Reid | Iraq | The Surge | War — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:00pm on Dec. 18, 2007 Boo Freakin' Hoo-Harry Reid's Pity Party

By haystack

You know how much respect I have for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in general. So it should come as no surprise then, that I tell you people to stop being so MEAN to them all the time!

From Politico comes the Majority Sniffler and whiner:

We hear a lot of Republicans boasting ... because of their unprecedented obstruction.

Who's winning? Big oil, big tobacco. ... Al Qaeda has regrouped and is able to fight a civil war in Iraq. ... The American people are losing.

No, Harry-YOU'RE losing...and it's because you ARE a loser. Change jobs while you can man...

Posted at 10:30am on Dec. 17, 2007 He Said It, Not Me

By Dan McLaughlin

John McCain on Harry and Nancy:

John McCain sits across the table from the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, fielding questions on everything from taxes to torture to terror. He's asked what surprised him the most about the behavior [of] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with regard to Iraq. His answer--"their lack of patriotism"--is of the characteristically impolitic kind that often defines his personality. . .

+++

When asked whether he would tag Hillary Clinton as well with a "lack of patriotism," Mr. McCain does dial it down a notch. "Maybe 'lack of patriotism' is too harsh," he allows. "'Putting political ambitions ahead of the national interest' may be a more subtle way" of putting it. He then adds, with a chuckle, "And we all know how subtle I am."

McCain also acknowledges that "If I lose this election, it will be on the immigration issue. There's no question in my mind." But just when you are warming to McCain, you get tone-deaf responses like this one: "In South Carolina we've got the base this time. The Attorney General, the Speaker of the House, Lindsay Graham, most of the base."

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 7:18pm on Dec. 15, 2007 Pelosi, Reid Offer Advice on Rebuilding New Orleans

By Vladimir

New Orleans' decaying, decrepit public housing projects gave tenements a bad name. Spread throughout the city, the projects were little more than human warehouses, full of crime, drugs and despair. In turn, they spread crime and criminality to the adjoining areas. They were a testament to everything that's wrong with the traditional liberal model of welfare and public assistance.

The city had begun dealing with the problem pre-Katrina. The blighted St. Thomas project in the Lower Garden District was razed. On its site, a new planned community called River Garden emerged, featuring some home ownership and more livable, modern housing standards.

Posted in Congress | Harry Reid | Nancy Pelosi | New Orleans — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:21pm on Dec. 13, 2007 Pelosi and Reid's very bad press morning

By Soren Dayton

It must feel awful to wake up in the morning to these stories.

AP:

Congressional Democrats prepared Wednesday for major concessions on Iraq war funding, children's health insurance, tax policies, general spending and energy, because they could not overcome vetoes by President Bush.

The setbacks are a stinging disappointment for Democrats, who took control of the House and Senate with narrow majorities this year but never found a formula for coaxing compromises from Bush and his GOP supporters.

CQ ($ub$cription):

In one legislative battle after another this fall, the Democrats who won control of Congress a year ago are surrendering to President Bush and minority Republicans. ...

Perhaps the biggest source of Democratic frustration is the omnibus appropriations package that is being assembled to carry 11 fiscal 2008 spending bills.

It took the Democrats until Wednesday to publicly acknowledge they may have to accept a discretionary spending total close to Bush’s number of $933 billion.

Somehow, I don't feel sorry for them though.

Posted in Congress | Congressional Democrats | Harry Reid | Nancy Pelosi — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:15pm on Dec. 7, 2007 In Blue Dog Betrayal, Senate Passes Tax-Free AMT

Harry Reid Blames Republicans for Tax Increase Failure

By Mark I

The Senate abruptly reversed course last night and passed a one-year patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax without including any offsetting tax increases wanted by Blue Dog Democrats in the House. The bill passed overwhelmingly 88-5 with all Republicans voting for the measure. The move by the Senate represents another significant backtracking on a Democratic campaign season pledge. Democrats vowed to restore fiscal discipline to Washington by reinstituting pay-as-you-go budget rules that require all tax cuts to be “paid for” by corresponding tax increases or spending cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) feebly blamed Republicans for the failure to increase taxes. "We want everyone to know we have tried every alternative possible,” said Reid. Republicans were happy to take the blame, as Sen. John Thune gloated:

They had painted themselves into a corner. That's a huge concession on their part, completely repudiating one of their core principles.

Democrats in the House, most notably in the moderate Blue Dog caucus, were not happy.

Read on…

Posted in AMT | Blue Dogs | Congress | Democrats | Harry Reid | paygo | senate | taxes — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:24pm on Dec. 5, 2007 Three weeks until Christmas, and guess what Harry Reid's giving away?

To union workers, no less?

By Moe Lane

That's right: pink slips (Via Don Surber; see also this).

WASHINGTON -- Some U.S. Army civilian employees may get pink slips before Christmas because Defense Department funding hasn't been approved, a defense spokesman said.

President George Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have asked Congress to pass a $178 billion defense funding bill without including a timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq. The House passed a $50 billion measure that including a time line for redeployment of troops, but the measure stalled in the Senate.

The employees would not be laid off until after Christmas, but some contracts require 60-day notification if the layoffs will be longer than 60 days, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a news release.

"OK, family circle time, kids. Christmas is... well, Christmas is going to be a little tight this year. We're going to be OK, though: it looks like Mommy can get a new job over at the mall and I'll just have to stay at work a little bit longer each night for a while. But we all have to pitch in, OK? OK."

Merry Christmas, Mister Reid.

Moe Lane

PS: I don't suppose that any of you Democratic Presidential candidates feel like explaining why you're not ashamed of what your party's doing to good union people? Believe me, I'm not planning to hold my breath until I get an answer.

Posted in Abject Coward | Congress | Contemptible Little Man | Grinch | Harry Reid | Union Busting — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:23am on Nov. 16, 2007 Dingy Harry Reid: America's Tokyo Rose (or Haw Haw Harry)

By Erick

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Harry Reid headed down to the floor of the Senate to excoriate the war effort. When he decided to find success in Iraq he decided to deviate from his prepared script.

Lamenting the loss of lives in Bush's War, Reid decided to undermine all success our troops have had, while using their deaths to make political points. He said

Violence is down, and certainly that is important and good, but many of the experts are saying one reason the violence is down is that so much ethnic cleansing has already taken place. It is true they found 35 or 40 dead bodies today, and they are still finding them--not to the amount they were finding before. They were finding more than 100 a day. Many of the areas have been ethnically cleansed.

That's it then. It's not that American soldiers were successful. It's that the American soldiers failed to stop ethnic cleansing. In other words, the Iraqis (and our troops) have killed so many people, there is no one left to kill.

He failed to note the massive numbers of Iraqi refugees who are pouring back into Iraq. He failed to note the success we have had training Iraqi soldiers. He failed to note any legitimate successes. In fact, given that we have worked to stop intra-Iraqi violence, by citing ethnic cleansing as the reason for our success, he is, in fact, decry our troops failure.

Yesterday Harry Reid stepped to the microphone again to say

“It is not getting better, it is getting worse.”

Even the media, at war with the war and the administration has noticed that violence in Iraq is down. The surge is working.

Reid's comments do nothing but keep his base of anti-war leftist fringe anti-Americans happy. And his words are comfortable propaganda for enemy terrorists and a useful tool to demoralize our troops.

Harry Reid is Tokyo Rose.

Check that and thanks to Beth and Steve. I think we're going to have to go with Haw Haw Harry.

Posted in Congress | Harry Reid | Haw Haw Harry — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:15pm on Nov. 8, 2007 Harry Reid Finds Success in Iraq

Senator Knows Why the Violence is Down; and It’s Not Because the Surge is Working

By Mark I

On the floor of the Senate Tuesday, during leadership time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) made a statement on the occasion of the year 2007 becoming the deadliest year for US troops since the Iraq War began. One might find this an odd cause for recognition on the floor of the Senate, but not Sen. Reid. For him, the sacrifices of our brave troops provided an opportunity to both score political points against the war and, perhaps more importantly, denigrate the successes they are achieving every day as part of the troop surge.

From Reid’s official statement:

Yesterday we reached another tragic milestone in Iraq. With the death of five young Americans, 2007 has now been the deadliest year for our troops of the entire war. Our thoughts are with the families of these five latest American victims of the Iraqi civil war. Our hearts go out to the families of all 3,854 young men and women who have lost their lives and to the tens of thousands more who have been gravely wounded.

This war has caused so much suffering here in America where our losses continue to rise, where our treasury has been depleted for generations to come, and where our military is battered, scarred and stretched to the limit. And let us not forget the suffering in Iraq – where we learned today that 2.3 million civilians are now displaced, fleeing from their homes, their neighborhoods, their schools and places of worship.

Two-thirds of the displaced are young children, under the age of 12. This humanitarian crisis rages on with no end in sight. By any of the most critical benchmarks, President Bush’s flawed strategy on Iraq is not making America more secure. We are seeing no signs of meaningful progress on political reconciliation, which is the key to success in Iraq.

But the official statement does not include a key passage that the Senator saw fit to include in his remarks on the floor. In that passage, Sen. Reid expands on the argument of Rep. David Obey (D-WI) from Monday in which he said that violence is down in Iraq because US troops have “run out of people to kill.” Reid sees another reason, and it has nothing to do with the heroic sacrifices of the troops.

Read on…

Posted in al-Qaeda | Harry Reid | Iraq | Liberals | troop surge — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »