Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Daily Trek -- May 21, 2008

Just a short trek for today of the items I didn't have time to get to.

A major FARC terror leader surrendered claiming that FARC had lost and hoped others would surrender too! (Hot Air)

According to Dow Jones, Iraq’s crude oil exports are significantly higher in 2008 than they were at this point in 2007; oil exports have risen 22%. An average of 1.92 million bpd have been exported from Iraq this year, with the bulk (approximately 1.5 million bpd) coming from southern Iraq. (Next Big Future)

The Democratic Congress solved the oil crisis! Not by drilling, technology, or even conserving!
House Democrats passed legislation authorizing the Attorney General to sue OPEC to bring down gas prices. (Gateway Pundit)

Chicago Ald. Richard Mell forgot to re-register his guns (which reportedly include a Walther PPK like this one). No problem -- he'll just write a new law. Wow, Chicago politics -- hey wait, isn't Barack from Chicago? (Chicago Sun Times Blog)

How PC will the Democrat's Convention be?
A caterer who is trying to meet the eco-requirements says,"I think it's a great idea for our community and our environment. The question is, how practical is it?" (Denver Post)

George Takei, the original Sulu from "Star Trek," announced over the weekend that he and his longtime partner Brad Altman will tie the knot this summer. (Fox News)

The China earthquake
has left 5 million homeless and there are 70,000 either dead or still missing.

DKK

Obama World -- Upside Down


Cartoonist Chip Bok
Via Gateway Pundit -- McCain POUNDS Obama On Cuban Independence Day
DKK

Red Stat Update Explain Media Reaction to Kentucky and Oregon

Albatros or Eagle?

The Presidency: It takes little courage — or brains — to join the mob vilifying President Bush. But the Democrats (and Republicans, too) depicting him as villain will one day regret it.
(...) Economy (...)

As for national security, Obama keeps saying the war in Iraq and the rest of the administration's foreign and defense policy have, as he put it last week in South Dakota, "prevented us from making this country safe." But the country is safer than anyone expected after 9/11.

There has not been a single terrorist attack on the homeland, and we have instead foiled multiple terrorist plots to kill innocent Americans. America has succeeded in foiling these plots because Bush gave the National Security Agency the authority to monitor any and all communications of suspected terrorists, by telephone, e-mail or other means.

(...) Iraq (...)

This is the supposed albatross Republicans are so intent on distancing themselves from and which Democrats believe to be the key to victory in November. The facts of the last seven years tell a different story.
DKK
Investors Business Daily

If It Walks Like A Duck, Enviornmentalism As A Religion

I heard Gore on NPR the other day. He was asked what he made of evangelical pastor Joseph Hagee’s absurd comment that Hurricane Katrina was God’s wrath for New Orleans’ sexual depravity. Naturally, Gore chuckled at such backwardness. But then the Nobel laureate went on to blame Katrina on man’s energy sinfulness. It struck me that the two men were not so different. If only canoodling residents of the Big Easy had adhered to “The Greenpeace Guide to Environmentally Friendly Sex.

DKK
Jonah Goldberg via Watts Up With That -- The Church Of Green

But, Harry Reid Assured Me We Had Lost!

Great news: the Coalition Forces in Iraq are on pace to report the lowest monthly casualties since the Iraq War began. This is testament to the success of the surge, and the political and military progress made by the Maliki government.

DKK
Say Anything Blog -- Time To Break Out The Ticker Tape?

In An Obama Nation -- January Wear

An ongoing feature demonstrating the points put forth by Barack Obama that in order to be leaders in the world we will have to be cold and hungry.

In An Obama Nation:

This is what I want to wear at home next January:

This is what I will have to settle for wearing, for the sake of world leadership!

Don't worry, while you and I will feel like Iranian hostages the academics and the media will hail this leadership as being even better then freeing 50 million from tyranny, right up there with winning a world war or cold war.
DKK

Previous Obama Nations:
Mean/Taste
Alpha/Cube

The Polar Bear Lawsuits Have Begun

They want global warming laws to be part of the package:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Conservation groups returned to court to challenge Bush administration efforts to help save the polar bear, saying federal officials’ refusal to include steps against global warming violates the Endangered Species Act.

In court documents filed late Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups asked a federal judge to reject Interior Department actions that were announced last week.

Can these people possibly be any more transparent?

Kassie Siegel, climate director for the CBD, said the administration’s proposal “violates both logic and the law” because it did not address the primary threat to polar bears. The listing of polar bears under the law is significant, she acknowledged, but the groups want them classified as endangered, a more serious category than threatened.

DKK
Say Anything Blog -- That Didn’t Take Long: Enviros Want Global Warming Laws Tied In With Polar Bear Status

Bottom Line -- Iran And Negotiations

Barack Obama keeps comparing negotiating with Iran to negotiating with the Soviet Union but this is absolutely NOT an accurate comparison.

During the majority of the Cold War our goal was not regime change, at least until Reagan came along and said that it ends, "we win, they loose!" However that is our policy toward Iran.

Iran committed an act of war against the United States when they overran our embassy and held Americans hostage for 444 days (thank you Jimmy Carter). Iran has been a belligerent in the region and in the world ever since.

Our policy toward Iran for years was known as Dual Containment. It was an attempt to keep their influence and revolutionary ideas inside Iran. Iran has long been considered a rogue nation by the U.S. but not by many in Europe, that was until 2005 when it was discovered that Iran had lied to the UN and the world for nearly 2 decades about their nuclear program. At that point many in the world realized we were correct and that something had to be done.

The solution was to isolate Iran until they cooperated. This isolation is an attempt to have the population or some reasonable elements of the government say to themselves, "we have become the pariah's of the world, the whole world is against us, while nuclear power sound good, this Ahmadinejad is making life harder with no end in sight and for no good reason, we are isolated."

Barack Obama would end that all in one meeting!

In one meeting Obama would bolster Ahmadinejad at home. He would be able to tell his people that his plan was working and they were no longer isolated.

In one meeting Obama would undermine the work the United Nations has done, together as one, (you know, that diplomacy thing the left is always screaming about) to pressure the Iranian government.

In one meeting Obama would reinforce Iranian belief that killing U.S. servicemen in Iraq was an effective tool.

In one meeting Obama would tell every nation in the world that we would not stand up to anything they wanted to do -- we didn't have the will to oppose anyone for very long.

In one meeting Obama would let the world know that blackmail was the way to get direct Presidential attention.

In one meeting Obama would tell every one of our allies that have backed us up on Iran that they were fools and they should never make that mistake again.

In one meeting Obama could do more harm to U.S. Foreign Policy then anyone since Jimmy Carter.

If Obama honestly believes regime change or getting Iran to cooperate with World demands and their treaty obligations by halting their nuclear ambitions then he needs tell us that because that is exactly what would happen.
DKK

How Many Gaffes Can Obama Make And Still Get A Pass?

Barack Obama — promoted by the Left and the media as an all-knowing, articulate, transcendent Messiah — is a walking, talking gaffe machine. How many more passes does he get? How many more can we afford?

Michelle lists the gaffes so far. She also points out that when Republicans make a gaffe like say, "potatoe," they are tainted for life. Not Barack! He's flawless.
DKK
NRO -- Michelle Malkin -- Barack Gaffes

We're All Conservatives Now!

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes. Nearly a third (29%) disagrees and would rather have a bigger government with higher taxes. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.
We're all conservatives now, well except for our politicians that is.
DKK
Don Surber -- Conservatism ain't dead

Media Gets Pwned!

Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating.

But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily.

(...)

Developments just keep getting grimmer for the MoveOn.org fan base in the media. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who had supported al Qaeda and homegrown insurgents, now support their government and welcome US troops. And, in southern Iraq, the Iranians lost their bid for control to Iraq's government.

Bury those stories on Page 36.

Our troops deserve better. The Iraqis deserve better. You deserve better. The forces of freedom are winning.

He is absolutely correct, we do deserve better.

DKK

Ralph Peters in the NY Post -- Success in Iraq: A Media Blackout


Via Ace

U.S. To Start Exporting -- Toyotas!

Toyota has now announced that it will ramp up U.S. vehicle production in Indiana and begin exporting vehicles to other booming markets around the world.

The drop in the dollar, while we have all heard about its negative effects, has the potential for increasing U.S. manufacturing, it may actually have helped keep us out of a recession.

Now if we could drop the corporate tax rate you would see business pick up dramatically!
DKK
Autoblog -- Toyota to start exporting U.S.-built SUVs and minivans

An older example from April 9, 2008:
Thanks to two relatively recent developments – the falling value of the US dollar relative to other currencies and the significantly lower cost structure that GM, Ford, and Chrysler negotiated with the UAW last fall – the domestic auto companies are now hoping to use their lower cost bases to supply US-built vehicles to export markets.
(...)
GM has already announced an agreement with the Chinese government to export the Enclave crossover to China, to help satisfy a buying public that loves its Buicks (you may have heard that Buick sales in China exceeded Buick sales in the US last year).


AutoSavant -- The US is Suddenly a Low Cost Manufacturing Country
DKK

Obama Wins Oregon -- Can't Close The Deal

Barack Obama won the Oregon party by 58% to 42% for Hillary Clinton.

With Hillary's win in Kentucky she picked up 15 elected delegates for the night.

Obama cannot close the deal and the regular guy Democrats are not in Obama's camp.

Can a party win with the, "eggheads and African-Americans," as Paul Begala said?
DKK

75,000 People Show For A Concert, Happen To Hear Obama?

The thing is, it gets worse for Obama. Not only was this big crowd hyped by the media with no mention of the fact that it was a crowd for a rock concert and not just Obama, the rock band in question calls themselves the Decemberists after the Russian Decembrist Revolt. The band is fond of playing the Soviet national anthem at the beginning of shows, and has popular songs like “Sixteen Military Wives” which depicts America as an international bully declaring war on innocent nations.

Just what Obama needs while suffering from criticism about his connections to Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright and William “Bomb ‘Em All” Ayers.


DKK

Say Anything Blog --Obama’s Huge Portland Crowd Was Because Of A Free Rock Concert By Communist-Sympathizing Musicians

Wrong On Virtually Everything -- The Democrats Election Platform 2008 -- Time They Were Accountable!

There's little to do, it seems, but prepare for the deluge, and make plans to rebuild once the inevitable retreat begins.
This contention has become so widespread that it's achieved the status of a received truth, with the danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. But there's one problem with it: if the American left is in such great shape, why are all their programs collapsing?
(...) Global Warming (...) Iraq (...) Recession (...)
This is what the GOP is running against: people who want to lose a war, who are keeping alive an environmentalist scam, who (as a byproduct of that scam) have created conditions of serious hunger across the world, and who would not mind seeing a recession in the U.S., no matter how many people it hurts.

How do you lose against a hand like this? You lose by throwing your cards down and collapsing under the table whining about being forced to play at all. That's what the GOP is doing -- it can't be described in any other way.
(...)

The American left is not made to eat its failures. This must change. The only entity capable of forcing that change is, unfortunately, the Republican Party. So the GOP must take steps: it needs to shed its invertebrate qualities and become an opposition party worthy of the name. To give up its sense of entitlement, which wrecked both George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole and will wreck John McCain if allowed half a chance. To cease expecting anybody to hand them victories, to stop running from the fight, to stop ducking the sharper aspects of politics. To start playing the political game the way it has to be played.

The Democrats deserve to hurt for the actions they take and the stances they embrace.

There is so much more, this is a Must Read! An outstanding piece by J.R. Dunn
DKK
American Thinker --
Is 2008 to be a Transformational Election?
 
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