Slogans, spin, and excuses...

Cross-post from Pundit & Pundette

What do Dems have to offer to a veteran who sees homelessness one year away?

Slogans, spin, and excuses.

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post takes the temperature of Virginia voters and finds that the boiling anger of last August has simmered down into a mixture of frustration, disaffection, and serious anxiety:

Most of all, people want to talk about the economy. [. . .]

In this district where unemployment is running in the double digits, "what you're seeing is a deeper anxiety," Perriello said Thursday after his second town hall in two days. "Can I just get through this quarter, and this month, and pay my bills? Can we ever get back" to where things used to be? [. . .]

With polls consistently showing that dissatisfaction with Washington is at or near record levels, another word for what voters are feeling right now might be "frustration," or "despair," or "disgust." Ask Donald Burroughs which best describes his feeling about elected officials these days and he says, "All of it."

Burroughs, a veteran who lost his job when his employer moved the business to China, can see homelessness from his house:

"I just can't see the avoidance of a depression, not from my end of things," Burroughs told Perriello. "This time next year, you might be talking to me living out of a vehicle."

The Democrats' strategy, to any struggling citizen who takes notice of it, sounds like spin and excuse-making:

Like just about every other Democrat who hopes to hang on to his job, Perriello tries to explain to his constituents that government bailouts and stimulus spending pulled the economy back from the precipice.

That scare tactic may have worked in the fall of '08 but its power to frighten voters has weakened.

He also touts the $2.9 million of federal money that will be spent to save teacher jobs and fix up the schools in Charlotte County, and the stimulus funds that will bring access to high-speed Internet service to every one of the homes and businesses in a county that still lacks a stoplight.

Most voters would undo the stimulus if they could. They see it as part of the problem, not as a solution.

All the Dems seem to have are lame slogans:

Strategists in both parties know that once the campaign season enters its final stretch on Labor Day, it will be difficult to change the course of the election. So Democratic House leaders sent their members home for August with pocket cards of talking points headlined "WE CAN'T GO BACK" and a list of weekly messages to push.

"We want the power of all of our voices to convey these messages, so we ask you to plan public events and media interactions in your district around weekly themes -- if they work for you," the leaders wrote in a memo to their troops.

Last week was "Make It in America" week, to be followed by "Protecting Social Security Week," "Consumer Protection Week," "Small Business Week" and "Troops & Veterans Week." The week of Sept. 6 will bring a reprise of "Make It in America" week.

Obama is also emitting the "we can't go back" meme. But the majority of Americans are hoping -- audaciously, perhaps -- that we can.

Where are the Blacks? Where are the Blacks? Well here they are! and what a great group!

More on Shirley Sherrod here

The CIA, GITMO, and the Hollywood Connection

It's all in the movies

It won't happen to us I know

That's all in the movies

Just a bad picture show

That's the last verse in a Merle Haggard song ...I think maybe we have something here; only its not just a picture show. Texas Fred explains:

AP Exclusive: CIA whisked detainees from Gitmo

WASHINGTON (AP) – Four of the nation’s most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned.AP Exclusive: CIA whisked detainees from Gitmo
The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA “black sites” for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those rights.
“This was all just a shell game to hide detainees from the courts,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a Seton Hall University law professor who has represented several detainees.
Removing them from Guantanamo Bay underscores how worried President George W. Bush’s administration was that the Supreme Court might lift the veil of secrecy on the detention program. It also shows how insistent the Bush administration was that terrorists must be held outside the U.S. court system.
Full Story Here:

Worried the Supreme Court would lift the veil of secrecy on the detention program?
Seriously? That’s the best you guys at AP can come up with?

Years later, the program’s legacy continues to complicate President Barack Obama’s efforts to prosecute the terrorists behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Yes, it does complicate Barack Hussein Obama’s efforts to prosecute the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It makes it a difficult task for Obama to give his Muslim brothers the same rights as a U.S. citizen. It makes it a lot more difficult for Eric Holder to find some loophole that will allow him to release these Islamic terrorists!

The arrival and speedy departure from Guantanamo were pieced together by the AP using flight records and interviews with current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the CIA’s detention program. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the program.

Did any of you ever watch a movie called *A Few Good Men*?
The lead character is a bleeding heart wuss lawyer and he used the flight records from Gitmo to Washington, D.C. as the basis for his analysis into the habits of Col. Jessup. I think someone at the top of THIS investigation may have actually watched that movie and may have paid some attention. It sounds like this AP story was written by a Hollywood screen writer to me.

Top officials at the White House, Justice Department, Pentagon and CIA consulted on the prisoner transfer, which was so secretive that even many people close to the CIA detention program were kept in the dark.

Keeping people in the dark is what the CIA does. It’s what makes the CIA a viable and useful group of people. It’s what keeps them alive and what keeps this nation, and some of OUR little secrets safe. Again, I think someone may have been watching the movies or reading the comic strip Doonesbury.
When we, as a nation, and a government, have become so politically correct, so afraid of world opinion, that we place the comfort and care of a terrorist above the safety of our nation, our people, our troops and our way of life, I am forced to say that America has surely lost it’s way.

Before dawn on Sept. 24, 2003, a white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed at Guantanamo Bay. At least four al-Qaida operatives, some of the CIA’s biggest captures to date, were aboard: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.

Well, that’s reassuring, a white, unmarked Boeing 737. For a very long time now we have been told, repeatedly, by the moonbats and tin foil hat crowd on the left that the CIA used BLACK, unmarked helicopters.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »

Climate Change...Are we even asking the right questions?

Climate Extremes - Argentina Colder than Antarctica - Source Gerry Charlotte Phelps

While Europe, Russia and much of the U.S. are suffering through abnormally hot weather, the southern half of the globe is having unusually cold weather.
The coldest winter in 40 years in Argentina is driving up demand for electricity.  The cold is also causing natural gas shortages severe enough to cause Dow Chemical and producers of steel and aluminum to scale back production.  Shipments of liquefied natural gas are expected to double, while electricity use has soared. 
Temperatures in parts of Argentina fell below those of Antarctica on July 15.  In Mendoza, the wine-producing region in western Argentina, temperatures fell below the temperature registered on July 15 in the Argentine-controlled area of the South Pole, according to a national weather institute report.
What is the explanation for extreme heat and extreme cold on the same globe at the same time - global warming or global cooling?  Or neither?  Both??  Or are we even asking the right climate questions?

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The climate change controversy has been going on for many years and this much we do know...

The politic elite that seemingly want to run the world have used climate change as a political tool to convince nations that these changes are anthropogenic and thus can do something about it. To facilitate whatever it is they want to do about it they need funding. When enough people are convinced that the politicians in charge seem to know what they are talking about then the people are willing to give up some of their income (think 'taxes') to prevent these weather related ills from becoming pandemic. Now the politic elite are not necessarily elected officials. They include members of NGO's, private and/or public corporations (think 'TIME') and probably the most successful fear monger of all time, the United Nations (UN). You'll find that many climate change studies are funded by the UN. And all UN studies will have results that further their political interests. Yet none of the UN studies have proven that climate change is caused by man. Oh they'll have all their charts and figures arranged to convinced the easily fooled...which consists of many fools (think maybe it might be you). Remember always that whenever any politician who claims he knows why Mother Nature goes from hot to cold and back again is (number one reason) they're looking for more funding (again, think 'taxes'). And something you should never forget; the UN does not produce revenue, they get all their funding from you and a hundred-ninety-one other countries. ~ Norman E. Hooben

Ahmadinejad Challenges Obama

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Iran's Ahmadinejad calls for TV debate with Obama

Source Reuters

By Robin Pomeroy
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to face him in a televised one-on-one debate to see who has the best solutions for the world's problems.
The provocative proposal comes as Iran deals with a new wave of international sanctions -- driven by Washington -- aimed at putting pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
"Toward the end of summer we will hopefully be there for the (U.N.) General Assembly and I will be ready for one-on-one talks with Mr. Obama, in front of the media of course," Ahmadinejad told a conference of Iranian expatriates in Tehran.
"We will offer our solutions for world issues to see whose solutions are better."
Ahmadinejad suggested such a debate last September, which was not taken up by Washington. He said Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, had declined similar invitations because he was "scared".
Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear program is a peaceful bid to produce electricity.
But its uranium enrichment activities, a process which can have both civilian and military uses, has fed fears in some countries that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
In his speech, the president mocked the sanctions and the potential for a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, an option that the United States and Israel say they do not rule out.
"Who do you think is going to attack us? The Israeli regime? ... We don't consider the regime in our equations, let alone attacking us," he said.
"They say we'll issue sanctions? Okay, do it. How many resolutions have you issued so far? Four? Make it 4,000," he said to loud applause from the conference.
Both Iran and the United States have indicated willingness to return to nuclear talks which stalled last October, leading to the new sanctions.
Amid the anti-American rhetoric in which he said U.S. policy was based on colonialism and the "law of the jungle", Ahmadinejad said he was ready for talks "based on justice and respect".
"We are ready to hold talks at the highest level," he said. "We have always favored talks, Iranians have never, ever favored war."
(Editing by Louise Ireland)