Moblogging Matters

Surge Notes and Such

Can we all now admit the Surge is working and call for victory in Iraq?

The number of American troops and Iraqi civilians killed in the war fell in September to levels not seen in more than a year. The U.S. military said the lower count was at least partly a result of new strategies and 30,000 additional U.S. forces deployed this year.

Although it is difficult to draw conclusions from a single month’s tally, the figures could suggest U.S.-led forces are making headway against extremist factions and disrupting their ability to strike back.

The U.S. military toll for September was 65, the lowest since July 2006, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press from death announcements by the American command and Pentagon.

More dramatic, however, was the decline in Iraqi civilian, police and military deaths. The figure was 988 in September — 50 percent lower than the previous month and the lowest tally since June 2006, when 847 Iraqis died.

Meanwhile the US Political arm of al-queda has concocted a plan of an Iraq surtax to be added to US citizens income taxes. Color me unsurprised.

Rep. Obey said the annual cost for the war — $145 billion — could be paid by a tax that would range from 2 percent for low and middle income folks to 12-15 percent for higher income households

Petraeus Reports

Mikes America has got the story covered with his Petraeus posting – It is compulsory for you to surf over and read his report before commenting on my blog.

The Petraeus Report – Text and Slides

Presented for your review is the data that accompanied the General’s report to Congress :

The DNC response to the report:

Socialized Blogging

Suzie Madrak, an angry Pennsylvania blogger, who pens Suburban Guerrilla has developed the cure for world peace, global warming and her own pathological anger. Well, maybe not, but she has found a way to create a nanny-state scheme.

What Madrak is organizing, instead, is very different: a kind of grass-roots insurance pool to pay for health emergencies of progressive bloggers — people without whom, she says, Democrats would not enjoy the political success they’re now seeing.

Does this mean I’m eligible for this ‘insurance’ – after all – I am registered as a Democrat. What about conservative bloggers, libertarian bloggers, green bloggers or non-political bloggers? Are their health needs not as worthwhile as ‘progressive’ bloggers.

Republicans have no need of this scheme, as SuzieQ describes them as:

Madrak, who calls Capozzola her “fairy blogfather,” argues that if he’d been a Republican, Capozzola would be alive today. “He would have been in a well-paid think tank job, living the high life (He did, after all, have a masters degree in foreign policy,) – Most importantly, he would have had health insurance for the past six years.”

Well paying career – fabulous social life….hmmm…looks like Republicans are having all the fun! Maybe I should switch my registration.

Then again, maybe I won’t, as SuziQ further explains her glorious idea – it seemed to get a bit fuzzy in the details:

The fund that Madrak is trying to set up would cover emergencies like Capozzola’s. “If you needed to go to the doctor, if you have an abscessed tooth, if you finally got a car and all of a sudden the brakes go — things like that,” she says.

SuziQ originally states the scheme to be a grassroots health care plan. Now she expands it to include emergency car maintenance? Hello! I foresee an emergency wardrobe replacement in my future – will this ‘insurance’ cover the cost? How many ’emergencies’ will it take to bankrupt this insurance scheme and how many nanoseconds will it take for SuziQ to blame Bush for the failure of her glorious plan for the people?

UPDATE: Steve, blogger extraordinarie of Target Rich Environment has created the ultimate bloggers union:

If I were starting a bloggers’ union, it would be called the Bloggers of the World Unite, or the Blobblies, and I’d expect the following minimum benefits and compensation:

• Equal pay for all bloggers who pay their dues, regardless of the amount of traffic generated.
• Plenty of coffee (fair trade organic certified).
• Plenty of breaks to clean up after PSH’s (aka Pants Sh*tting Hysterics) (link).
• Credit for postings that have at least one word original to the union blogger.
• A uniform allowance for Che Guevara t-shirts and ripped jeans.
• A full pension plan, paying double what I made and more than was ever paid into the system.
• I’d offer modest amounts of posts (so I don’t get yelled at by other bloggers for working too hard), and if I had a grievance that brought things just short of a strike, suddenly the entire union would conduct a work slow-down or “sick-out” action.
• Free therapy for myself, my spouse, and one child (the blobblies have to be zero population growth-minded).
• Paid personal time for therapy.
• Personal time and paid admission to each Michael Moore film that comes out (counts for Continuing Education Units from the professional standards committee).

So, where can I sign up???

Enough is Enough

John Boehner is the Republican Minority Leader for the House of Representatives penned an article outlining the abuses of the true dictatorial party in this nation. As much as the Dems engineered theft of the 215-213 vote Thursday night on the Republican motion denying taxpayer benefits to illegal individuals who violate the laws of this country annoys me – I see this as another step towards a Republican victory in 2008.

My friends: the Democrats’ ticket is being punched.

They stuck pork-barrel spending for peanuts and spinach on a bill meant to fund American troops in harm’s way.

They created slush funds for secret earmarks, attempting to spend billions of taxpayer dollars without transparency.

They jammed “green pork” accounts into the energy tax bill, allowing taxpayer funds to be used to subsidize things like Lexus Hybrids in Beverly Hills and putting copies of Al Gore’s book in children’s classrooms.

They voted to look the other way when the Speaker’s own choice for majority leader broke House rules by threatening a Republican member who dared to challenge an illegitimate earmark.

They stonewalled lobbying reforms that require lobbyists to disclose taxpayer-funded earmarks for which they’re lobbying Congress, repealed Republican reforms requiring earmarks in tax and authorizing to be publicly disclosed and subject to challenge on the House floor, and killed legislation requiring taxpayer-funded state and local government lobbyists from following the congressional gift ban as they lobby for pork.

Bad behavior breeds bad behavior. Who says Democrats don’t act like communists?

If Not You, Then Who?

Today I received an email from the organization Vets for Freedom detailing their grass root effort called ’10 Weeks to Testimony’

Veterans from across the country will gather in DC this Tuesday, July 17th, in order to meet with a number of senators to discuss the importance of their support of the Iraq war strategy – better known as The Surge.

They are asking for the senators to consider these three commonsense approaches to victory in the War on Terror.

1. General Petraeus deserves enough time to implement a winning counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq.
2. Retreat means a failed state in Iraq and a safe haven for Al Qaeda to plan future attacks against America and her allies.
3. Decisions about Iraq should be made by military commanders and generals on the ground-not politicians in Washington, DC.

This is a noble effort made by those who put everything on the line to protect our precious freedom. Ironically, they now have returned home from duty only to find their fight is not yet over. The only thing that’s becoming clearer by the day is that America’s main opponent in Iraq is really in Washington DC.

Those of us who support Winning in Iraq can reinforce this message by taking a few minutes out of your day tomorrow to contact your home state Senators to express your support of the Surge and the Vets on the Hill.

Vote Philly

Today was the Democratic Primary election for the upcoming Mayoral race. Today, I had to hold my nose as I voted. For the first time, I had the idea of skipping out on this vote as I have no intention of supporting any Democrat candidate for any office. EVER.

My objections to abstaining from this vote were over-ruled with Mom’s visit. She stopped by stating we were going to vote. As I explained my plans for skipping this primary election, Mom was quick to remind me of our cousin lying in Arlington Cemetery who gave his life to preserve this opportunity. (Score 1 – Mom) I responded by reminding her that the party we both belong to is actively trying to demean and politicize Toz’s sacrifice in order to assure a victory for terrorists in Iraq. (Score 1 – Skye) Mom responded with ‘The Look’ – twenty minutes later we were arrived at our local voting poll.

I voted NO to the question of bringing the troops home now and cast my vote to Jesus White , in hopes he will be the next mayor of Philadelphia.

Things that make you go hmmm…

Mara Liasson: “We all make mistakes…” Roll Call 05/09/2007

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed – Senator Obama”

“I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.- Hanoi John”

WASHINGTON, May 3 — Senator Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 to successfully liberate Iraq…Mrs. Clinton’s proposal brings her full circle on Iraq — she supported the war measure five years ago

“Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have completed a study that puts the death toll in Iraq, since our 2003 invasion, at about 600,000.”

The Madame Strikes (and misses) Again!

Shamelessly copied from Flopping Aces.

So much for three equal branches of Government:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill.

Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, “We can take the president to court” if he issues a signing statement, according to Kid Oakland, a blogger who covered Pelosi’s remarks for the liberal website dailykos.com.
“The president has made excessive use of signing statements and Congress is considering ways to respond to this executive-branch overreaching,” a spokesman for Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, said. “Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws.”

It is a scenario for which few lawmakers have planned. Indicating that he may consider attaching a signing statement to a future supplemental spending measure, Bush last week wrote in his veto message, “This legislation is unconstitutional because it purports to direct the conduct of operations of the war in a way that infringes upon the powers vested in the presidency.”

A lawsuit could be seen as part of the Democrats’ larger political strategy to pressure — through a series of votes on funding the war — congressional Republicans to break with Bush over Iraq.

Nimrod Pelosi thinks she is not only a United States Ambassador who conducts foreign policy she also now believes herself to be the President of the United States. If the real President doesn’t do what she wants she is gonna sue!

Listen, if you want to stop the war vote to pull the funding. If you can’t do it then STFU!

DNC: A WMD for Feminism

Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young,” to serve, Boxer told Rice. “You’re not going to pay a price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families.”

Is this part of the Change for America that Democrats sold the American public this past November? John Gibson gives us the low down:

Feminists like Barbara Boxer want it both ways. They want abortion rights, they want women to have access to the workplace, but if the woman takes that freedom, does not marry, does not have children, evidently Boxer thinks that woman is unqualified to use her education, experience and judgment in her career.

Now, according to Boxer, that woman has to have children to have her career. Sound confusing? Sure is. It is Boxer logic that only applies to one woman: a single, conservative black woman who happens to be secretary of state.

Boxer wouldn’t say to anybody else, you have to have kids to hold your job. She wouldn’t dream of saying that to a CEO or to a sales manager. But she thinks it’s OK to say it to a secretary of state because this particular woman secretary of state has supported a decision to go to war. Only when it comes to a conservative black woman would Boxer think to ask that question.

A black woman should be a liberal. A black woman should have voted for Boxer and voted against Bush, and a black woman should be opposed to the war. If this black woman is none of those things then there is something wrong with her. What could it be?

Oh, she hasn’t been married, nor does she have children.
If I had said what Boxer said about a black woman secretary of state in a Democratic administration I’d have a pack of libs calling for my head.

All I want is an apology. Cough it up, Senator.

Senator Boxer needs to resign then apologize to Condi.

Is Boxer upset that she can’t use the DNC’s pet mantra of calling for Republican politicians to send their children to the frontlines of Iraq on Condi? This latest debacle by a Democrat raises questions that need to be addressed – publicly. Is there a level of racism and sexism that Democrats won’t cross to score political points? Is this an example of the ‘Big Tent’ Party’s tolerance towards racial minorities and women who have differing points of view? How can any sane woman support the DNC? Finally, how much damage to the credibility of feminists worldwide will the DNC inflict before being voted out of power in 2008?

I know I’m going to be repeating this over and over the next two years:

DON’T BLAME ME – I VOTED REPUBLICAN!

UPDATE: BOXHEAD RESPONDS TO CRITICS:

Boxer, defending herself against critics from the right, said Friday that she was “speaking truth to power” at a Senate hearing Thursday when she confronted the secretary of state — who is unmarried and childless — noting that neither she nor Rice will “pay a price” personally for sending more American troops to war