Speak Up America! Sheehan Has Spent Her Sympathy

By Ed Koch - September 28, 2005 - Jewish World Review

I supported and still support the war in Iraq, because our Congress and President had every right to rely on the advice of the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On Sunday, September 25, 2005, Tim Russert of Meet The Press, summed up the situation prevailing before the war, saying, "…post September 11th, there was a fear of terrorism, an inability to know whether there were weapons of mass destruction by the public or by the media. George W. Bush said there were. Bill and Hillary Clinton said there were. The Russians, French and Germans, who opposed the war, said there were. Hans Blix of the UN said there were."


Iraq had fought an eight-year war against Iran resulting in a million casualties, using poison gas against the Kurds, who were citizens of Iraq, and against the Iranian army. Yes, since the 2003 invasion, we have not found any present supplies of WMD. Nevertheless, based on advice from CIA counterparts advising every member nation of the United Nations Security Council, the Security Council, including Syria, adopted Resolution 1441 unanimously, finding Iraq had weapons of mass destruction for which it had not accounted and advising Iraq that failure to account was cause for war.

Those who so loudly problaim their opposition to the war are by that act proclaiming their opposition to our form of government. We are a representative democracy. If our representatives cannot authorize millitary conflict, and if their authorization can later be treated as a LIE by anti war protestors, then there is no way our government can claim legitimacy for any action.

They even ignore the fact that the U.N passed a resolution that provided for our invasion. Kofi Anan cannot by his personal opposition to the war make that resolution go away. Much of the propaganda against the war is based on LIES.

The Man In The Mirror

Some questions Senator Chuck Schumer should ask himself about the DSCC's invasions of privacy.

by Edward Morrissey - 09/28/2005 - The Weekly Standard (The Daily Standard Web Site)

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER had just finished his last sputtering of outrage at the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court when news broke that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which he chairs, had a small problem. Newsday and the New York Post both reported that the DSCC was in illegal possession of the credit report for Maryland's Republican Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele. Two of Schumer's staffers, Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, used Steele's Social Security number to fraudulently get his credit history.

Last year a republican staffer (who did not break the law but transgressed congressional privilege) shared emails that he was given access to. The emails indicated criminal actions by democrat staff in collaborating with outside groups. Chuck Schumer was outraged and demanded the Republican staffer be fired. He was fired, and nothing was ever done about the criminal actions by democratic staffers.

Maybe that is the reason that Schumer's staff felt that this action was okay. Based on Schumers actions to date, it would appear that they are right. They are still on paid leave, and whether anything will ever happen to them is still up in the air. Schumer is still looking to see if he can find some Republican who can be fired for catching them at their criminal activity. After all, that is what happened last time.

Welcome to the double standard of American politics. Democrats are guilty of nothing. Republicans are guilty of everything. Mayor Nagin lets 1000 buses sit idle, then complains about FEMA ..... and Mike Brown gets fired. When can we expect justice in either incident? Don't hold your breath.

The White Man Did It

By Larry Elder (The Sage From South Central) - Septermber 22nd, 2005 - World Net Daily

Now we know what caused New Orleans to flood. And it was not Hurricane Katrina.

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said, "I heard from a reliable source who saw a 25-foot-deep crater under the levee breach. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry."

Only wing-nuts would buy into such a conspiracy theory, right?

This is an excellent article that includes in it a listing of a number of federal government programs that have significantly damaged the black community. The list will surprise you. What is most bizarre is that each and every one is a liberal supported program that the black liberal leaders endorse, support that is a requirement of their remaining a part of the democrat leadership.

You have to ask, why do they do it?

From Srebrenica To Baghdad

By Christopher Hitchens - Monday, July 11, 2005 - Slate.com

What the genocide taught us about intervention.

Ten years since the hecatomb of Srebrenica … surely a decade cannot have passed so quickly? It really feels to me like yesterday. I can hear Susan Sontag's exact tone of voice as she described being in a ministerial office in Sarajevo when the mayor of Srebrenica got through on a bad line to say, "This is goodbye." He did not mean au revoir. Ronald Steel is one of the most gentle and humane liberals I have ever met, but I can still see his next-day's op-ed in the New York Times, announcing that the fall of the "safe havens" was "a blessing in disguise," since it might force the Bosnians to sue for peace. I can remember the red rage in which I wrote a letter to the Times, saying that a mass murder was a pretty effective disguise.

It is the liberal Christopher Hitchens who keeps reminding us of the intellectually honest people in the war on terror. He is one. Hitchens supported the war in Bosnia, when a large number of the neo-conservatives were still thinking through their ideas on what America should stand for. Simultaneously, Hitchens is one liberal who proved not to be a socialist first and a human second. When we were attacked by the islamofascists, he knew where he stood. He has not wavered from his commitment to human decency as the foundation for his liberal philosophy, rather than just another argument to defeat his political opponents. This consistency is part of what makes him such a fierce defender of his positions. It has also won him a great number of enemies among those for whom socialism is the goal, and the rest of liberal thought is just pretense.

When you run into someone who claims to be a liberal or a progressive, the quickest way to find out their level of integrity is to ask them if they still embrace Hitchens. If they don't, they are a socialist, and their dedication is to the destruction of capitalism and America.

I Am Somebody!

By George Neumayr - 9/21/2005 - The American Spectator

It is now almost a weekly ritual: a member of the ossifying liberal establishment, looking very defeated and victimized, complains vaguely about some lost privilege. The person will couch his narcissistic complaint in the form of accusing someone of "turning the clock back," not sufficiently respecting "precedent," disregarding "scientific consensus," and so on. All they mean is: the monopoly power liberals once enjoyed across the culture is now gone, and that the public should regard the left's erosion of power as a great loss to the republic.

Dan Rather has performed this week's lament to an expiring liberal era.

The blogs are still "rather" happy with the biggest scalp they have taken. This is an excellent article that points out the reasons for the truculence of so many liberals in news today. The reality is that the vast majority of news outlets are still liberal. However conservatives do now have a significant presence. Between talk radio, Fox News and the blogosphere, there is no longer any way that liberals can simply LIE with impunity, as they did for so many years.

As one blogger known as "smokehouse" noted, "Lets see now. (1) The hit piece on Food Lion. (2) The hit piece on General Westmorland. (3) The hit piece by CNN on poison gas. (4) The hit piece on GM with the fake burning truck. (5)The hit piece on President Bush by Rather. Yep, we can really trust these cretins."

It is really stunning how arrogant the media has been. The brief list of fraudulent articles above has one characteristic that should be amazing. Not a single reporter, editor or producer, except for Dan Rather ever paid any price for the fraud involved. All simply went on with their careers. No wonder Dan Rather is so incensed. He is sitting there wondering, "why me?"

Well Dan .... as you yourself noted, there is a "new journalism order". Hopefully it will care a little more about the truth than you did.

Bush's Rhetoric About Race Is Troubling

Star Parker - September 19, 2005 - TownHall.com

How can racial discrimination be the operative holding blacks down in a city in which at least seven out of 10 residents are black?

New Orleans' convention center, where black residents sat for days in squalor waiting for help (after being directed there by Mayor Ray Nagin), is called the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Ernest Morial was the first black mayor of New Orleans. His son, Marc Morial, also a black former mayor of New Orleans, is now president of the National Urban League.

The chief of police in New Orleans is black, as is the head of the city council. The mayor is black, as is the man who has represented New Orleans in the U.S. House for the last 16 years.

Black presence and power in New Orleans are wide and deep.

The truth about black poverty today, as Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute has aptly put it, is that it is "intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city."

There continues to be this huge elephant in the room, and it is ignored because political correctness still destroys any ability to even discuss it. That elephant is the impact on much of today's poor because of welfare dependence. If any white person, or black person, trys to point out the destructive nature of welfare, they are called a racist or an Uncle Tom.

A fact included in this article is that welfare has driven illegitimacy among white poor to the level that it is higher than among blacks from 1960, before welfare started. It is going higher yearly, and the destruction of the family among poor whites is nearly as serious a problem as among poor blacks. The welfare state has destroyed huge numbers of families, both black and white. When are we going to fix this?

Because blacks are disproportionately poor a rational discussion never gets off the gound. It is immediately sabotaged by attacks on anyone unhappy with the current system into irrelevant discussions about why there are more poor blacks. The convenient answer of course is racism, and anyone who criticizes the system is called racist. When the critic is black, they are an Uncle Tom. The MSM has a field day insulting and denoucing the people who try to change welfare dependency and nothing happens. By this tactic, supporters of the current system have successfully resisted any honest discussion for 50 years.

Courageous people are starting to speak out anyway. The problem has become so serious, that society has to change or utterly collapse. Bill Cosby, Star Parker and Larry Elder are blacks who are now speaking out. They are being attacked. My question is, "where are the conservative whites who are willing to stand up also?" Star Parker is right to point out that George Bush is parroting the black liberal line that got us to where we are today. And that is troubling.

Flight 93, Re-Hijacked

By Mark Steyn - Septermber 14, 2005 - SteynOnAmerica

At 9.58am Eastern time, Tuesday September 11th 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Why?

As UPI’s Jim Bennett wrote, “The Era of Osama lasted about an hour and a half or so, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty.”

This is an article that is posted on Mark Steyn's personal web site, his blog if you will, about the memorial being planned for the pasture in Pennsylvania where the patriots on Flight 93 died. It is reported the article has appeared in the Irish times, however I haven't seen it in any American newspapers yet. Hopefully you will.

You should know what is being done to dishonor this memorial. The dishonor starts with the architect chosen to design the site, Paul Murdoch. "The idea of the Crescent of Embrace, Murdoch said, is to be a gesture of healing and bonding." To that end he used the symbol of Islam, a crescent, and has the memorial pointing to Mecca. I am sure these touches will delight the islamofascists who tried to destroy us that day. I am uncertain how he thinks it honors the men and women who brought down the plane to stop them.

Why do these artsy people seem so oblivious to patriotism?

The Americans bonded well on that fateful day to accomplish a useful goal. That goal was not to embrace the desire of the islamofasicsts to kill us. It was to stop them. The Americans met their goal and gave their lives in the process. That is what we honor.

"... the architect, has somehow managed to produce a design ... [that is] a splendid memorial to the hijackers rather than their victims", said Steyn.

If the architect wants to bond with the islamofascists, he should move to a Muslim country and bond away.

We must stop this disgrace. Please Contact Gale Norton, the Secretary of the Interior and express your views. Phone and snail mail for her office:

Phone: (202) 208-3100

Gale Norton
Department of the Interior
1849 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20240

If there is anything that we can do to honor these people it is to STOP this insult. In the words of Todd Beamer from that day, "Let's Roll"

Post-Katrina Liberalism

George Will - September 13, 2005 - TownHall.com

America's always fast-flowing river of race-obsessing has overflowed its banks, and last Sunday on ``This Week'' Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois' freshman Democrat, applied to the expression of old banalities a fluency that would be beguiling were it without content. Unfortunately, it included the requisite lament about the president's inadequate ``empathy" and an amazing criticism of the government's ``historic indifference'' and its ``passive indifference'' that ``is as bad as active malice.'' The senator, 44, is just 30 months older than the ``war on poverty'' that President Johnson declared in January 1964. Since then the indifference that is as bad as active malice has been expressed in more than $6.6 trillion of antipoverty spending, strictly defined.

The senator is called a ``new kind of Democrat,'' which often means one with new ways of ignoring evidence discordant with old liberal orthodoxies about using cash --much of it spent through liberalism's ``caring professions'' -- to cope with cultural collapse.

We are witnessing the most amazing spectacle. Though "government" failed fairly woefully in the New Orleans disaster when Katrina hit, the people of America were spectacular. That even included many of the people in government. With this clear pattern that individual initiative is much more effective than government program, politicians of every stripe, from liberal to conservative, are proclaiming that what we need to do is ...... increase government and constrain individuals and the private sector.

Are these people lunatics? Did they not just watch a Mayor leave nearly 1000 buses sitting idle, while he invited people to come sit at the Superdome. He did this totally against the plan that had been put together. He did this on the spur of the moment. He then turned to another government agency and said, "Now it is your problem".

George Bush, arguably a conservative even if some conservatives reject that he deserves the label, is now considering allowing the federal government to take over responsibility even where the Governor and local officials oppose this. I am sure this will be done so that the real concern of the Mayor can be addressed. The Mayor did not want to use the buses because he was afraid that if anything went wrong, the City of New Orleans would be sued. If George has his way, the Mayor will not have to worry about being sued. They can sue the federal government instead.

That way the judge can give each person who is unhappy with the government service millions instead of thousands. However no public official will be at fault. Only the taxpayer will be at fault .... and only the taxpayer will pay. Thanks George.

Terror War All But Forgotten On Home Front

By Mark Steyn - September 11, 2005 - Chicago Sun-Times

About a week after (9/11/2001), one of my local radio stations held a fund-raiser and this is how their trailer for it opened. Cue the terminal-illness-movie-of-the-week soupy piano. Then:

"After the tragic events of Sept. 11 . . ."

And, by the time I'd heard it half-a-dozen times, I retuned the dial and never listened to the station again.

It wasn't a "tragic event" or even one of a series of unfortunate events. It was an "attack," an "act of war."

George W. Bush has seemed oblivious to this constant attempt to ignore that we are at war. As our President, he should not have been, but he was. He even played along with the effort, focusing his energies on "important" things, like Social Security. Don't get me wrong, Social Security is important, but it pales in significance compared with the war for our very existence that is reflected in the war against islamofascicsm.

In the process of using the phrase "war on terror" instead of "war on islamofascism", Bush aided the Main Stream Media in changing the context. "It is not a real war" became the underlying theme. It is sort of like the war on drugs, an annoyance but not a serious threat to our existence. Bush then makes it worse when he goes and focuses on Social Security. He completed the process of trivializing the war in Iraq.

He is now paying a price for this tragic mistake. If it is a trivial war, why not get out? Sounds reasonable. Except the problem is not that it is a trivial war. The problem is that Bush has botched the process of keeping America focused on what is important. That is his job. For reasons that are completely different than the MSM, I believe Bush is doing an incompetent job on the war. He has earned his current low job ratings. However I can see nothing he is willing to do that will change this in the short run. At this point, it will have to wait until the next 9/11, and the horror of that day will be a gruesome price to pay for Bush's mistake.

Katrina, The Race Card, And The Welfare State

By Larry Elder - September 8, 2005 - TownHall.com

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, government failed to do its most essential job -- protecting people and property. Yes, state, local and federal officials failed to appreciate the severity and gravity of this storm and its aftermath, and failed to properly evacuate the citizens from New Orleans. But how does this add up to racism?

There are more and more black intellectuals who are rejecting the race baiting hatred of the white and black liberal leadership. Bill Cosby, a man who has single handedlly given more to advance blacks than nearly anyone else, got tired of the downward cycle in the black community and started speaking out. Liberal leadership, black and white, called him an Uncle Tom.

That appears to be the only argument liberals can offer. If you reject the liberal program for blacks (that is handouts and welfare) you are racist if you are white and an Uncle Tom if you are black. Hurling insults is the only thing liberals are able to do.

That is sad. What is sadder is the reality that most black Americans, even those who don't agree that things are going in the right direction, are unwilling to go on the record with their opposition to this insidious program of insults. When will black Americans stop tolerating this put down of anyone who disagrees with the liberal program and say, "I am an American and how dare you insult me?" When will they defend even one white person who is not liberal and say, "He is not racist for disagreeing with you" to a liberal black? That is the only thing that will allow for progress, since until that is done, there cannot be an intelligent dialog based on facts.

During the civil rights era, Judge Pickering risked his life to testify for a black man. But when he would not support their political programs, the black community smeared him and called him a racist to stop him becoming a Federal Judge. He had earned that judicial position and deserved decent treatment for the character he has shown. If blacks keep doing that to those who have risked much to treat them as equals, who will ever again stand up for them? That is how they reward men of character?

Larry Elder is a man of great courage to continue to go against the liberal black establishment. 90% of blacks will not support him because of it. And that is truly sad.

New Orleans: A Green Genocide

By Michael P. Tremoglie and Ben Johnson - September 8, 2005 - FrontPageMagazine.com

As radical environmentalists continue to blame the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on President Bush’s ecological policies, a mainstream Louisiana media outlet inadvertently disclosed a shocking fact: Environmentalist activists were responsible for spiking a plan that may have saved New Orleans. Decades ago, the Green Left – pursuing its agenda of valuing wetlands and topographical “diversity” over human life – sued to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from building floodgates that would have prevented significant flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.

Once again the leftist agenda of the MSM means that the average citizen will never hear the truth about the true causes of the Katrina disaster. To the MSM George Bush is bad, democrats are good, so no matter what the true facts, screaming about George Bush's "failures" is all that they will embrace. To the MSM environmentalists are good, the Army Corps of Engineers is bad, so screaming about the reduction in one program for upgrading the levees is all that they will embrace. To the MSM that makes it George Bush's fault. Environmentalist opposition to the same program is ignored. Enviromental opposition to an even better program that would have stopped the storm surge will never (I repeat, NEVER) be heard in the MSM. If you don't read the blogs and get your news from the Internet, you are ignorant of what is going on in our nation and will never know the truth.

The Inner Banks Eagle

Today we are renaming our blog the INNER BANKS EAGLE.

I have long loved the American Eagle. That is why I chose the name when I started the blog. Pictures of the Eagle are always dramatic, including the one that I use on the right for our symbol. In all the years I have lived in various places around the world, as well as all the places I have visited, I had never seen a live Eagle in the wild until I returned to North Carolina last fall. A breeding pair across the Chowan river had produced a young male Eagle, and when he was kicked out of the nest he settled in down river. He was a first for me, and he was awesome. I loved watching him soar off the cliff behind the house, and watching him dive for fish in the Chowan.

A conservationist group from the region has brought in a female Eagle and the two have recently paired up. As is usual in this case, the pair has created a new nest. To my delight, they have set up their new nest in the woods beside my house, on a bluff overlooking the Beach Club in Colerain.

I have been trying to get a picture of the two Eagles, but to date I have simply gotten a lot of pictures of sky. I will keep trying though, and one of these days I am sure I will get lucky. In their honor I have implemented the name change that I had already been considering.

That leads us to, "Why the name change?"

As a region, two names have long competed to be the name used to describe where we are from. One, Roanoke-Chowan, uses the names of the two rivers in the area and describes the northern part of our area fairly well, but neither river is all that well known outside the region itself. The other, Down-East has been used more generally for the southern part of our area, but its conflict with the name for the coast of Maine has never allowed it to really catch on. It is confusing to outsiders.

Everyone knows that the Outer Banks describes the coast of North Carolina. A new term has started to catch on in this area. It is the Inner Banks. It includes the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and the adjacent major rivers that feed the two sounds. It is perfect. When I have used it with people on the west coast and northeast, they immediately understood that it is inland from the North Carolina shoreline. It defines the region well.

Therefore, Welcome to the INNER BANKS EAGLE. The politcal blog for this newly named region.

Thanks for your continued support of our blog conversation.

SEE YOU HERE!

Looking The Other Way

John Leo - September 6, 2005 - TownHall.com

The main stream media (MSM) has not been honest with the American people. Sheehan, the mother who is using her son's death for her own political gain, has long been a left wing ideologue and her postions have been carefully edited to present a view of her that is not representative of her true feelings.

Sheehan, before and after her arrival in Texas, said a great many colorful things that failed to interest mainstream reporters.

[snip]

It’s worth reviewing what she said:

The neocons deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

American soldiers are “being sent to kill innocent people” in Iraq.

Her son, Casey Sheehan, “died for oil” and was “murdered” by President Bush.

The United States is “not worth dying for.”

The president, who “stole the election,” is part of the “Bush crime family,” a “lying bastard,” a “führer,” a “filth spewer,” “the biggest terrorist in the world,” and an “evil maniac” who is guilty of “blatant genocide.”

Have you seen any of this reported? Do you think the average American shares these beliefs? It is of a great deal of concern that the MSM will not honestly report what someone is saying when the quotes would conflict with the message the media wants to portray. It is one more reason that more and more people are getting their news from the Internet. The MSM cannot be trusted not to lie to us.

FEMA Is Not A First Responder

By Craig Martelle - Septermber 6, 2005 - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

The key to emergency management starts at the local level and expands to the state level. Emergency planning generally does not include any federal guarantees, as there can only be limited ones from the federal level for any local plan. FEMA provides free training, education, assistance and respond in case of an emergency, but the local and state officials run their own emergency management program.

A picture is worth a thousand words. The MSM is attacking Bush and the Republicans for "failing" New Orleans, and are covering up for the Mayor who blames everyone but himself and his administration. However this picture is the key to understanding what went wrong in New Orleans.

Phil Coale, Associated Press - Flooded school buses in a lot, New Orleans, Sept. 1.

These buses were totally under the control of the Mayor of New Orleans and would have moved nearly 35,000 people out of the city for each round trip. Baton Rouge is only an hour and half away. They could easily have made one trip on Sunday, and one trip on Tuesday, and the major frustration, lack of food at the Superdome, would have been a non existant problem. In reality they could have made two trips each day and by themselves have moved the entire 100,000 people who were left stuck in New Orleans.

The plan for the City of New Orleans says that the Mayor will "evacuate the city 72 hours before the hurricane." Why did he wait until 24 hours, and then not use these buses?

Immigrant Flood Is Swamping America

By Barbara McEwan - Monday, September 05, 2005 - Roanoke Times

Analysis of Census Bureau figures like that done by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) verifies the costs of illegals to American taxpayers. Nearly two-thirds of illegals lack a high school diploma, resulting in low incomes and tax payments. As a result, illegal alien households are estimated to cost $2,700 a year more per household in services than they pay in taxes (asuming they are not underground and paying nothing). This totaled a burden of nearly $10.4 billion on the federal budget in 2002.

The costs to each individual hosehold is extremely high. So why do we put up with it? One reason is that the Democrats have made it a certainty that if you complain you will be labeled a racist. Need an example? The federal government did not respond as quickly as the Mayor of New Orleans thought was acceptable and within 3 hours two Senators, Jesse Jackson, and Robert Kennedy's son had gone on national TV and said it was due to racism.

The racist charge is the knee jerk reaction whenever anyone says or does, or even doesn't do, what democrats want, or don't want. What I don't understand is why blacks support people who are in fact destroying their income potential. That is what democrats are doing. Democrat support for illegal immigration costs blacks their jobs. If you say that though, Jesse Jackson will claim you are a racist. How bizarre is that?

The most important quote in the article? "Bear Stearns concludes that the average annual earnings of American workers have been reduced by 4 percent to 6 percent. Barron's financial publication concurs."

Could you use a 6 percent raise?