Supremely Excellent News: VICTORY at Ground Zero Memorial!

VICTORY AT GROUND ZERO!

Yesterday, Governor George Pataki, (R-NY) announced that the International Freedom Center, which has been a source of controversy and offense to many, will NOT be built at Ground Zero in New York.

As a result of that decision, The group representing the IFC made the following statement:

"We are deeply disappointed that the will could not be found to continue the development of the International Freedom Center at this hallowed site. We do not believe there is a viable alternative place for the IFC at the World Trade Center site. We consider our work, therefore, to have been brought to an end."

After reading that, my first reaction was to revise that lovely ditty from the Wizard of Oz:

"Ding Dong the witch is dead. Which old witch? The Freedom Center.... Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead!"

This is a victory for truth. A victory for America and a victory for every person who cared enough to get involved.

In times past, it would not have been possible. The "mainstream" media would not have presented our point of view. Let this victory be a lesson for what victories we might achieve in the future on other issues of importance.

To everyone who helped get this message out, take a moment and pat yourselves on the back. Job well done. Now, let's build on this victory and go win another one!

Visit the Take Back the Memorial web site for more.

Celebrate this victory and play the audio: "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"

Blogroll for VICTORY!

From: A North American Patriot:

Bloggers who have signed onto the Pro-Victory blogroll:

Military Veteran Speaks of Brother's Sacrifice

Contrast the leftwing freak show that took place at the "peace" rally Muther Sheehan and company put on in Washington, D.C. the previous weekend, with this statement from a veteran who lost his twin brother in Iraq.

If you haven't heard this compelling audio, please click here to open his speech in your media player.

"When the wolf comes knocking at your door, who are you going to call? Cindy Sheehan and the Pink Ladies?"

Thanks Cao for the audio. Please visit Cao's blog for more clips.

Democrat Liberal/Socialism Fails the Weak and the Poor in New Orleans

Here's a thought. The chart below shows which areas of Louisiana voted most heavily for the re-election of Senator Mary Landrieu (D) in the Senate election of 2002.

The heaviest concentration of votes, which assured Senator Landrieu's narrow win over the Republican challenger came from New Orleans.

From the research file from Patrick Ruffini

And yet, Senator Landrieu garnered the largest share of federal grant money for Corps of Enginners projects, but NEVER proposed legislation to upgrade the levy's that protect New Orleans.

No wonder the race pimps and corrupt Louisiana politicians went into instant blame Bush mode, even as the winds of Katrina were still raging. Otherwise, they might have to explain this:

Socialism's Promise vs. History and Reality

Mike's America socialist mascot makes the scene at San Francisco "peace" rally. So, who thought my description of the left as a bunch of tie-dyed hippie freak tree worshipping neo-socialists was over the top?

Cao, of Cao's Blog reminds me that the socialists at the "peace" rally in Washington this past week know a thing or two about mass murder:

It's one sad fact of history that is too often overlooked as the moral equivalence crowd tries to argue that the unfortunate and unintended deaths which occurred during the US liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan are somehow the same as the decades of mass killings and evil perpetuated against those and other societies.

I'm also reminded of this poster from Protest Warrior (see link for more):

The purges and forced collectivization under both Stalin and Mao killed at least that many or more. Add the deaths from World War II and the one million Iraqis that Saddam killed and you get a clear picture of mass murder that was brought to the world by evil socialist/communist/fascist regimes.

But as Josef Stalin said: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." A modern interpretation by the left would be "So What... Bush is just as bad!"

Let's Dig Deeper into Socialism's Promise and Reality

Willisms produced a series of charts based on a CATO study of economic freedom. In chart after chart, the countries with the greatest economic freedom (the opposite of socialism) have the best standard of living, the lowest infant mortality rate, are the most politically stable, self sufficient and peaceful.

And while many nations in Europe where a socialist model is still in effect suffer from high unemployment and economic malaise (think France and Germany) those states which are moving away from state control are experiencing economic booms with low unemployment (Ireland and Iceland being two examples.)

A while back, Willisms also had another great chart, which I borrowed for a post in May, entitled "Socialism a Good Idea? You Be the Judge":

Even the poorest citizens of the evil Capitalist/Imperialist warmongering United States have more spacious living conditions than most of Europe's socialist and recovering socialist regimes.
So the next time some lefty begins singing the praises of socialism and the evils of capitalism, you might just take them on a history lesson first, then follow it up with some economic reality. Not that it will make much difference. Once the left swallows the Michael Moore kool-aid they have to deny reality so as to avoid any responsibility for the evil perpetrated by the failures of socialism.

And for those who claim "I'm not a socialist, I'm a liberal." Well, the consequences of your proposed policies would be the same as the socialist model of utopia. And you can call yourself "progressive" or "mainstream" all you want. It won't alter reality.

Socialist Revolution Goal of Anti-War Protestors

Here's a photo from the September 24 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. For anyone with the slightest doubt about the "peaceful" intentions of these groups this should clear things up:

Of course if you think one sign isn't sufficient proof, here's a gallery of photos from other anti-war protests.

Readers may recall the statements by Ray Davis who founded Military Families Voice for Victory:

Third are the "peace" groups. There is just no nice way to put it, they hate America and they hate any free society. They are an aggregate of anti-capitalist groups. For them it is not about peace but control. In their mind if they can control the United States they can control the world. The only human life that has any worth to them is their own. You only have to spend a few minutes in a debate with one of these people before you realize they are not peaceful people. They may have a polite peaceful veneer but underneath beats the heart of Joseph Stalin. For our troops their biggest enemy is a collective of terrorist groups. For those of us at home it is a collective of Marxists, communists, fascists, and Maoists masquerading as peace groups.

Moonbattery has more on the roots of these "peace" groups:

International ANSWER, which has played a key roll in most of the major "antiwar" demonstrations since 9/11, has no problem whatsoever with military force when it is applied on behalf of totalitarian communism. It is a front group for the Workers World Party, which split off from Trotskyist communists because the latter disapproved of Soviet tanks rolling into Hungary in 1956 to crush those brave enough to aspire to freedom there. To the WWP, the only good place for a counter-revolutionary is under the treads of a tank.

Moonbattery also has an excerpt from a recent Christopher Hitchens piece: "Anti-War, My Foot, The phony peaceniks who protested in Washington." which is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about who is behind the "peace" movement:

To be against war and militarism, in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is one thing. But to have a record of consistent support for war and militarism, from the Red Army in Eastern Europe to the Serbian ethnic cleansers and the Taliban, is quite another. It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not. Or a single placard saying, "Yes to Kurdish self-determination" or "We support Afghan women's struggle"? Don't make me laugh.

Media Whore Sheehan Jealous of Hurricane Coverage

Flopping Aces waded into the socialist sewer that is Daily Kos and found a bright ray of sunshine amidst the slime. Muther Sheehan complained that on Saturday, the day of her big March on Washington, replete with the trappings of old hippies, Marxists, socialists, communists and race pimpers, the national media was focused on Hurricane Rita, as it ravaged the Texas and Louisiana coast.

A reader currently dealing with the life threatening ordeal of that storm responded.

Here's a portion of the exchange. Visit Flopping Aces for more.

Un-freakin-believable:

I am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita...even though it is a little wind and a little rain...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!!
by CindySheehan on Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 06:29:15 PDT

I'm in Southeast Texas with family on the coast and in Lake Jackson, LA.
I'd like you to tell us it's just a little wind and rain. They've lost their homes, jobs and businesses and gone through fear and panic while you bask in your fan's adulation, party with your celebrity friends and play the star.
Shame on you, you're jealous of media coverage of other's suffering. You've become a caricature and I no longer support you. I'm ashamed I ever did.
by hibsnet on Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 18:19:40 PDT

I hope Curt at Flopping Aces took a bath and gave his computer a thorough virus scan after that visit to Daily Kos.

Sheewitch Arrested Outside White House...Hey! Look at Me! Look at Me!

Disappointed with the lack of attention Muther Sheehan received on Saturday, she decided that a new publicity campaign was necessary to highlight how this is all about her. So she led a group of peaceniks (defined as those who actually want the US to lose the war, completely neuter the US military which results in mass murder in the Middle East and eventual establishment of a global Islamic caliphate) outside the White House, where they were arrested for one of their silly sit-ins.

This woman craves attention. It's all about her, so for those who might be not be fully acquainted with her pathology, here's a primer:

• She's been trading on the sacrifice, memory and honor of her son Casey, who twice volunteered to serve in the military, understood it's mission and fully supported it.
• She has been a media story since she climbed into the ditch outside the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Casey's grandparents, aunts and uncles were troubled that she would trample all over Casey's beliefs to promote her own agenda and spoke out publicly begging her to stop.
• She has made quite a nice little packet of change for her efforts to trade on her son's honor. Not only was her house in California remodeled by volunteer labor and materials, she is now considering book and movie deals.
• She has drawn in supporters such as black racists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who can no doubt advise her on the best way to line your pockets while exploiting tragedy and misfortune.
• She has drawn in supporters like white supremacists David Duke (kept hidden away from the media when Jesse and Al are in town.)

That's just a small cross-section of the Sheehan pathology. It's a narcissitic malady that infects more than this foul creature. It's symptomatic of the leftists in general who seem intent on forcing their mal-formed views of the world on the rest of us.

Hillary Clinton Comes Out in FAVOR of Appropriate Ground Zero Memorial

Readers on the Take Back the Memorial email list will have seen this already. But for those of you you haven't:

Hillary Clinton opposes the International Freedom Center, which proposed an Orwellian left wing freak show in the place where a memorial to the 9/11 atrocities belonged.

From the New York Post:

“I cannot support the IFC,” Clinton declared last night in a strongly worded statement in response to an inquiry from The Post.
[…]
“While I want to ensure that development and rebuilding in lower Manhattan move forward expeditiously, I am troubled by the serious concerns family members and first responders have expressed to me,” Clinton said.

“The LMDC [Lower Manhattan Development Corp.] has authority over the site and I do not believe we can move forward until it heeds and addresses their concerns.”

It's all part of her calculated plan to move to the right in advance of a likely presidential bid in 2008. Not sure how the looney tune lefties who control the Democrat Party nominating process will feel about having their beloved socialist clap-trap removed from center stage at Ground Zero. Stay tuned!

A Candian Viewpoiont on Bush & Katrina, Socialism and the UN

The following reminded me of that pro-American classic brodcast by Canadian Gordon Sinclair in 1973 entitled "The Americans" (RealPlayer audio here, or visit CFRB Toronto for other options and the full story.

While some things have changed, notably the token foreign assistance coming to New Orleans, whose connection to the Red Cross was part of the broadcast, much of Sinclair's observations remain relevant today as the piece below points out.

Thanks, Dawn, for sharing the following by Candian journalist David Warren. As a result, I stumbled across Mr. Warren's web site. If you visit his site, you will also want to read "German Failure" which discusses the failure of socialism in light of the recent German election and what it means for other democracies with similar socialist leanings.

You will also want to read "The nuts and Bolton" in which he describes the problem of the United Nations as it observes it's 60th anniversary of doing not much at all.

In that peice he references one of Mike's America's favorite commentators, Mark Steyn and his recent post "There is No Cure for the U.N."
Here's the opening paragraph:

Kofi Annan is the very embodiment of transnationalism?s polite fictions: a dapper soft-spoken African, he seems the soul of moderation. Even when what he?s actually saying is highly immoderate, and even when he?s standing next to some disgusting dictator as he says it, he?s always a reliably decaffeinated Kofi.

You'll want to read the rest.

Anyway, before we get too far off the mark, here's the original story which started this excursion into excellence:

Blame throwing

There's plenty wrong with America, since you asked. (Everybody's asking.) I'm tempted to say, the only difference from Canada, is that they have a few things right. That would be unfair, of course -- I am often pleased to discover things we still get right.

But one of them would not be disaster preparation. If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C. The theory being, that when you're in real trouble, that's where the adults live.

And that isn't an exaggeration. Almost everything that has worked in the recovery operation along the U.S. Gulf Coast has been military and National Guard. Within a few days, under several commands, finally consolidated under the remarkable Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, it was once again the U.S. military, efficiently cobbling together a recovery operation on a scale beyond the capacity of any other earthly institution.

We hardly have a military up here. We have elected one feckless government after another, who have cut corners until there is nothing substantial left. We don't have the ability even to transport and equip our few soldiers. Should disaster strike at home, on a big scale, we become a Third World country. At which point, our national smugness is of no avail.

From Democrats and the American Left -- the U.S. equivalent to the people who run Canada -- we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass.

This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing, receive food stamps and prescription medicine and government support through many other programmes. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, sans input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses parked in rows to be lost in the flood, that could have driven them out of town.

Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.

The scale of private charity has also been unprecedented. There are yet no statistics, but I'll wager the most generous state in the union will prove to have been arch-Republican Texas, and that nationally, contributions in cash and kind are coming disproportionately from people who vote Republican. For the world divides into "the mouths" and "the wallets".

The Bush-bashing, both down there and up here, has so far lost touch with reality, as to raise questions about the bashers' state of mind.

Consult any authoritative source on how government works in the United States, and you will learn that the U.S. federal government's legal, constitutional, and institutional responsibility for first response to Katrina, as to any natural disaster, was zero.

Notwithstanding, President Bush took the prescient step of declaring a disaster, in order to begin deploying FEMA and other federal assets, two full days in advance of the stormfall. In the little time since, he has managed to coordinate an immense recovery operation -- the largest in human history -- without invoking martial powers. He has been sufficiently Presidential to respond, not even once, to the extraordinarily mendacious and childish blame-throwing.

One thinks of Kipling's "If --" poem, which I learned to recite as a lad, and mention now in the full knowledge that it drives postmodern leftoids and gliberals to apoplexy -- as anything that is good, beautiful, or true:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise...

Unlike his critics, Bush is a man, in the full sense presented by these verses. A fallible man, like all the rest, but a man.

Able Danger Mystery Deepens

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Pentagon program code-named "Able Danger," a data mining operation using mostly publicly available data which had identified Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11th hijackers, with links to terror cells in New York in 2000.

From the first revelations of the Able Danger program there was been a swirl of confusion surrounding the very existence of the program, what exactly it discovered, what action was taken with the information and what became of the information.

Sadly, after the Wednesday hearings more questions remain unanswered and new ones were raised.

Very troubling, is the news that shortly before the hearing, where witnesses were invited, not subpoenaed, the Department of Defense, through the Defense Intelligence Agency, ordered active duty military personnel slated to testify before the committee to remain silent and the security clearance of Able Danger whistleblower Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer was revoked, effectively ending his career in intelligence.

Yet even though active military officers like Shaffer were prohibited from testifying, they showed up anyway, remaining silent as witnesses testified to what they had earlier reported.

Able Danger Washington Two Step

When news of Able Danger's explosive revelations surfaced earlier this year, it was like a bombshell. Yet even before the ink on the first round of newspaper stories was dry, there was an undercurrent of doubt, denial and deception coming from not just the Pentagon and September 11th Commission, but from usually reliable conservative voices like John Podhoretz in the New York Post.

Congressman Weldon, (R-PA), Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Vice Chair of the Homeland Security Committee broke the news. Shortly after he was derided as a bit of a kook and Republicans were warned to steer clear of what were described as wild and unsubstantiated charges.

Both the Pentagon and the September 11th Commission denied that there was anything to the Able Danger story, perhaps suggesting it had never existed. When Congressman Weldon produced Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer, who worked on Able Danger, the focus shifted to questioning Shaffer's credibility.

Only after additional Department of Defense personnel came forward to corrorborate Shaffer's story did the Department of Defense admit that yes, Able Danger existed, and later, yes, it had identified Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers.

Why? Why? Why?

So Weldon, a very Senior member of Congress with direct oversight responsibilities on military matters is not a kook. Lt. Col. Shaffer and the other Able Danger staffers are not liars.

What is going on?

The Senate hearings (official site and testimony here) which were broadcast on C-Span and may be replayed via their web page, only one Department of Defense official, William Dugan, Acting Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight, offered rather tepid and unclear answers to what is going on here. If you watch the video, look for the facial expressions of Congressman Weldon sitting behind Dugan. Shaking his head in disbelief pretty much sums up what members of the House, Senate and general public following this story are thinking.

Under direct and repeated questioning by Chairman Specter, a former prosecutor, Dugan admits that the Able Danger team identified Atta, he was NOT considered a "US person" which would have prohibited the Department of Defense from including his information in Able Danger reports and Posse Comitatus was not an issue in why Able Danger was shut down.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, senators on the committee, who came and went during the hearing, expressed absolute incredulity at the Pentagon stonewalling . The most stinging rebuke came from Senator Charles Grassley who vowed that he would work with other members of the committee to see to it that we get to the bottom of this matter.

Finally, if you take the opportunity to see a replay of the hearing, You'll be struck by the testimony of Erik Kleinsmith, former Army Major and Chief Intelligence of the Land Information Warfare Analysis LIWA unit, a component of Able Danger. Army regulations and concerns regarding intelligence that might have been collected on US persons required Major Kleinsmith to destroy all data and files relating to Able Danger in April 2000. After September 11th, he went to bed every night thinking that if they had only continued the work and pushed it up the ladder high enough that September 11th might have been prevented. He fears that links to possible attacks in the future are going uninvestigated as result of Able Danger's shutdown.

Follow-Up

Statements from Senate Judiciary Committee members reveal that there is no way Able Danger is going to get swept under the rug. The next step will be subpoenas to the witnesses that were refused permission to voluntarily testify. Senators will also wish to inquire whether a more informed Department of Defense official might be available to explain why there has been a stonewall on this issue.

That stonewall is particularly perplexing. You can't buck powerful members of both the House and the Senate and get away with it. If there are legitimate national security reasons why this matter should be handled in executive, or secret session, let that argument be made.

Thus far, the fumbling and bumbling has been about as helpful as one way fingerpointing after Hurricane Katrina!

Global Warming REAL! On MARS!

We've heard the hysterics from the left who insist that global warming is man made and urgent measures to restructure every aspect of modern life are necessary in order to avoid extinction.

Well, we don't do environmental hysterics here at Mike's America. Just as the alar apple scare turned out to be nothing but a left wing scare campaign, global warming hysterics are equally incredulous.

From the July 2004 News Telegraph:

Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.

A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.

Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.

And yet all we hear from the left is hysteria about the dumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of burning fossil fuels....

WEEELLLLL, Now we have a study that points out that the Earth itself is responding to lower CO₂ levels by releasing this greenhouse gas from the soil. Reminds me of the accurate, but widely derided statement President Reagan made about hydrocarbon pollution from trees.

Carbon levels in soil are dropping much faster than previously thought, meaning that the reductions in CO₂ emissions achieved since 1990 have effectively been wiped out, a report says today.

Soil sampled from almost 6,000 sites in England and Wales was shown to contain an average of 15 per cent less carbon than 25 years ago.

The findings have alarmed scientists because, while Britain cut its carbon dioxide emissions by around 12.7 million tons per year between 1990 and 2002, 13 million tons of the gas were released into the atmosphere by soil.

As the first comprehensive historical comparison of soil samples in the world, the findings suggest that significant carbon loss, previously blamed on changes in land use and management, is due to climate change.

O.K. so Mother Earth is responding to decreased CO₂ emmissions by pulling it out of the soil. Still no proof that humanity, or more appropriately, PRESIDENT BUSH, isn't to blame for any perceived global warming.

But then, there is this report from NASA:

August 7, 2003: It's not every day you get to watch a planetary ice cap vanish, but this month you can. All you need are clear skies, a backyard telescope, and a sky map leading to Mars.
...
Mars has gotten so big in recent weeks that even a backyard telescope will show details on the planet's surface: dust clouds, volcanic terrains, impact basins. Best of all is the south polar cap. Made of frozen CO2 or "dry ice," it reflects more sunlight than any other part of the planet. The southern hemisphere of Mars is tipped toward Earth and the bright cap is remarkably easy to see.

Don't wait too long to look, though, because the ice will soon be gone.

Like Earth, Mars has seasons that cause its polar caps to wax and wane. "It's late spring at the south pole of Mars," says planetary scientist Dave Smith of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "The polar cap is receding because the springtime sun is shining on it."

Soooo... the polar icecaps on Mars are melting. Somehow it's all George W. Bush's fault as we will soon discover. Either that or we may yet overlook the leftwing control-freak hysteria surrounding the Earth's own climate cycles and conclude that these flucuations are as natural as the seasons on Mars.

A Contrast in Caring and Responsiblity

Contrast the two photos below. One shows a government exercising it's authority and responsiblity in a timely manner to evacuate Texans in ADVANCE of a major storm. The other shows how local officials in New Orleans abdicated that responsiblity and turned around and blamed President Bush instead.

Galveston, Texas residents evacuated by local school district buses FOUR DAYS BEFORE Hurricane Rita is threatened to strike the Texas coast.

New Orleans school buses that were NEVER USED to evacuate residents in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.

Seems Republican governors like Perry in Texas, and Barber in Mississippi (which took the direct hit from Katrina) do a better job of meeting the needs of their poorest citizens. Yet who gets slammed as being racist?

Rumsfeld: War Critics Wrong in Afghanistan, Wrong in Iraq!

Under the Burka, these Afghan women were overheard to say: "Michael Moore, Muther Sheehan, UP YOURS!"

I'm a big admirer of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. His briefing at the Pentagon in the wake of the Afghan election was spot on:

From Department of Defense Transcript:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2005 ? On Sunday the people of Afghanistan voted in their second successful democratic election in less than one year. These were their provincial and parliamentary elections. Terrorists have done everything in their power to try to intimidate the millions of Afghan voters and the literally thousands, in this case of the most recent election, thousands of candidates from participating in their elections. And they failed this week, just as they failed in the successful presidential elections.

Think of it. The country that hosted Osama bin Laden, that supported training camps for al Qaeda, endured decades of civil war, Soviet occupation, drought, Taliban brutality, is now a democracy that fights terrorists instead of harboring them. The Afghan people's courage should be a stunning reminder to all of those seemingly self- confident prognosticators who foresaw an Afghan quagmire. They were not just wrong, they were harmful by making the cause seem hopeless. Let me remind you of just a few examples.

"The war effort is in deep trouble. The United States is not headed into a quagmire, it is already in one." That was The L.A. Times. That was five days before Mazar fell.

"The question was suspended like a spore in the autumn air: Are we quagmiring ourselves again?" That was The New York Times.

"Without a clear exit strategy, another generation of American servicemen may be sucked into a quagmire in a foreign land." That was, I think, the Dallas Morning News. And there were many, many others.

Thankfully, millions of Afghans were determined to prove them wrong. A determined coalition put a plan in place -- yes, there was a plan -- adjusted it as needed -- and it did need to be adjusted, as all war plans do -- and followed a steady course despite the cassandras of the West echoing the predictions of the terrorists. I mention this because many who were so quick to predict gloom on Afghanistan are today eager to toss it in on Iraq, claiming that it's hopeless. But the Iraqi people and the coalition have a plan for Iraq, just as there was a plan for Afghanistan.

Consider the following. Have the Iraqis been able to form a government that realistically incorporates the views of the various responsible factions in Iraq? Yes, they have. Have Iraqis successfully held representative elections? The answer is yes. Have they now succeeded in drafting a constitution that accords respect for individual rights? Indeed they have. Are the insurgents gaining or losing the support of the Iraqi people? President Talabani recently spoke in the United States about this. He noted that the vast majority of Iraqis, including Sunnis, want to participate in the political process and have been disgusted, and indeed, outraged by the barbarism of the extremists. Finally, despite the critics, are the Iraqi security forces growing in size and capability and allowing the Iraqi government to secure areas with coalition support? Yes, this too is happening. Iraqi security forces now number over 190,000.

Last week, for example, the people of Tall Afar were liberated from the grip of insurgents and foreign extremists who had tried to turn the city into a base of planning operations and training. A number of insurgents were caught fleeing the city dressed in women's clothing -- hardly a sign of a confident group supported by the citizenry.

General Myers will provide some details on that operation, but I should note that this offensive featured some 5,000 Iraqi security forces in a leading role. A significant Iraqi military presence will stay on in Tall Afar with coalition assistance to support their new police force and to ensure that the terrorists do not return.

The people who know what's happening on the ground are, for the most part, Iraqi citizens and the coalition forces. They're there. And both report progress, growing confidence in the Iraqi security forces, and hope about the future.

When Abraham Lincoln delivered two minutes of remarks that he had only finished the night before, the speech was panned. When George Marshall proposed a plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, critics viewed it as "generous at best" and "wasteful at worst." When Ronald Reagan walked away from the summit with the Soviet Union "empty- handed," as they said, in the eyes of some it seemed to many that Reykjavik was a failure. The point is that history has perspective.

Today history records the brilliance of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The Marshall Plan helped Europe recover. And Ronald Reagan's tough line at Reykjavik -- according to the Soviets, anyway -- was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. In thinking about Afghanistan and Iraq, we should ask what history will say. It will not be the daily violence or short-term setbacks, nor which person won the battle for a daily headline by predicting doom and gloom over and over. Instead, it will show that the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq was tough and ugly, to be sure, but that America was on freedom's side, and it will remember the millions of people who have been freed and the hundreds of thousands of coalition forces who helped them achieve that freedom.

Military Families Speak Out for VICTORY!

Moonbattery, by way of Byron, discovered this great site to support our troops AND their mission: Military Families Voice of Victory

In an interview with Frontpage, Ray Davis, who co-founded the group with his wife Rebecca to show support for the troops describes the groups goals. They have three sons in the military who have and are serving overseas.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

When the War on Terror first started it was about America and our way of life. We stood united Democrat and Republican. Now it seems as if every political group wants to use this war to move their agenda forward. There are groups out there that will use this to try and undermine support at home and bring about our defeat. Our military is still fighting for America and freedom. Military families need to unite and give an apolitical voice as to why we fight.
...
First I think we need to separate the antiwar movement into subgroups. First are the ones who get all their news from their local paper and the evening news. With a little patience and solid facts you can convince these people we are doing the right thing. Second are the people who are normally very patriotic but they are older, lifelong, die hard Democrats. They hate George Bush because he is a Republican and anything he does is wrong. It takes a mountain of effort to change their minds, but it can be done if you can get them to think beyond partisanship. Third are the "peace" groups. There is just no nice way to put it, they hate America and they hate any free society. They are an aggregate of anti-capitalist groups. For them it is not about peace but control. In their mind if they can control the United States they can control the world. The only human life that has any worth to them is their own. You only have to spend a few minutes in a debate with one of these people before you realize they are not peaceful people. They may have a polite peaceful veneer but underneath beats the heart of Joseph Stalin. For our troops their biggest enemy is a collective of terrorist groups. For those of us at home it is a collective of Marxists, communists, fascists, and Maoists masquerading as peace groups.
...
When you look at the history of the Islamo-fascist terrorist groups they almost all trace their roots to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that fought with Hitler during WW2. This group embraced fascism, but realizing it would not be accepted by Muslims, it put a Muslim face to its ideology. They are to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity. The leaders of the terrorist groups share the same ideology as the "peace" groups in the U.S. They are only interested in control and the U.S. stands in their way.
...
Our goals are to expose the radical left for who they are: the allies to the terrorists. We want to give good solid facts on why we are in this war and why completing the mission in Iraq is so critical to winning the War on Terror. And last but not least to gather military families in a united voice, without political ties, to show support for our troops and the war they fight. Because as one Marine put it "If you say you support the troops but not the mission you aren't really doing us much good".

Muther Sheehan Hectors Pregnant War Widow

This is what happens when you take on "absolute moral authority." Anything you say or do is ok if you think it supports your cause. We first saw that moral corruption at work when Muther Sheehan used the names of fallen soldiers without the permission of the soldier's family for her protest of crosses.

Now, the Muther is telling a widow, also a soldier, and nine months pregnant with the baby of her fallen soldier husband, that "Your baby is going to be fatherless for a lie."

Whenever I think these people can't get any lower, or more vile, they do. Sickening!

WIDOW: My husband was hit with a IED July 15th and died July 21st. He was part of the 325 unit out of Ohio. He was a Navy corpsman. He died two weeks before 21 Marines died out of Ohio. Everyone keeps saying Al-Qaeda is not in Iraq. Al-Qaeda took responsibility for the IED that killed my husband, and --

SHEEHAN: Well, sweetie, they weren't there before they invaded and opened the doors borders to the terrorists --

WIDOW: No, we don't know that, though.

SHEEHAN: -- that came pouring in.

WIDOW: No one knows that.

SHEEHAN: Yeah, there's been reports --

WIDOW: I served five years and, you know what? I'm going to have our baby in 12 more days, and if I do get called I will go back, and I will serve my country the way my husband would want me to. (applause) I am proud of my husband, because, you know what? You can't let them come back and not finish what we started.

SHEEHAN: You know what? Your baby is going to be fatherless for a lie, for two lies, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. [see below]

WIDOW: My child will never be fatherless because his father is an angel and they know that, and they will know their father loved him more than anything in this world.

The above is a transcript from "The Big Idea, with Donny Deutsch" on CNBC. I haven't seen the video, but the audio was moving. The voice of the widow confronting Sheehan quavered with emotion while Muther Sheehan sneered at her.

Sheehan is a snake!

Transcript provided by Rush Limbaugh

A New Deal for New Orleans?

In his speech to the nation from Jackson Square in storm ravaged New Orleans, President Bush outlined a new deal for New Orleans. It's a mix of massive federal spending, combined with ideas, some new, others old but untested, for economic and social rebirth of the once great city on the Mississippi.

It is the largest single immediate federal undertaking in many years. Spending may outrank even the periodic payouts to wage war and rebuild Iraq. All in one shot.

The number of deaths as a result of the storm was dramatically less than the hysterical statements of New Orleans' Mayor Nagin, repeated breathlessly by the media. The final count may be closer to the death toll in the 1995 Chicago heatwave, which also claimed it's victims from the ranks of the poor, minority and senior citizen population.

With sections of the city reopening this week, and access to more heavily damaged sections improving as the water is finally pumped out, we will soon have a better understanding of the full scope of the disaster and urgent and long term needs that must be addressed.

From preliminary reports it seems pretty clear that the poorest sections of New Orleans are going to need the most help. Businesses in the downtown and historic French Quarter were less impacted and with insurance and the other resources available to them, they will succeed in rebuilding that economic infrastructure with minimal federal assistance.

But those who lost everything, were those who had little to begin with and little if any resources available to assist their recovery. These are the folks we should focus on and the outpouring of support from the nation has been heartwarming. Perfect strangers offering to take Katrina survivors into their homes and communities. Providing more than a helping hand with food, clothing and shelter, many kind souls offer a personal connection to new communities and hope.

But for those who wish to return to New Orleans, we need a New Deal.

It won't be enough to simply hand over billions of dollars to the same corrupt political machine which left the poor trapped in poverty. A commenter at Flopping Aces referred to the poor blacks in New Orleans and elsewhere as the Palestinians of America. Used by that cadre of Democrat race pimps and poverty pushers who lined their own pockets at the expense of the poor. Keep that in mind next time Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton shows up in a limousine, checks into a five star hotel then proceeds to the press conference to be surrounded by the poor and the downtrodden.



Two hundred billion dollars for revitalizing the area won't be enough to solve the problems created by decades of corrupt Democrat control of New Orleans and Louisiana. Should we simply hand a blank check to a Mayor who failed to implement his cities own plan to care for these poorest citizens who are now most in need? And the federal officials like Congressman William Jefferson and Senator Landrieu and the Louisiana political establishment that for years has failed to address the needs of this community as they pursued other goals. Can it be business as usual with those folks?

The key question here is will we be able to give the poorest residents of New Orleans a new deal and a new start if we simply hand over money and power to those who have proven that the interests of the poor is secondary to other political considerations?


In the past, President Bush has shown a propensity to compromise with the left. He has yet to veto a single bill coming out of congress. But handing a blank check to those who have failed to solve the problems, will only return New Orleans to business as usual where the poor are concerned. And that's not good enough!

The responsibility for a successful revitalizing of New Orleans has been placed solely on the shoulders of President Bush. Yet, if he is to succeed, he will also have to possess the lion's share of authority to do the job the way he sees fit. That of course will upset the race and poverty pimps and the corrupt New Orleans politicos currently salivating at the prospect of rewarding their friends with fat new contracts funded by taxpayer dollars.

But we as citizens, have an obligation to do more than offer another round of false promises. The political battle to decide whether a new vision for New Orleans is possible is just beginning.

Mike's America Poet Laureate "Scarlett" Pens Verse

The title of Mike's America Poet Laureate is hereby bestowed upon reader "Scarlett" who pens the following verse:

What is so rare as a day in September,
Let me think,
Oh yes, I remember.
On the seventeenth a star did appear
to show us the light
And write without fear.
To fight the good fight ,
So the left just might hear
That Mike is so right
And his message so clear.
Let's get the leftie bastards!

Scarlett, September 17,2005

Mike's America Joins the Wide Awakes

Mike's America is proud to join the Wide Awakes, that corps of likeminded individuals dedicated to "propagate conservative views and values on the internet as well as protect ourselves from the increasingly strident and sometimes nasty and vicious attacks of our political opponents."

Readers may already be aware of some of my favorite Wide Awake sites: The Mary Hunter's Bacon Bits and Van Helsing's Moonbattery.

I'm looking forward to getting better acquainted with more of the Wide Awakes in the days to come.

The BlogRoll:

Always on Watch Cao's Blog* Cat House Chat Crystal Clear Daisycutter Danegerus Dead Republican Presidents doubleplusgood infotainment* Dr. Sanity* Euphoric Reality GM's Corner* Gribbit Online Kender's Musings Lesser of Two Evils Mike's America* Moonbattery.com NIF Ogre's Politics and Views* Parrot Check Part-Time Pundit* Political Yin/Yang Ravings Of A Mad Tech Rightwing Nuthouse Rottweiler Puppy Schadenfreude* Smoke Signals Blog Social Sense Soy Como Soy Stacking Swivel Sticks and Stones STOP THE ACLU! Team Swap* The Discerning Texan* The Middle Ground The Nashif Report The Squamata Report The Wild Duck third world county* TMH's Bacon Bits* Today's Democracy* Uncivil Rights

I urge all Mike's America readers to peruse the Wide Awakes blogroll! Let them know how much we appreciate their efforts!

Another Full Moon, Another Muther Sheehan Sighting. Coincidence?

At the last full moon, Muther Sheehan was all over the news demanding that the US and Israel pull out of the Middle East. A month later, another full moon and VOILA, the witch is back!

Coincidence?

moon phases

Better stock up on garlic, holy water and silver bullets. Apparently the Sheewitch is immune to crosses!

Media Whore Sheehan Rises from New Orleans Sewage

She's obviously felt neglected lately. Did you miss Muther Sheehan's hate America diatribe?

She must have been upset when she heard Jesse Jackson was hogging the spotlight in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Well nothing is going to stop Muther Sheehan from spreading her hate America message. Not even tragedy and suffering will keep this vile socialist from spreading more sewage on the open wounds of New Orleans.

Here she is, in her own words, courtesy of Michael Moore:

When I reflect on how the mother of the imbecile who is running our country said that the people who are in the Astrodome are happy to be there, it angers me beyond comparison. The people in LA who were displaced have nice, if modest homes that are perfectly fine. I wonder why the government made them leave at great expense and uproot families who have been living in their communities for generations.

Unbelieveable. After the media bashed Bush for days and days to get the people out of New Orleans after the mayor and governor failed to do so, it's now apparent to Muther Sheehan that the entire rescue and evacuation was unnecessary.

After we arrived at Camp Casey III, we took the Veterans for Peace "Impeachment Tour Bus" into New Orleans after stopping at the distribution center to pick up some supplies in Covington.

Dear Muther Sheehan: Do you really think anyone needs to see your "Impeachment Tour Bus" in the afflicted areas? And those "supplies" you picked up at the distribution center.... Hmmm... where these intended to provide relief for the disaster victims? Or have you know assumed the roles of the Red Cross, Salvation Army and FEMA in addition to your other weighty responsibilities?

One thing that truly troubled me about my visit to Louisiana was the level of the military presence there. I imagined before that if the military had to be used in a CONUS (Continental US) operations that they would be there to help the citizens: Clothe them, feed them, shelter them, and protect them. But what I saw was a city that is occupied. I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me.

Again, all we heard in the aftermath of the storm is where is the military, why aren't they doing anything to restore order? Never mind that Governor Blankwit refused to cede control for the feds. And now, Muther Sheehan wants a soldier to shoot her?

Apparently Muther Sheehan has teemed up with a local Mosque in Algiers, Louisiana. Big surprise there too!

Finally this:

George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power.

What sickness is there in the mind of this woman and those who follow her hate America screed?
Is this just a case of putting the brainwasher on spin cycle a little too long?

Conservatives Demand Release of Judicial Memos

Welcome friends from Confirm Them!

I've been a little busy putting out the brush fires of confusion launched by the unprincipled hate Bush crowd in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to post anything on the hearings to confirm John Roberts as Chief Justice on the United States Supreme Court.

I didn't see much need frankly. Roberts sailed through his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and even Democrats have grudgingly admitted that he's eminently qualified.

There is a word I don't use very often, and when I do, I mean it. Justice Roberts is brilliant! I don't know how conservative he is, but he appears to me to be the most qualified, mainstream judicial selection I have seen in many, MANY years.

But here's an interesting side story. Democrats who have spent the last few years demanding every single jot and tittle ever recorded on paper by any Bush nominee for whatever office are now seeing the tables turned.

Will this get anywhere? Probably not. But it's past time we brought up the subject.

From The Hill:

Conservative strategists are drafting a letter to Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanding the release of hundreds of internal memos detailing contacts between the lawmakers and liberal interest groups opposing John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court.

By planning to press Democrats on the sensitive subject, conservatives seem to be pulling a page from the Democrat's own political playbook. In the weeks leading up to the confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats have repeatedly called on the White House to give them memos Roberts penned while he was deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush's administration.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, raised the issue again yesterday by releasing a letter dated Sept. 9 from William Moschella, the assistant attorney general. In the letter, Moschella declined to disclose legal memos from Roberts' tenure in the Office of the Solicitor General.

"It is regrettable that the Bush administration persists in keeping this information from the Senate," Leahy said. "These documents, from the period of Judge Roberts' most substantive work experience in the executive branch, would help illuminate his views and earlier decisions on a wide range of key issues that are of vital importance to the American people and to the Senate."

In their letter, conservatives quote Leahy's argument that the Senate should have access to the withheld documents. In the letter, they assert that the public is equally entitled to know what is motivating and directing Senate Democratic scrutiny of Roberts, according to a verbal summary given to The Hill.

"Given your demand that the Justice Department hand over John Roberts' work documents during his time as deputy solicitor general, you should have no reservations about approving the release of the full complement of documents that make up all of the Memogate papers," conservatives wrote in a draft of the letter, which will be circulated for signatures starting today. About 30 conservative leaders or more are expected to sign it.

A spokeswoman for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to comment without first seeing a copy of the letter.

Specifically, conservatives want access to what they estimate may be as many as 4,000 Democratic memos that are in Senate Sergeant at Arms William Pickle's possession. Last year, Pickle seized Senate Judiciary Committee computers during an investigation. Democrats on the committee called for the probe after internal memos written by aides to Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) were made available to the press without Kennedy's or Durbin's consent.

The publicized memos detailed contacts between leading liberal members on the committee and groups that lobbied them on President Bush's judicial nominees.

In their letter to Democrats, conservatives plan to argue that the memos are not protected by attorney-client privilege, giving them a stronger claim to the documents, they assert, than the Democrats have to the solicitor general's documents. Roberts' defenders have argued that a solicitor general's relationship to a president is akin to an attorney-client relationship and deserves special privilege.

Mark Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest-litigation firm, said that he was familiar with the letter and plans to circulate it.

"I fully support it," he said. "I've always thought that the Congress and the Senate Judiciary Committee in particular gets away with a hypocritical standard. They demand that the executive branch produce everything, and yet on the other hand they refuse to make anything public."

Kay Daly, president of Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, a conservative group defending Roberts, said she was aware of the letter.

"There are some 4,000 memos locked away in the sergeant at arms' office that the public has a right to know about," she said.

Daly said that the since the taxpayers' fund the salaries of lawmakers and their aides they have a right to know about their work.

Conservatives said their case is bolstered by a memo sent by the Senate archivist to all Judiciary Committee staff members instructing them to preserve all documents and e-mails related to Roberts' confirmation proceedings, including correspondence with outside groups. Conservatives cite the archivist's message to support their claim that the internal memos held by the sergeant at arms should be made part of the public domain.

Jeff Lord, who served as associate political director in the Reagan administration from 1985 to 1988 and is working with Progress for America, a pro-Roberts advocacy group, has called for the Democratic memos to be made public during recent trips to Washington state and North Dakota. He traveled to those states to promote a new book he has written about the contentious 2002 Senate confirmation battle over Judge Brooks Smith's appointment to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lord called the memos "some of the most revealing things I've ever seen while in government," adding that the evidence of coordination between Democratic senators and third-party groups in the memos made public was "eye-opening."

One of the publicized memos, by a former aide to Kennedy and dated April 2002, reported that Elaine Jones of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund had asked Democrats to postpone the nomination of Judge Julia Gibbons to the 6th Circuit court until a key case on affirmative action had been decided. Conservatives consider it one of the most damning of the publicized batch.

The memo was downloaded from the Judiciary Committee server and made public in 2003.

Superdome Survivors Speak Out

Two who survived the Superdome disaster speak out:

"There was so much lawlessness," Montegut stated, her expression clearly affected by the memory of those seven hellish days. "Many people were getting drunk, stealing and running around like wild animals."

"They stole anything that wasn't nailed down," Allen recalled. "It was an absolute war zone. We finally ended up sleeping outside, leaving the 'animals' inside to fight amongst themselves."

"The saddest thing, though," Montegut added, "was all the guardsmen standing around the place, just aching for the order to straighten it all out. I felt so bad for them, because I knew they felt that was what they should've been doing."

Drowsily rubbing her sleep-starved eyes, she continued her story. "When we got there on Sunday before the storm, the place was spotless - we had running water and everything. By Monday, though, we got a huge influx of people; the city had nothing in place to handle so many."

Allen, a normally mild-mannered, softspoken retiree from the automotive industry, echoed Montegut's strong disappointment over the lack of preparation for Katrina. "The failure of our city and state government to take care of the people is absolutely amazing," he exclaimed in frustration. "For as long as 40 years, the local government had been aware that New Orleans had no chance against a level 4 or 5 hurricane without the proper walls and systems. I recall one proposed project from a few years back that carried the price tag of $20 billion dollars. That issue was simply ignored, and now it's too late to save thousands of people."

Both Louisianians placed the blame for New Orleans' societal breakdown squarely on the shoulders of the mayor and the governor. "It felt like they were in the middle of some big power play. They weren't concerned about the people at all," alleged Allen.

Montegut, an insightful social service/forensic specialist employed by Louisiana's prison system, had gazed at a parking lot full of unengaged Regional Transit Authority buses from her position at the Superdome, and wondered why they were not being used to evacuate people from the deteriorating conditions.

"[Mayor Nagin] blew it, throwing his hands up in the air and blaming Bush for days - all the while, he could've been taking care of obvious solutions like that instead of telling people who hadn't the means to leave simply to 'get out'." According to her, the RTA buses sat in their same spots even as school buses came to carry the storm-worn from the shelter.

"When they originally sent the RTA buses out to bring people into the Superdome, it was the feds who made those arrangements, not the local government. It was just unbelievable, the lack of preparation on the mayor's part - even when he knew about the possible severity of the approaching storm," she said, shaking her head.

Didn't see that story on CNN did you? Think it will be posted on Michael Moore's web site?

Thanks Junkyard Blog!

Thomas Jefferson Shares Wisdom

Readers may have noticed a sneaking habit on my part to introduce quotes and thoughts from the Founding Fathers as we approach Constitution Day, which also happens to be MY BIRTHDAY! I have the honor of sharing that birthday with the late great constitutional scholar and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Warren Burger, whom I had the pleasure to meet on more than one occasion.

So forgive me if I give you one more bit of wisdom from the Founding Fathers:

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."

Thomas Jefferson

Since September 11th 2001, we've had two elections in which the life and death issues confronting this nation were endlessly debated. In 2002 Republicans increased their majority in both the House and the Senate. The same occurred in 2004 along with the re-election of President Bush that included an influx of new women, Hispanic, black and Jewish voters to the Republican side of the aisle.

Seems these issues are settled. Time to unite around a common purpose or continue undermining the democratic process? Your choice.

ANY Local Responsibility for Katrina Disaster?

Welcome Bill Hobbs readers! Make sure to see "Superdome Survivors Speak Out"

From the City of New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Plan:

The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, ... are the primary tasks of evacuation planning...

Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.
...

Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans.

More from the plan: "Slow developing weather conditions (primarily hurricane) will create increased readiness culminating in an evacuation order 24 hours (12 daylight hours) prior to predicted landfall."

More: "The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas."

On Fox News Sunday, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) had this to say (via Flopping Aces):
LANDRIEU: "I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane."
...
WALLACE: Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of buses in parking lots. The city and the state.
LANDRIEU: That is underwater. Those...
WALLACE: It wasn't underwater before the...
LANDRIEU: Those buses were underwater. Those buses...
WALLACE: They weren't underwater on Saturday; they weren't underwater on Sunday.

Flopping Aces also has the transcript from "Meet the Press" on Sunday, September 11, where Tim Russert interviews New Orleans Mayor Nagin:

RUSSERT: Many people point, Mr. Mayor, that on Friday before the hurricane, President Bush declared an impending disaster. And The Houston Chronicle wrote it this way. "[Mayor Nagin's] mandatory evacuation order was issued 20 hours before the storm struck the Louisiana coast, less than half the time researchers determined would be needed to get everyone out. City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm.
...
It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

Then this bombshell:

RUSSERT: "Amtrak said they offered to remove people from the city of New Orleans on Saturday night and that the city of New Orleans declined."

You can read Nagin's responses for yourself. Pretty much the same as Senator Landrieu: dodge, weave and blame Bush!

Here's more by way of Newsmax, via Crush Liberalism:

Appearing on NBC's "Dateline," Nagin was asked by host Stone Phillips: "What was mobilized? I mean were national guard troops in position. Were helicopters standing by? Were buses ready to take people away?"

"No. None of that," the Big Easy mayor replied. "Why is that?" an incredulous Phillips asked. Nagin replied: "I dont know. That is question for somebody else."

The Louisiana Democrat didn't explain just who the "somebody else" was, saying only: "All I can do is [say] that I was dealing with it as a mayor -- how do I prepare my city for an incredibly powerful storm? So immediately we tried to get as many people out as possible."

More Wisdom from Samuel Adams

It's pretty clear the left can't win an honest election. And I am certainly not the only one puzzled by the notion that they continue to follow a program based on one idea: hate for George W. Bush.

The following quote does help to understand the issue:

Samuel Adams, Founding Father & American Patriot:

"... it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds ...."

That's just what we see here everyday at Mike's America. No principled opposition plan for effective answers to the life and death questions that we Americans face on a daily basis. Just a continuing ongoing effort by the left to throw so much garbage into the political winds in a deliberate effort to sow confusion where clarity is most needed and intimidate those who DO support effective action to meet the nation's needs in times of disaster and war.

Samuel Adams Message for America Haters

Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776:

'If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.'

FEMA Director Brown Resigns. New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco to Follow Suit?

The news just crossing the wires that FEMA Director Michael Brown has resigned raises the stakes in the lefty blame game.

As many left-wing commenters on this site have pointed out, the blame for the Katrina aftermath disaster lies equally with the federal, state and local governments.

We're urgently waiting for comments from our lefty friends demanding the resignation of New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco.

Time to step up to the plate boys and girls and show your mettle.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock!

Update: Huge surprise! Brown's resignation fails to placate lefties! No calls for equal treatement of responsible Democrat officials! Mike's America is SHOCKED!

Remembering A New York That Was

View from the top of one of the World Trade Center towers. The shadows of both towers appears in the right foreground.

1986 centennial of the Statue of Liberty

All Photos by Mike's America

The Real September 11 Memorial

This is what leftwing historical revisionists do not want you to see at the Ground Zero memorial in New York. This photo, of the death of the fireman's Chaplain, Father Mycal Judge, is reminiscent of the Pietas that symbolize the sacrifice of Christ.

The Orwellian revisionists in charge of the memorial at Ground Zero want to shove this image, as well as the other sights and sounds of that day: the heroics and the horror, into a dark corner surrounded by irrelevant exhibits on Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

How many times have you turned on television news and seen the Abu Ghraib photos, or car bombings in Iraq or pictures of the murderers held at Guantanamo? When was the last time you saw video of that awful September day when we were attacked?

Follow this underlined link to the REAL story of September 11. This is the memorial that should be at Ground Zero. This is a 7 MB download, so let the page open, turn on the sound for the music and open another page to read until it starts.

It's time to draw the line folks! Historical revisionism is just another tactic that brings confusion where clarity is most needed. We've seen it used all too effectively in the past, yet we cannot afford to let it continue unchecked. Do something about it! Sign the petition, write letters, send emails, post on your blogs!

Comparing Hurricane Katrina Federal Response to Past Disasters

From Jack Kelly in The Toledo Blade:
No 'national disgrace'

IT IS settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.

Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire 'national emergency,? wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.

But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla., after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, and roads and airports are covered with debris ? and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

In the course of that week:

- More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.

-The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.

-Shelter, food, and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.
Journalists complain that it took a whole week to do this. A former Air Force logistics officer had some words of advice for us in the Fourth Estate on his blog, Moltenthought:

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on Star Trek in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.

"The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.

"You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets (in the affected areas) since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.

"No amount of yelling, crying, and mustering of moral indignation will change any of the facts above."

Guardsmen need to receive mobilization orders, report to their armories, draw equipment, receive orders, and convoy to the disaster area. Guardsmen driving down from Pennsylvania or Navy ships sailing from Norfolk can?t be on the scene immediately.

Relief efforts must be planned. Other than prepositioning supplies near the area likely to be afflicted (which was done quite efficiently), this cannot be done until the hurricane has struck and a damage assessment can be made. There must be a route reconnaissance to determine if roads are open, and bridges along the way can bear the weight of heavily laden trucks.

And federal troops and guardsmen from other states cannot be sent to a disaster area until their presence has been requested by the governors of the afflicted states.

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question - which few journalists ask - is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

Taking Suggestions for Membership to Katrina Commission

No need to investigate why the city or state failed to use these school buses to evacuate the cities poorest. There are bigger fish to fry.

It's just a matter of time before Republicans give in to the shrieking demands of harpy Pelosi and harpy Hillary for a 9/11 style commission to "investigate" the response to Hurricane Katrina. After all, every time we've compromised with them in the past to demonstrate our unity of purpose, we've been rewarded by a newfound sense of bipartisanship and a willingness to work together to solve problems.

So, with that in mind, I don't think it is premature to begin suggesting names for a 50/50 commission. As per usual, we will select very neutral Republican members, freely admitting any mistakes that the current administration played in relief for the disaster victims. And of course, we don't want to undermine our expected bipartisan cooperation in the future by insisting blame be shared by Democrat local and state officials in Louisiana.

With that in mind, I am asking readers to suggest names of Republican and Democrat members that would best recreate the spirit of bipartisan cooperation and discovery that was the product of the 9/11 Commission.

Here's my suggestion for the GOP head of the Committee: Christine Todd Whitman. As former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a frequent critic of President Bush's policy since leaving the administration her integrity will be unquestioned by Democrats. Her familiarity with environmental issues confronting the disaster survivors will also be invaluable. She's also the former Governor of New Jersey as was 9/11 Chairman Kean, and you know how hard he worked to create a commission report that answered all the questions regarding the terrorist attacks.

We might ask Senators Hagel and Voinovich to suggest additional names.

Now, the Democrats have a wealth of talent to draw on as possible commission members. For chairman, I suggest James Lee Witt, former Director of FEMA in the Clinton Administration. No matter that he is currently advising Louisiana Governor Blanco. We can count on his unassailable integrity to place him above any conflict of interest.

Former Clinton National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, would also be an excellent choice, now that he got that little mistake of missing papers from the National Archives cleared up with probation and a small fine (equivalent to one speaking engagement) President Bush has apparently forgiven Berger for destroying the most highly classified papers that would have proven Clinton's malfeasance in handling Al Queda, so who are we to begrudge him the opportunity to once again serve his country?

Democrats may also wish to appoint members of the commission who understand the cultural importance of New Orleans and it's racial problems. Obvious choices here would be award winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who is currently planning a film on the Katrina disaster if the muddy soil of flooded New Orleans dries sufficiently to keep him from sinking into the muck.

To represent the New Orleans black community, Jesse Jackson, who has shown his racial sensitivity in the aftermath of the disaster would gladly serve. Another excellent choice would be social justice activist Randall Robinson, who has demonstrated his evenhandedness by retracting his earlier statement that black people have begun eating the corpses in New Orleans to survive.

I would recommend representatives from the Red Cross and Salvation Army, two of the largest disaster relief organizations, but considering how they failed to reach the Superdome in the immediate aftermath of the storm, it's likely that they would be seeking to avoid responsibility for the tragedy that ensued.

Readers Nominations?

Please submit your suggestions, both for Republican and Democrat members of the commission, using the comments section below.

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1995 Chicago Heat Wave Kills 1,000: New Commission Needed

On a more serious note: The Galvin Option reminds readers of the tragedy that occurred in Chicago in 1995 where 1,000 of the cities residents, mostly poor, minorities and senior citizens died in an unrelenting heat emergency. Where was the federal government during this emergency as the city and state government obviously failed to protect it's weakest citizens?

Should we now appoint a Chicago heat wave commission to investigate the poor federal response to this tragedy, whose death toll may equal that of Hurricane Katrina?

Left is "Dancing on the Graves of Black People"

Rick Moran has the following:

For the left, the aftermath of Katrina has proven to be a godsend. In fact, I don't think I've seen them this happy since Hugo Chavez hornswaggled Jimmy Carter into certifying his victory in a recall vote last year. There's just something about communist thugs that brings a smile to the face of an American lefty and makes their hearts go pitter patter.

Yes, these are heady days for our left wing friends. The fact that their celebrations are taking place as a direct result of the distress, suffering, anguish and death of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens seems to not be of much concern to our morally superior betters. In fact, it has emboldened them to advance every crack pot theory on race and class that has poisoned American politics for going on forty years. One could say the left is dancing on the graves of black people, celebrating the exploitation of a political opening brought about by the incompetence of relief efforts in the largely black neighborhoods of New Orleans except for one thing; most of those graves are empty at the moment because the future les habitants haven't even been plucked from the floodwaters yet.

But why let a small detail like common decency spoil a good party? It's Mardi Gras in September in the Big Easy and liberals are dancing the Cajun Reel with the tousands of grinning skeletons who very soon now will start filling up the temporary mortuaries set up to receive them.
(there's more, and it's worth reading)

Katrina's killing winds had not even abated when Jesse Jackson returned from a hug session with Venezuelan dictator Chavez demanding that more of Jesse's cronies be put in charge of the relief effort. Never mind that it was his crowd that have run New Orleans for decades and had utterly failed to evacuate the cities most needy residents.

Randall Robinson, a so-called social justice advocate claimed that black people were eating corpses to survive at the same time that the state of Louisiana repeatedly denied both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army access to the Superdome and the Convention Center.

While people were dying and struggling to survive, a wave of left-wing apologists, including eminent environmental scientist Cindy Sheehan, took to the airwaves and the internet to blame Hurricane Katrina on President Bush's environmental policies and others suggested that the people in Louisiana and Mississippi deserved to die because their states voted for Bush.

Bush=Hitler?

Then of course, the left wing apologia, which has yet to do more than mouth throwaway lines regarding responsibility of the state and local first responders. The left has done little more than insist that President Bush should have seized control of the Louisiana State National Guard, and overridden the loonieLouisianasiana that were preventing relief from reaching Katrina's victims.

Such an act amounts to the overthrow legitimately elected state government and is a measure so extreme that it could only be considered a last resort. And yet, the Governor of Louisiana STILL refuses the legal arrangements that would permit the Federal government to assume full control.

Yet the same people who object to provisions in the Patriot Act that allow the government to inquire what books terror suspect is checking out of a library, are now suggesting that President Bush should have removed the elected government of Louisiana.

The gleeful and willful misinterpretation of federal perogatives demonstrated by some who comment at this site has been astounding. These self proclaimed experts in law and government, contradicting expert opinion expressed at the New York Times and elsewhere points to a desire to do two things: 1. Bash Bush at all costs, and 2. Deflect any and all blame from state and local officials.

Of course, I realize that the experience these self-proclaimed experts have in government and law goes no deeper than the time they have spent in line at the post office. But in a Michael Moore, CBS fake document world of make believe, you can be reality challenged and not even be aware of it.

But in this post September 11th world, our nation faces grave life and death issues every day. What is needed is a mature, intellectually honest debate. Not the obvioustransparentlyently political carping and one way fingerpointing from people who put their own political interests above that of the nation's at a time of war and tragedy.