Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems

Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems - www.kevindayhoff.com Address: PO Box 124, Westminster MD 21158 410-259-6403 kevindayhoff@gmail.com Runner, writer, artist, fire & police chaplain Mindless ramblings of a runner, journalist & artist: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, technology, music, culture, opera... National & International politics www.kevindayhoff.net For community: www.kevindayhoff.org For art, technology, writing, & travel: www.kevindayhoff.com

Showing posts with label Politics Liberal double standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics Liberal double standards. Show all posts

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The many faces of Bill Moyers

The many faces of Bill Moyers http://tinyurl.com/yjdj2sa Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/qunnw

November 23, 2009 by Kevin Dayhoff

It’s a great day in American, “Bill Moyers is leaving weekly television.”

Yes, that’s right, Mr. Moyers, the liberal hypocritical smug Prince of thug-journalism who raised concepts such as situational ethics and moral relativism to a high art form, will be leaving public television on April 30, 2010, according to a recent item in the New York Times by Elizabeth Jensen in her “Media Decoder” column.

“Mr. Moyers said he had been planning for some time to retire the program on Dec. 25, but was asked by PBS to raise the funds to continue through April, which he did,” writes Ms. Jensen.

The “program” to which she is referring is “Bill Moyers Journal,” which began in April 2007. It is a weekly no-holds-barred advocacy program on the Public Broadcasting System for the liberal agenda in America.

According to Ms. Jensen, Mr. Moyers said, that his program has recently been having a “good run of it … so I feel it’s time.” He said he was not quitting television work, although he has no new projects planned.

No word as to whether or not he will be taking a position in the administration of Venezuelan President Hug Chavez, although Mr. Moyers is well qualified to work with heads of state.

Our younger readers may not be aware that Mr. Moyers, who was born on June 5, 1934, first distinguished himself on the national stage as the White House press secretary for President Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1965 to 1967.

Mr. Moyers and President Johnson shared a long history of working together. Mr. Moyers had interned for then-Senator Johnson. In addition to several positions as a print media journalist for several newspapers in Texas, he also worked in the mid-1950s at KTBC radio and television stations, which were owned by Lady Bird Johnson.

It is ironic to note that Mr. Moyers is an ordained minister; when one considers the course, blunt, if not profane behavior that historians have characterized President Johnson’s rise and maintenance of power.

Mr. Moyers first came to Washington to work in the administration of President Kennedy in various capacities in the newly formed Peace Corps.

In an April 3, 1966 article in the New York Times by Patrick Anderson, “No. 2 Texan in the White House,” Mr. Moyers explained his relationship with President Johnson as “I work for him despite his faults and he lets me work for him despite my deficiencies.”

His quote from 1966 may have been the only hint at humanity he may have ever had in a career that has witnessed him, in his later years, become unbearably preachy, condescending, boorish, and blinded by his politically ideology, which has tarnished his conflicted and complicated legacy.

For every mean-spirited thing I have to say about Mr. Moyers, I have a half-dozen much nastier remarks for which I was held back by my shriveled but nevertheless functional sense of decency.

In a much-touted dust-up between Mr. Moyers and Fox News Channel personality, Bill O’Reilly in April 2007; Mr. O’Reilly may have said it best:

“I do know that Moyers has, for years, been heavily involved with people like George Soros and the far left. Yet PBS is paying him to produce documentaries that are purported to be "objective." Bill Moyers is not objective, has a problem with the truth, and should no longer be receiving taxpayer money. And that is the truth.”

This after Fox News aired a tape in which Mr. Moyers said: “The FOX News, the talk radio, The Weekly Standard have not only mongered for war along with the administration, not only embraced the administration's policies because they were "conservative", including going to war, but also mounted a slime machine to discredit any journalist who dared to stand against the official view of reality.”

Of course, since President Obama has taken office and has continued the war efforts, for which Mr. Moyers was so critical during the Bush Administration years – now Mr. Moyers seems to have forgotten that we remain at war.

This, in spite of campaign promises from President Obama that once in office, he would withdrawal American troops out of Iraq quickly and re-invent our efforts in Afghanistan.

Funny how that works.

On March 9, 2009, Bernie Goldberg said in an interview with Mr. O’Reilly about Mr. Goldberg’s book, “A Slobbering Love Affair,” that Mr. Moyers is among the top five “five worst offenders in the mainstream media.”

“No. 4 is Bill Moyers because he represents the most elite wing of the most liberal elite media. Bill Moyers is a true believer who these days is posing as a journalist. He's very civil and highbrow to an extent, but also despises conservatives.

“During the Bush administration, he said that the right-wing wrecking crews in government, right-wing wrecking crews were deliberately, intentionally, trying to destroy the United States of America. Really, Bill? I mean, right wing wrecking crews and the government are deliberately trying to destroy America? And he's on PBS.”

Fortunately for America, Mr. Moyers days on PBS are numbered.

Good riddance. Don’t let the door hit you on the behind as you are leaving.

Perhaps the only thing that might be as equally good for American would be if Katie Couric would also retire. We can only wish.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kevindayhoff AT gmail.com.

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20091123 SDOSMKED The many faces of Bill Moyers Dayhoff Art, Journalists Moyers-Bill, Media liberal, Politics Liberal double standards, Politics Liberal hypocrisy, Politics Moonbat(s)

For another version of this column, please read: “Goodbye, and Good Riddance” by Kevin E. Dayhoff November 25, 2009 The Tentacle http://tinyurl.com/yf5sgp2

http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3479 http://tinyurl.com/yf5sgp2

~~~~~

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2009/11/many-faces-of-bill-moyers.html http://tinyurl.com/yjdj2sa

The many faces of Bill Moyers http://tinyurl.com/yjdj2sa Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/qunnw

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

Friday, August 07, 2009

Free Speech was great while it lasted

Free Speech was great while it lasted.

August 7, 2009

Photoshop by Kevin Dayhoff

Go here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/d49en

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2009/08/free-speech-was-great-while-it-lasted.html http://tinyurl.com/ksbass

http://twitpic.com/d49en Free Speech was great while it lasted. http://tinyurl.com/ksbass

20090807 sdsom fb twitp KED Free Speech
Free Speech, Pres 2009 44 Obama-Barack, Medicine Health Care Reform, Politics Liberal double standards,

*****


Sunday, March 29, 2009

C Span2 Book TV A Slobbering Love Affair by Bernard Goldberg


C Span2 Book TV A Slobbering Love Affair by Bernard Goldberg

If Almost Astronauts: Thirteen Women Who Dared to Dream does not float your boat; at 4:45 PM - Politics A Slobbering Love Affair: The True and Pathetic Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media Author: Bernard Goldberg will speak for 1 hr, 4 mins. http://www.booktv.org/schedule.aspx

http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=10278&SectionName=Politics&PlayMedia=No

The author chronicles how mainstream media actively affected the outcome of the 2008 presidential election because, he says, they favored Barack Obama.

About the Author Bernard Goldberg won six Emmy awards for his reporting at CBS News, and is now a Fox News media analyst. He is also author of four books, including New York Times bestseller "Bias."

http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=10278&SectionName=Politics&PlayMedia=No
20090329 C Span2 Book TV A Slobbering Love Affair by Bernard Goldberg
Kevin Dayhoff www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Art: www.kevindayhoff.com (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Running on empty – What a difference an election makes


Running on empty – What a difference an election makes

November 23, 2008 by Kevin Dayhoff


By the end of last week the prospect of an auto bailout was running on four flat tires.

However, with the backdrop of the economy continuing to remain at the forefront of the media spotlight, the “Detroit Three,” General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, continue their tours de force beg-a-thon performance in the media with a great deal of support coming from the Democrat Party.

What a difference an election makes. If you will remember, during the election campaign, the Democrats railed about the increase in the national debt, increased spending, and failed economic policies.

And of course, earlier in the 2008 presidential campaign, when the price of oil and gasoline spiked, it was President George W. Bush’s fault. After the price of gas fell precipitously, the Democrats and their media sycophants fell strangely silent.

Moreover, on Election Day, when the Wall Street rallied, the media credited the prospects of the election of presidential candidate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama with the reasons for the uptick in the stock market.

The day after the election the stock market had the largest percentage drop in history on the day after an election. The media was silent – as in crickets chirping…

Many credited the election victory of Senator Obama on the chaos in the economy. Of course, the great paradox is that the very same foxes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Financial Services Committee chair Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Senate Banking Committee chair Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who caused the chaos in the financial henhouse have now been rewarded and are now in charge of protecting and fixing it. (See It’s the Congress, Stupid!, Congress and the Rattlesnake – Part 1, Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 2, Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 3.)

Now these very same folks want to work their magic on the automobile industry in the United States – with taxpayer money, of course. They want to further raise the national debt by bailing out the Detroit Three – which is the focus of my “The Tentacle” column this week: Rewarding Bad Behavior

As an aside, speaking of changing his tune, you will notice that President-elect Obama has been eerily silent about Iraq, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and other aspects of his war on the Bush Administration’s national security polices now that he has been given a number of national security briefings.

Nevertheless, there remains a nagging concern that international terrorists are still plotting to kill Americans and we are still fighting two interminable ground wars overseas. The Iranians and North Koreans are still playing with their nuclear erector sets. Somali pirates are seizing ships in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes outside of the Gulf of Aden.

And in spite of the predicted outbreak of the Age of Aquarius as a result of the recent election, we find ourselves in economic chaos which continues to escape appropriate hyperbole and reactionary rhetoric.

Congress and our critical financial conglomerates have behaved so badly that their behavior raised the specter that the United States and the world would revisit the joys and riches of the Medieval Ages if something was not done.

Yet last week, the financial bailout had the look and feel of a circular firing squad as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stood before the nation, and said something to the affect: “You know, about that initial bailout strategy… Well nevermind, the facts have changed and we now have a new and improved pyramid scheme to sell you.”

His performance had all the reassuring aspects of a snake oil salesman from the 1890s as he sketched-out a new approach to encourage consumer confidence, borrowing, and get American families back in the mood for opening their pocketbooks.

No word as to how many Google searches occurred for “economic feudalism” last week as Americans started to feel like feudal serfs being sacrificed as a result of the lack of leadership of the overlords.

If this were not enough of a witches brew, many Americans – and the stock market – continue to feel morning sickness in a pregnant pause of anxiety over president-elect Obama’s election rhetoric to revisit free trade agreements, raise taxes, and unleash a new social-welfare system upon the nation that would make President Franklin D. Roosevelt green with envy.

Intellectual, morally and economically, a glance at Washington these days indicates that it not only the Detroit Three that is in trouble these days, the American taxpayer is more at risk than ever as a result of Congress running on empty.

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20081119 Running on empty (752 words)

Monday, November 10, 2008

First Bush-Obama Meeting: Hard Feelings and Hand Sanitizer


As President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama prepare for their post-election meeting at the White House on Monday, memories of their first encounter linger.

Bill Sammon FOXNews.com Sunday, November 09, 2008

President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama are probably hoping their meeting Monday goes better than their first get-together, which left a bad taste in the mouths of both men.

Four years ago, Obama and other newly elected members of the Senate were invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting with Bush, who pulled the young Chicagoan aside.

"Obama!" Bush exclaimed, according to Obama's account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope." "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours -- that's one impressive lady."

The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand."

Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."

The president then led Obama off to one side of the room, where Bush said: "I hope you don't mind me giving you a piece of advice."

"Not at all, Mr. President," Obama told the commander-in-chief.

"You've got a bright future," Bush said presciently. "Very bright. But I've been in this town awhile and, let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you've been getting, people start gunnin' for ya. And it won't necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody'll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean? So watch yourself."

[…]

I thought I was actually showing some kindness," Bush said indignantly. "And out of that he came with this belief?"

The president added with a bit of a scowl: "He doesn't know me very well."
(Ed: My emphasis)

[…]


Remove all heavy and sharp objects from the room and read the entire article… First Bush-Obama Meeting: Hard Feelings and Hand Sanitizer. It should remind you of the Ann Coulter admonishment – sometimes, you can never be nice to a liberal. Wow, did I ever learn that lesson the hard way…

Bill Sammon is Washington Deputy Managing Editor for FOX News.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/09/bush-obama-meeting-hard-feelings-hand-sanitier/#

20081109 First Bush Obama Meeting Hard Feelings and Hand Sanitizer

Friday, October 24, 2008

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? By Orson Scott Card

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? By Orson Scott Card

When I wrote Journalistic Bubble Wrap in The Tentacle on October 15, 2008 -

One of the hottest subplots to the 2008 presidential campaign is how would the contest, the polls and the final outcome have looked if the “old – elite” media had not been so biased towards the Democratic Party in general and specifically the Democrat nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

I wish I had written it as well as when Orson Scott Card wrote Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

October 5, 2008 - Featured on Rush Limbaugh 10/22/08


http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-10-05-1.html

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" (
http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!


Read the rest here: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?


20081005 Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? By Orson Scott Card

My three part series on the current economic mess in The Tentacle


My three part series on the current economic mess in The Tentacle


Folks have been asking where they can find my three-part series on the current economic mess in The Tentacle from October 1, 2 and 3, 2008.

They may be found here:

October 3, 2008
Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 3
Kevin E. Dayhoff
On May 13, 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama compared the current housing crisis in the U.S. to the Great Depression in a campaign stop in Missouri.


October 2, 2008
Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 2
Kevin E. Dayhoff
For several weeks the nation and the world have been watching the financial news emanating from Washington and Wall Street with that “deer in headlights” look as everyone holds their breath in disbelief and worries another shoe will drop.


October 1, 2008
Congress and the Rattlesnake – Part 1
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In response to the increasing wrath of the American voter, the U.S. House of Representatives came to its senses on Monday and voted 288 to 205 to kill the rash and ill-conceived proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

20081003 My three part series on the current economic mess in The Tentacle

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Pelosi Charm

The Pelosi Charm

Monday, September 29, 2008

Democrat Speaker of the House left no doubt that she skipped the class in charm school that taught that it is to one’s advantage to be nice to folks when you want something from them.
“Reps. Boehner, Blunt, and Cantor said they had at least a dozen more votes for the bill until Nancy Pelosi came to the floor just after 12:20 eastern time and gave an exceedingly partisan speech that effectively killed the bill.” (GOP: Pelosi Killed Bill With Partisan Speech Posted by TOM BEVAN on the Real Clear Politics blog)

This speech was incomprehensible reprehensible revisionist history in which, what may very well be the most galling moral relativism, she praises Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) whose fingerprints are over the causes of current financial meltdown.

Representative Frank said in 2003: “I think it is clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sufficiently secure so they are in no great danger... I don't think we face a crisis; I don't think that we have an impending disaster. ...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do very good work, and they are not endangering the fiscal health of this country.” (Doug Ross The Fannie Mae testimony that will make you scream in anger)

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said in 2003: “I have sat through nearly a dozen hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. [sic] ...These GSEs have more than adequate capital for the business they are in: providing affordable housing. As I mentioned, we should not be making radical or fundamental change... If there is anything to fix or improve, it is the [regulators].” (Doug Ross The Fannie Mae testimony that will make you scream in anger)

“Five years ago, Republicans proposed ‘the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry [in a decade].’ (Source: New York Times) Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee blocked efforts at fixing Fannie and Freddie. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said, ‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’” (Doug Ross: Any Questions)

Speaker Pelosi says that the current meltdown is all the fault of President George W. Bush and free market capitalism. Yet this is inconsistent with: Wayne Barrett at the Village Voice: “[Clinton appointee] Andrew Cuomo... made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country's current crisis. He took actions that... helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the subprime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration...into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded "kickbacks" to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans. Three to four million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons why.” (Doug Ross The Fannie Mae testimony that will make you scream in anger)

Hat Tip for AP photo: Don Surber – “A confident Democrat Barney Frank promises solvency in our time as he announces the breakthrough bailout. Voting is only a formality…”

Related:

Transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s Floor Statement on the partisan Financial Rescue Legislation moments before it was voted down

Doug Ross: Any Questions

Doug Ross The Fannie Mae testimony that will make you scream in anger

Don Surber

20080928 The Pelosi Charm

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Washington Examiner: Politicians never learn they can't change the facts by Bill Wilson

Washington Examiner: Politicians never learn they can't change the facts by Bill Wilson

9/28/08

All the back and forth over the proposed $700 billion bailout of New York financial firms has degenerated into gibberish, incomprehensible to most voters.

[…]

While a few elected officials try to figure out a way to deal with the crisis, many on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in the partisan salons are busy doing what they do best - playing the blame-game and looking to escape exposure of their culpability.

House Banking Committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, led off the spin effort by stating, “The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it.”

Notice that Frank doesn’t say “Wall Street” got us in to this mess. For him and all too many of his allies, it is the “private sector” that is evil. A chorus of lesser voices have been dutifully parroting Frank ever since.

What Frank, Senate Banking Committee chairman Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CN, and others of their ilk are afraid of is that the public will learn the facts of this debacle. And the facts are clear.

The crisis we face is not a failure of the private sector. This crisis was conceived, manufactured, nurtured and defended by government and the horde of apologists who feed off of it.

As Deep Throat admonished a generation ago, let’s follow the money. In 1995, the Clinton Administration issued rules that required banks and lending institutions to give loans to people who could not afford them. The lending standards were essentially gutted. This was an overt act of government.

The banks complied and gave the loans. They got the money to lend by selling the bad mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These semi-government entities “bought” the bad mortgages from the banks. But where did Fannie and Freddie get the money to buy the bad debt?

[…]

Read Mr. Wilson’s entire opinion here: Washington Examiner: Politicians never learn they can't change the facts by Bill Wilson

http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/Politicians_never_learn_they_cant_change_the_facts.html

20080928 Washington Examiner: Politicians never learn they cant change the facts by Bill Wilson

Thursday, July 10, 2008

20080709 22 ways to be a good Democrat

20080709 22 ways to be a good Democrat

22 WAYS TO BE A GOOD DEMOCRAT

July 9th, 2008

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than nuclear weapons technology in the hands of the Iranians, Chinese and North Korea.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach fourth graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make "The Passion of the Christ" for financial gain only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14.. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and A.G. Bell.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.

17. You have to believe that the only reason Socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democrat Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest to the United States.

21. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.

22. You have to believe that it's okay to give Federal workers the day off on Christmas Day ..........but it's not okay to say "Merry Christmas."

Ready to vote???

Humor Political, Politics Democrats and Liberals, Politics Liberal double standards

Friday, January 04, 2008

20080104 Wall Street: Journal Criminalizing the CIA

Wall Street: Journal Criminalizing the CIA

I could not agree more… “So here we go again, ringing up CIA agents who thought they were acting in good faith to keep the country safe… But why should any future agent take any risks to gather information, or pursue an enemy, if he thinks he is likely to have to answer to some future prosecutor for his every action?”

Criminalizing the CIA

January 4, 2008; Page A10

REVIEW & OUTLOOK by The Wall Street Journal

When news broke that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of a couple of early terrorist interrogations, Democrats in Congress demanded a criminal investigation. Now that Attorney General Michael Mukasey is obliging, they still aren't satisfied. So here we go again, ringing up CIA agents who thought they were acting in good faith to keep the country safe.

On Wednesday Mr. Mukasey assigned prosecutor John Durham, a 25-year Justice Department veteran, to investigate if CIA agents committed a crime when they destroyed the tapes in 2005 under orders from the then-head of the covert Directorate of Operations. But that isn't enough for John Conyers (D., Mich.), who wants a full-blown "special counsel" to wade into the CIA's covert-ops division and deliver a public excavation…

[…]

The interrogations also took place at a time -- starting in 2002 -- when some Members of Congress were regularly briefed on the CIA practices, including "waterboarding." Among those briefed were Jay Rockefeller IV and Nancy Pelosi, neither of whom saw fit to object to the methods. We are now in a different political place, and in a different election year, and these same Democrats want to join the left in accusing the Bush Administration of "torture" and a cover-up.

The Bush Administration is already on its way out, so the real damage here may be to our ability to gather future intelligence no matter who is President…

[…]

One of the stock criticisms of the CIA after 9/11 is that the agency played it too safe in pursuing al Qaeda. But why should any future agent take any risks to gather information, or pursue an enemy, if he thinks he is likely to have to answer to some future prosecutor for his every action?

As for the tapes, no doubt the agency now wishes they had never been made, much less destroyed. But the irony is that their destruction might well have saved the U.S. from the embarrassment of having them leaked to the world and turned into a propaganda victory for our enemies…

[…]

Yet instead, we are now unleashing prosecutors against agents who on the evidence so far were acting not to pursue some political agenda but to defend the nation against its most ruthless enemies. We hope Mr. Durham understands the difference, and that we don't cripple the very spooks we need to fight the war on terror.

Read the entire opinion here: Criminalizing the CIA

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