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Reports Suggest Zarqawi May Be Dead

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OpenSourceMedia has a compilation of the reports coming in this afternoon of a fierce battle in Mosul today where eight al-Qaeda members blew themselves up rather than be caputured by US and Iraqi force.
Is Zarqawi dead? – OpenSourceMedia
I’m reluctant to get too excited yet. But this news sounds promising.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

US HOUSE VOTES 403-3 TO KEEP FREEDOM ALIVE IN IRAQ

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US Armed Forces on the ground in Iraq were given a strong bi-partisan show of support late Friday evening when the United States House of Representatives.
By a vote of 403-3, the House voted overwhelmingly to reject a resolution calling on the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. (Link to roll call of vote) Republican leaders agreed to the quick vote after world headlines, including this one posted on al-Jazeera, touted a proposal offered yesterday by leading Democrat Jack Murtha to bring the troops home immediately.
Democrats turned their backs 180-degrees after months of party-sanctioned sniping and name-calling of the Commander-in-Chief and joined Republicans in this show of support for the brave men and women defending the fledgling democracy in Iraq. It was a stunning turnaround for Democrats.
Left wing lunatics were immediately confused as shown by this comment from Americablog.com:

Why did all the Dems vote against withdrawal?
Hornet | 11.18.05 – 11:30 pm


Voting for immediate withdrawal were three lone Democrats:
Cynthia McKinney – (D-GA)
Robert Wexler – (D-FL)
Jose Serrano – (D-NY)
Not having the brass tacks to take any side at all and voting “Present” were six lone Democrats:
Michael Capuano – (D-MA)
Jim McDermott – (D-WA), who despite voting “Present” gave a one-minute speech after the vote about withdrawing troops from “Iran”
Maurice Hinchey – (D-NY)
Wm. Lacy Clay – (D-MO)
Jerrold Nadler – (D-NY)
Major Owens – (D-NY)
The debate was fantastic and long overdue. The Democrats whined and complained about being attacked, while the Republicans voiced support for the troops and winning the global war on terror. That says volumes.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Bye bye Big Apple!

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Thanks to all the new friends I met yesterday and last night in New York City. I’m thrilled to be one of the Open Source Media Contributing Blogs and yesterday’s event was outstanding. The highlight of the night was meeting fellow OSM colleague and all-around fantastic lady Tammy Bruce. Not only was she friendly and warm, she is hot! Ah, if only I were a lesbian….
Anyway, it is back home for an overdue reunion with PatriotPooch today and PatriotPartner on Saturday.
Oh… if you see this poor thing wandering the streets of Manhattan, please call me….


It was last seen about 11:05 PM somewhere near 51st & 9th.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

GOP Gains in Old Dominion

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As I was busy with papers and classes for the past few days, I didn’t much time to look at (much less comment on) Tuesday’s election returns until today. While I am disappointed that the Governor’s reform agenda was defeated in California, my current “home state,” I am pleased that Republicans made gains in Virginia (my immediate past “home state”).
Four years ago, when President Bush was at his highest level in public opinion polls, Democrats won two of the three constitutional offices in the Old Dominion, losing only the Attorney General’s race. This year, Republicans held onto the Attorney General’s office and picked up the Lieutenant Governor’s seat as well, losing only the race for Governor. Not bad considering the Republican president is currently at his lowest level in opinion polls. Guess the president’s drop in popularity didn’t have much bearing on the Virginia elections.
And there’s some irony in the Virginia elections. Jerry Kilgore, the only Republican to win a statewide race in 2001, defeating Democrat A. D. McEachin for Attorney General, is the only Republican to fall short in statewide balloting this year, losing to Democrat Tim Kaine by just under 6 points, a margin nearly identical to Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Earley’s loss four years ago to Democrat Mark Warner.
With the election of Bill Bolling as Lieutenant Governor and Bob McDonnell at Attorney General, Republicans can be pleased that they did a bit better in the Old Dominion than four years ago. Still, it would have been nice to have won the Governor’s chair as well. Oh, well, you can’t have everything.

Men Line Up For Testicle Shocks

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Um… I thought this is what got some of our folks in trouble in the Abu Ghraib scandal? )You know, the one Ted Kennedy celebrated at its one year anniversary?)
Well, it seems like some people WANT to have it done to them…..
Serbs line up for testicle shocks – Ananova (hat tip: The Corner at NRO)

Serbian fertility expert Dr Sava Bojovic, who runs one of the clinics offering the service, said the small electric shock makes men temporarily infertile by stunning their sperm into a state of immobility.
He said: “We attach electrodes to either side of the testicles and send low electricity currents flowing through them.
“This stuns the sperm, effectively putting them to sleep for up to 10 days, which means couples can have sex without fear of getting pregnant.”

You know there’s another alternative that doesn’t hurt as much. It’s called a condom.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Body Count Begins In French Al-Qaeda Offensive

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French riots claim first victim – CNN

A man who was beaten by an attacker during rioting north of Paris has died, becoming the first fatality since urban unrest started 11 days ago, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
The man was beaten as he tried to put out a trash can fire on Friday in the Paris suburb of Stains in the region of Seine-Saint Denis.


But there’s more from those pesky, restless French “youths” with no MSM-identified ethnicity, religion or agenda…

Among the worst incidents reported — rocks thrown at two buses hit a 13-month-old child in Colombe, an official with the Interior Ministry said. The child was in serious condition.
In the northern city of Rouen, a police barricade was set afire and a burning car was pushed into the police station; and in Strasbourg, near the German border, a school was torched.
A church was set ablaze in the southern fishing town of Sete and another in nearby Lens, Pas de Calais; two schools in the southeastern town of Saint-Etienne and a police station in the central France town of Clermont-Ferrand were torched, as was a social center in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

More deaths will come at the hands of Al-Qaeda’s ground war in Europe, I fear. Appeasers are not immune from this global threat.
[RELATED STORY – BoiFromTroy has an on-the-scene pal whose blogging in Paris.)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

DeGaulle’s Vision

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I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French. — Charles de Gaulle

Or prevent Muslim extremists from being Muslim extremists.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Rosa Parks–Profile in Courage

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Like many Americans, I am deeply saddened by the passing of Rosa Parks. By refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in the segregated South, she defined courage in defying an unjust system. Active in the NAACP, she was well aware of the consequences of even this simple act of civil disobedience.
She knew that other blacks had been imprisoned — and worse — for defying Jim Crow laws. In the 1950s, angry white mobs still lynched black men. Cops regularly beat African-American protesters. And if a black woman was raped by a white man, she had little (if any) recourse to the justice system. Thus, the simple act of refusing to give up her seat took great courage. She had no idea what punishment she would face. And no idea that her defiance would rally her community — and inspire the nation.
I am delighted that America today recognizes the significance of her refusal to stand. She was the first woman, the first African-American, to lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. The president and congressional leaders came to pay tribute. CNN covered much of her funeral live.
As we recall this great lady, let us above all salute her courage. Today, we bandy the word courage about to describe anyone who takes a stand. Log Cabin seems to call any Republican “courageous” who disagrees with the GOP on gay issues. And yet, those individuals don’t face the consequences Rosa Parks did for refusing to give up her seat in the segregated South. I should know; I’m one of them. It didn’t take much courage for me to come out as gay to my fellow Republicans.
To be sure, there are many gay people whose very coming out is an act of courage. Those who risk losing the love and support of their families and communities. They are among the true heirs of Rosa Parks. Let us remember Ms. Parks for her simple courageous act which inspired a great movement and helped change America for the better.
And let her also become a reminder of what true courage is — doing what is right when such action likely invites severe consequences.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Just a reminder . . .

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. . . that one year ago today, George W. Bush was re-elected with a majority of the popular vote to a second four-year term as president of the United States.
UPDATE: Those of our critics have commented about the closeness of the vote in last fall’s election should note that since the (national) popular vote has been tallied (in presidential elections), only two Democrats in U.S history have won a second (in the case of FDR, second, third and fourth) term with a majority of the popular vote. And it was 104 years between Andrew Jackson’s (1832) re-election and FDR’s (1936).

Plame Was “Out” A Long Time Ago — Refresher

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Here are two of the many reasons why Fitzgerald couldn’t charge anyone with the original crime. It wasn’t committed! (Hat tip: TheMalcontent)
CIA Scandal Tars Everybody – Nicholas Kristof, Oct. 14, 2003

First, the CIA suspected that Aldrich Ames had given Mrs. Wilson’s name (along with those of other spies) to the Russians before his arrest for espionage in 1994. So her undercover security was undermined at that time and she was brought back to Washington for safety reasons.
Second, as Mrs. Wilson rose in the agency, she was already in transition away from undercover work to management, and to liaison roles with other intelligence agencies. So this year, even before she was outed, she was moving away from “noc” – which means non-official cover, like pretending to be a business executive. After passing as an energy analyst for Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a CIA front company, she was switching to a new cover as a State Department official, affording her diplomatic protection without having “CIA” stamped on her forehead.

Nevermind that Ambassador Wilson was introducing her as his “CIA Wife” long before June, 2003. So why did Libby lie?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Miers Withdrawal–Victory for the Constitution

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Like many conservatives, I was relieved to learn this morning that Harriet Miers had withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. While I was initially disappointed with her nomination, I believed that, as the president’s nominee, she deserved the benefit of the doubt. But, the more I heard about her, the more I began to lean against her confirmation.
As I said before, I believe the president blundered badly in picking her. He did not adequately consult with Republican Senators and his conservative supporters and was thus not prepared for their strong opposition to his choice. Many were not convinced that she would be a conservative jurist while others were troubled by her lack of judicial experience. Still others (including yours truly) were troubled that her writings did not show much understanding of constitutional issues and that her answers to questions from Senators (both in her questionnaire and in her meeting with them) were inadequate or mealy-mouthed.
Her failure to convince Senators she was up to the job of a Supreme Court Justice led to her decision to withdraw. While Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid — and other Democrats — claim that “The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination,” even some of his Democratic colleagues, notably Charles Schumer, questioned her qualifications. Had she demonstrated an understanding of constitutional law to Senators, I believe that most Republicans would have supported her confirmation — despite her lack of any conservative record on judicial issues.
As it was Senators’ concerns which led to her withdrawal, we see once again the genius of our Constitution which, in Article 2, Section 2, gave the President the power to appoint “Judges of the supreme Court,” conditioning that appointment on the “Advice and Consent of the Senate.” More than two centuries ago, in a piece for the New York Packet, preserved for us as Federalist No. 76, Alexander Hamilton saw the Senate’s “co-operation” in such appointments as “an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President:” [Read more…]

A Writer Who Understands What’s at Stake in the Marriage Debate

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I have frequently recommended the chapter “What is Marriage for,” in Jonathan Rauch’s book, Gay Marriage : Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America as one of the few pieces which actually takes seriously the meaning of gay marriage. Today, I was delighted (and surprised) to discover another such piece while checking out National Review Online.
On their front page, that conservative journal offers a piece by law professor (and GPW acquaintance) Dale Carpenter listing the ten areas of agreement on gay marriage. Articulating anew an idea that Andrew Sullivan introduced in his Conservative Case for Gay Marriage, Dale contends:

This “conservative case” has rested on the idea that marriage would benefit gays, generally by encouraging long-term commitment among gays and particularly by settling gay men. It would therefore benefit our whole society.

Hmm. . . . doesn’t seem much different from ideas addressed in Plato’s Symposium.
These ten areas of agreement include the societal and institutional benefits of the institution and allowing “churches and religious authorities” the freedom “to refuse to recognize such marriages if they wish to do so.” Dale recognizes that we need to consider the “social effects” involved in changing “an important social institution like marriage.” Thus, perhaps the most important of his areas of agreement is that the change should be gradual:

If any significant change to an important social institution like marriage is undertaken at all it should occur slowly and incrementally, state-by-state, rather than in one fell swoop (as by court-ordered, nationwide gay marriage), so that we can assess the impact of the change and adjust the direction of reform or completely halt the reform.

I have one minor quibble with his piece in that he does not include monogamy in his list of the ten areas of agreement, waiting only until his conclusion to bring it up.
That said, it’s a great piece and a must-read for those committed to the debate on gay marriage. I frequently fault advocates of gay marriage for not addressing the real issues of the debate. Dale’s article is a reminder that there are a few who understand what’s at stake, who recognize the impact of this significant social change and who have considered the meaning of gay marriage. It’s a great credit to the National Review that this conservative publication would post such a serious piece.
Now, as Glenn Reynolds would say, just read the whole thing!
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Yeah, I’m Still Alive.

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I figured I should post *something* so everyone knows I’m okay. I guess I’m still “recovering” from a pinched nerve in my back/neck that happened about a week ago. Now there was some pain! Whew. Anyway, after a few days of moving up from percoset to vicodan, I’m now back to naproxyn. Can’t hang onto those Schedule II drugs for long or ya get hooked. I don’t think it is in my chemistry to become a drug addict anyway, but hey, I don’t need to find out.
There is still some numbness in my fingers and a sporadic, “achy” pain down my left arm… but nothing like the P-A-I-N of the pinched nerve.
Anyway, I just took the week off from life last week. No work, no blog, no nothing. But as of Sunday I’m back trudging through airports and doing what I do… including mouthing off as “GayPatriot”. Heh heh.
One final thought on this Saturday night. I wanted to thank the hosts of the wonderful party in suburban DC last evening. It was a great gathering of conservative gays and their friends. I joked with PatriotPartner that we had finally made the Gay Republican “A-List” just as we are moving away from the area! That’s pretty much my luck.
Our friend from Philadelphia was down for the weekend and went with us to the party. He’s a far cry from a gay GOP’er, but very gay GOP friendly. He had a blast and all three of us felt like it was one of the best and friendliest gay parties we had ever been to. And as our Philly friend said, “Gay Republicans are hot!”
Thanks again to our friends who had an outstanding party on Friday night!!
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

The Miers Blunder

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I am perhaps the last conservative blogger to weigh in on the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. On the day the appointment was announced, I didn’t say much because I didn’t want to draw attention away from Bruce’s clever post on the topic (which garnered him much well-deserved acclaim in the blogosphere). And that I got busy with papers, classes and other things.
Like the folks at Powerline, I was disappointed with the choice. While Ms. Miers is, no doubt, an excellent attorney and, in many ways, a legal pioneer, rising in the profession at a time when there were few successful female attorneys and while she is loyal to a president whom I (by and large) support, I had hoped the president would pick someone like Miguel Estrada, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan or Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, the latter my first choice. I hoped for someone who had not only a fine legal mind, but had also shown a keen understanding of the types of issues likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The president thus “missed an opportunity to drive home with the public the fact that the most brilliant and most principled thinkers in the legal profession are conservatives, not liberals.”
Basically, I think President Bush took the base for granted on this one. After John Roberts’ nomination was well-received by all but the most extreme conservatives, the president may have gotten a little cocky and assumed conservatives would support whomever he tapped for the Supremes. He thought they would see Miers’ loyalty to him as loyalty to conservative principles, so when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid liked the idea (of Miers’ nomination), the president may have thought he had a consensus pick. And ever eager to be a united, he named her.
In taking the base for granted, the president committed what is arguably the biggest blunder of his administration. The fact that he is trying to reassure conservatives after he announced the pick proves that he and his aides did not do their homework as he was considering Miers’ appointment. According to the Wall Street Journal‘s John Fund in yesterday’s Political Diary, her nomination was not properly vetted. She “was not interviewed by several key players who were deeply involved in the Roberts selection,” including “Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.” This morning, Lorie Byrd noted that the “lack of advance work led to the huge failure to anticipate the reaction of many to the Miers nomination.”
[Read more…]

Karl Rove, “Plamegate” & Discrediting a Dishonest Democrat

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While Andrew Sullivan and others on the left hold that Karl Rove (either or his own or through his mischievous minions) leaked the identity of Valerie Plame to the media in order to “smear Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson,” anyone who spends a few moments studying the facts of the case will see that what little Rove had to say (or do) with the matter involved an attempt to steer a reporter away from the story. That doesn’t sound like much of a smear to me. While the President’s enemies think Rove was involved in an effort to retaliate against a critic, at most, he was involved (and tangentially at that) in an effort to discredit a dishonest critic, a man one who lied to the American people in his criticism of the Administration.
Even Andrew’s one-time New Republic colleague (to whom Andrew introduced me in 1991) Jacob Weisberg (via Instapundit) finds that “Wilson’s accusation that administration officials outed his wife to punish him for speaking up was never really credible.” Based on Judith Miller’s account of her testimony, Weisberg suggests that another Administration official, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the Vice President’s chief of staff, may have leaked the name, not to smear Wilson, but as part of public dispute between the White House and the CIA. Weisberg notes that “Libby’s comments don’t look anything like retaliation against Joe Wilson—especially now that we know that Libby first mentioned Wilson and his wife to Judith Miller three weeks before Wilson went public with his op-ed piece.” (Emphasis added.)
Indeed, as Bush-haters are salivating at the possibility that Rove might be indicted, so certain are they that he sought to slime Mr. Wilson, they ignore how little Mr. Rove actually said to the media about Ms. Plame. Indeed, so far, I have yet to find any evidence that he ever mentioned her name to anyone at all, much less a reporter (before that name became common knowledge).
It seems Rove addressed the matter only two times, once merely acknowledging that he was aware that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. When columnist Robert Novak mentioned to him that “he had learned that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA,” Rove replied, “I heard that, too.” The second time was when Rove warned Time reporter Matt Cooper “not to ‘get too far out on Wilson‘” as it was his wife “who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.”
It is clear from those comments that, as Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin put it, his client “was trying to discourage Time magazine from circulating false allegations about Cheney, not trying to encourage them by saying anything about Wilson or his wife.” But, so eager are Bush’s critics to smear Karl Rove that they read his attempt to kill a story as a strategem to slime an administration critic.
[Read more…]

Dubya’s IMs Go Unanswered

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This is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time! (Maybe it is funnier cuz I’m on pain medication??)
Bush’s IM Buddies Go Offline – The Huffington Post (Danielle Crittenden)

Kickass43: heck
Kickass43: my posses awol
Kickass43: waz happenin Karen
Kickarabbootay: Undersecretary Hughes cares about what you have to say. She is offline right now because is doing important work on behalf of the President and for all Americans, whatever their faith or background. She will be happy to discuss your concerns at another time.
Kickass43: shud never have let her go
Kickass43: thats y im in this dam mess
Kickass43: she kept my sorry ass in line

The whole thing is priceless!
-Bruce (GayPercoset)

Proof That Libs Are The Fringe Of American Culture

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This is a very telling survey from Gallup. (hat tip: The Corner)

A new Gallup survey asks the question:
Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings: Human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life and God guided this process; human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life, but God had no part in this process, or God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it?
And the poll results are:
Evolved, God guided: 31%
Evolved, God had no part: 12%
God created exactly as Bible describes it: 53%

Full Gallup results here.
According to my math, that means that 84% of the American public believes in some “form” of intelligent design.
According to my political math, this result puts the Secular, Anti-Religious Left way outside the mainstream of American culture. Unfortunately for the advancement of gay rights, the GayBorg-ites are part of that group.
-Bruce (GayPatriot….in sheer pain)

GayPatriot Follow-Ups

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Partner and I have frequently said there should be a cable news channel called “The FollowUp News.” You know, giving us updates on stories that the media drilled into our brain and then dropped like hot rocks when the “next big story” came along.
Examples:
-What happened to “Baby Jessica”, the baby girl who fell into a well in Texas in 1987? (Some people are keeping homage to the event. Freaky.) How come NBC News doesn’t tell us what’s up with Jess these days?
What is Donna Rice doing in 2005? Or Fawn Hall?
Seriously, wouldn’t this make interesting television? It would at least provide some follow-through from the media! Maybe we should name it the Barbara Walters Network?
Anyway, here are two follow-ups to stories I wrote about over the past few days….
Judy Miller Meets the Grand Jury, Part Two – HuffingtonPost.com (GP posting: Judith Miller “Missing Notebook” Is Found)
The Zawahiri Letter: Strategic Analysis and Discussion – AustinBay (GP Posting: Al-Qaeda Leaders Want Iraq To Be Center Of Islamic Empire)
-Bruce (GayPatriot… on Percoset)