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Double Standard Democrats

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Hey America… it’s okay that I come to the floor every day for five years and call the President and Commander-In-Chief a liar, a draft dodger, a cocaine addict, an election stealer, a corrupt man, incompetent yet Hitleresque….
But…. *sniff, sniff*…..Don’t you dare say mean things about my friend Jack Murtha!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would be soooo unfair and I’m gonna cry.
PS — America is evil and I hate handguns and puppies.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
10PM Update – Because of the multiple procedural votes before the actual vote on the Iraq withdrawal resolution, it will allow the Democrats to be able to say that they voted FOR surrender before they voted AGAINST it.

College Professor Urges Soldiers to Shoot Their Officers… For Freedom

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I heard about this on Sean Hannity’s radio program yesterday and it sickened my stomach.

Warren Community College English professor, John Daly, said that “Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors.” Rebecca Beach, a freshman at Warren Community College in Washington, New Jersey, received this unexpected reply to a recent email she sent the faculty at her school announcing the appearance of decorated Iraq war hero, Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, on Thursday, November 17 to discuss America’s accomplishments in Iraq.

Full text of email from Warren Community College Professor John Daly:

November 13, 2005
Dear Rebecca:
I am asking my students to boycott your event. I am also going to ask others to boycott it. Your literature and signs in the entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive. Your main poster “Communism killed 100,000,000” is not only untrue, but ignores the fact that CAPITALISM has killed many more and the evidence for that can be seen in the daily news papers.
The U.S. government can fly to dominate the people of Iraq in 12 hours, yet it took them five days to assist the people devastated by huricane Katrina. Racism and profits were key to their priorities. Exxon, by the way, made $9 Billion in profits this last quarter–their highest proft margin ever. Thanks to the students of WCCC and other poor and working class people who are recruited to fight and die for EXXON and other corporations who earning megaprofits from their imperialist plunders.
If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the more than a million children who have died in Iraq from U.S.-imposed sanctions and war. Or the million African American people who died from lack of access to healthcare in the US over the last 10 years.
I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won’t dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people’s needs–such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again.
Prof. John Daly

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I am a proud contributor to the Young America’s Foundation (the group that keeps the Ronald Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara going) and am glad to see this young, brave American woman speaking out. Sounds like Prof. Daly and Matt (American democracy is “immoral”) Foreman would get along well in their socialist utopia.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Before Iraq War, Bush Critic Feared Osama Might “Boogie to Baghdad”

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Since Byron York regrets that so few in the media have picked up on a catchy expression by one of the many people who mispresents his own statments in order to criticize President Bush and so gain media attention, I decided to post on that very expression.
You see, when Richard Clarke, the top White House counterterrorism official in the Clinton Administration, began to understand the level of Bush-hatred in the media, he wrote a book critical of the current Administration’s attitude toward the terrorist threat. He chnaged some of his past opinions and mispresented his views in order to better attack the president. Given this man’s lambasting of that much-reviled (in media circles) Administration, he got top billing on 60 Minutes and soon became the darling of the MSM and its preferred political party–the Democrats.
All were certain that his revelations would help bring down President Bush. After W’s defeat in the 2004 election, most assumed Clarke would get a top post in the Kerry Administraiton. Fortunately, that did not come to pass.
Will, despite Mr. Clarke’s frequent criticism of President Bush, his words prior to the liberation of Iraq help prove that the president made a strong case for war. Indeed, they help debunk the spurious charge that that good man lied in making that case. Well aware of the relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, Mr. Clarke “believed that if the United States made bin Laden’s situation too hot in Afghanistan, then, in Clarke’s non-famous words, ‘old wily Osama will likely boogie to Baghdad.’” Please read all of Mr. York’s piece which can be easily confirmed by checking out the 9/11 Commission Report (p. 134).
The more facts come out, the more apparent it becomes that not only did the president not lie, but that he made a very strong case for leading our nation to war against a bloodthirsty tyrant who, while in power, had been busy building relationships with terrorists bent on attacking America.
Thanks to President Bush, that dictator is no longer in power and can’t very well build relationships with terrorists from a prison cell.
(H/t: Instapundit)

US Gay “Rights” Leader Denounces Democracy As ‘Immoral’

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Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and self-described socialist, is now in the hunt to replace Howard Dean as the Fortune 500 Left Wing Loon of the Year.

“What I really want people to understand is rather than seeing these as political contests, these are really profound, unfair, bordering on immoral elections,” Foreman told Reuters on Saturday. “Imagine if this was being done to a minority in Kosovo — people would be outraged.” (Hat tip: Right Side of the Rainbow)

So let’s see….. when you lose an election because you haven’t changed people’s opinion… they are the ones who are immoral. When you subvert the democratic process and storm into the court system to force feed gay marriage without reaching out to mainstream America…. they are the ones who are immoral.
Perhaps it is time for Mr. Foreman to move to a country he is more comfortable with? One where they embrace socialism, border on anti-capitalism, border on anti-Christian, and have fully embraced their “minority” population….



So now I would like to demand that Matt’s comrades-in-gay-marriage, Patrick Guerriero (Log Cabin Republican president) and Joe Solomonese (head of the Human Rights Campaign), to publicly state whether or not they believe American democracy is “immoral.”
If they do not, they need to publicly condemn Mr. Foreman’s words and demand an apology.
Mr. Foreman does not speak for me or millions of other gay Americans who love this country, revel in the freedoms we do have, celebrate capitalism, celebrate religious freedom, and look forward to the day that gays are more accepted in our society as they are more and more each day. I value my rights as an American, even if you do not, Mr. Foreman. If France isn’t to your liking…. what about Iran? Sometimes you value the things you take for granted the most when you don’t have them anymore.
In any case….Mr. Foreman — Do Not Speak In My Name.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

O’Reilly Vs. San Fran

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I nearly doubled over in laughter when I read this item as I awoke this morning…..
O’Reilly Blasted For Coit Tower Comments – KRON4.com

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Supervisor Chris Daly is firing back at Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly for comments he made on his radio show Wednesday that encouraged al-Qaida to “blow up” Coit Tower.
O’Reilly reacted to San Franciscans’ approval of Proposition I, which discourages military recruiters on public high school and college campuses.

Note to San Fran: I don’t advocate a terror attack on you. So I diverge with ole Bill on that part. But I wholeheartedly AGREE with the sentiment behind his remarks and support this proposal he made:

You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.” – via ThePoliticalTeen

Smokin’ Bill went over the line when he kept going, though…..

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

However, I say ‘BRAVO’ for the idea that we stop all Federal funding to San Francisco. Not only due to the vote to stop military recruiting, but also the fact that it has been San Fran LIBERALS that brazenly trampled on the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution by outlawing handgun ownership by residents.
Whatever world they live in… they can have it to themselves. I do not want any of MY tax money going to support a city that clearly does not want to be part of the United States of America. But I certainly don’t want to see these former Americans living in the People’s Republic of Cisco hurt in a terrorist attack. Bill hurt his point tremendously by continuing his rant. Sometimes you just need to stop talking… or blogging. *grin*
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I Left My Handgun In San Francisco

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Well, the crazies of San Fran.. who rejected an economic opportunity and told the USS Iowa to float away… have done it again.
Chad has the lowdown on the handgun ban in San Fran. Your Bill of Rights…. trampled by the Left Coast.

Now, I’m sure those criminals out there who are packin’ heat will heed this new referendum without question. I can already see them lining up to turn over their firearms.
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However… on the off chance that one or two of them don’t (they are criminals after all, and they didn’t get that title by necessarily obeying the law), and you find yourself in an armed robbery situation or maybe a breaking-and-entering type of deal, here are a few pointers San Franciscans suggest you use to defend yourself:
If you’re gay (and who in CA isn’t?), break it down Streisand style. Regardless of your singing and/or dancing ability, the mere fact you’re tappin’ and flappin’ in the middle of the street should cause uproarious laughter to well up from the perp’s soul. Once he’s done pissing his pants with joy, hand him a tissue to wipe away the tears of laughter and then go grab a tofu wrap with him. Discuss Andrew Lloyd Weber over the meal.

[Related Story – San Francisco Voters Approve Handgun Ban – AP]
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Tampa Gay Rights Group Shows Bush As Hitler

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(click on photo to view QueerTampa webpage)

In a email-distributed newsletter and on their website, the so-called gay rights group “Queer Tampa” visualizes President Bush, who freed 50 million Muslims from tyranny, as morphing into Nazi dictator and mass murderer of millions Adolf Hitler.
One member of the email distribution list protested the photo and asked to be removed from the list. Here is the response he received from Queer Tampa. Please note that no individual at the organization had the courage to put their name on this ridiculous and hyperbolic email.

Thank you for your input. We are indeed sorry to see you go as the result of one provocative graphic.
Although our opinion is that it is tough to point to any positive developments in the past five years in our Nation’s Safety, Economy or Civil Rights, we do value everyone’s right not only to their opinion but also to their right to express it. Our hope is that we all remain vigilant in preserving that right and that we continue to fight for equal protection under the law for all citizens, not just the heterosexual ones.

I suppose no repeat attack on our mainland since 9/11 doesn’t count for them? And I guess the many recent pro-LGBT Supreme Court decisions, including yesterday’s, fell under their radar screen? Methinks this group knows about them wicked gay concentration camps being built in Montana by John Ashcroft!! After all, where has he been for the past two years??!!

Likewise, we support the Constitution Of The United States and the “Separation of Powers” and find ourselves frightened by any attempts to thwart that document, to abuse the Bill of Rights, make unjustified acts of war, allow the looting of our economy by private enterprise or attempts to limit the free press either by bullying tactics or the use of misinformation via government sponsored propaganda campaigns. Any attempt to rescind The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 is in our view a crime against the people of the United States and clearly a precursor to a police state. Additionally, the use of fear or “terror” to gain control of the masses is nothing short of Hitler and Stalinist tactics and should be questioned and resisted by all free thinking people.

Let’s see, Congress authorized all military action that took place since 9/11, thereby following the Constitution. And the only people we need to fear are those that have been trained by a worldwide Islamist movement to kill innocent Americans, like this delusional un-named lefty from Tampa who speaks for “Queer Tampa”.

We hope you will respect this alternate opinion.

You mean just like you “respect” other people’s opinions that stray from the anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-capitalist Leftist party line? Yeah, right.

Best Regards,
www.queertampa.com
Tampa’s Most Visited Gay & Lesbian Website
Established April 2, 2000

I’d encourage all of you to email Queer Tampa and let them hear from people who still believe America is the greatest country on earth and the “last great hope of mankind.” mail@queertampa.com
It is precisely this kind of venom and exaggeration from the gay community that will result in continued rejection by the American people of improving gay rights. It is amazing that the HRC, NGLTF, and QueerTampa haven’t figured that out by now. At least pretend you love your country!
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Al Franken: “I’m glad the homosexual got killed”

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I’m good enough, I’m white enough, and dog-gone it, Stuart Smalley likes me!, by Mike Adams @ TownHall.com

Here’s an example of a “fair mean” joke made by Franken himself:
“I just don’t like homosexuals. If you ask me, they’re all homosexuals in the Pudding. Hey, I was glad when that Pudding homosexual got killed in Philadelphia.”
For those who don’t get this “fair mean” joke, Franken is attacking Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club, which is a humorous dramatic society – one that never invited Franken to join while he was at Harvard. So, naturally, when you are snubbed by an organization, it is “fair” to rejoice when one of its members is murdered. This is especially true if the person murdered is gay and the person snubbed is liberal.
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Perhaps offended gay liberals will say that Franken’s anti-gay remarks provide evidence that he is actually gay himself. Maybe they will back this assertion by saying that he “looks gay” – something conservatives have thought for years but were not allowed to say under the prohibition against “unfair meanness.”
And, who knows, maybe homosexual liberals will start to throw quiche at Franken when he speaks on college campuses. Food throwing is an example of “fair meanness,” largely because conservatives don’t do it.

We all know that gay liberals will give Franken a pass. It is better to be a liberal homophobic bigot than a Republican, right?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Carter–Departing from the Policies of all Previous Ex-Presidents

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Busy leveling overheated charges against the elected president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, proves (once again) that he lacks what columnist George Will called the “grace and restraint” required of an ex-president. His recent public remarks are laced with “venom.” And now this man claims that President Bush “has radically departed from (the policies) of all previous presidents.”
No, Jimmy, you got that wrong. It is you who have radically departed from the policies of all previous presidents. They showed enough respect for the office not to lash out at their successors. And not to use their position to meddle in foreign policy.
Although he left the White House in disgrace, Richard Nixon at least had the courtesy to clear his foreign travel with his successors whenever he left the country. When he met with foreign leaders, he made clear he was not doing so in an official capacity.
Despite the failure of his own foreign policy, Carter, however, thinks it’s his business to meddle in world affairs, even if (or perhaps especially if) his policies differ from those of the elected president. In 1990, he lobbied members of the United Nations Security Council to vote against the First Gulf War, that is, Carter urged nations to vote against using force to liberate a sovereign nation which had been invaded. And it wasn’t just Republican presidents he undermined. In 1994, against the wishes of the Clinton Administration, he went to North Korea to negotiate a deal on nuclear arms.
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Democrats Just Want Investigations to Prove What They Believe

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When the president commissions a bipartisan investigation into an important matter of policy or law or to study a controversy, reasonable people tend to regard the panel’s conclusions as dispositive of the issue at hand. To be sure, some may question the bias of this or that panelist or the panel’s failure to evaluate certain evidence, but barring such evidence of bias, most will look seriously at the results of the investigation.
Similarly, if the Justice Department brings in a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of criminal behavior, most people expect that his investigation will be thorough. Should the prosecutor find evidence to substantiate such behavior, he will press charges. Without such evidence, he won’t issue indictments. And when the investigation is particularly thorough, people will understand that where no indictment was issued, the prosecutor didn’t find enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonble doubt that a crime had occurred.
As Democrats’ hatred of President Bush increased, they have called for no end to investigations of his Administration. They claimed they wanted to find out the truth. But, when those investigations, be they criminal or informational, reach conclusions with which they disagree, instead of finding such conclusions dispositive, they call for still more investigations. Or, as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid did on Tuesday, misrepresent the findings of an investigation to suit their ends.
Like so many Democrats (and others on the Left), Mr. Reid holds that Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation proves something which Mr. Fitzgerald says the investigation didn’t even address. Given that many on the Left found (to borrow the words of one of my most persistent critics) that “Mr. Fitzgerald handled himself so incredibly well,” they should take him at his word that, “This indictment is not about the war.” But, that statement is at odds with the result they wanted his investigation to yield–evidence that the White House twisted intelligence in order to make the case for war.
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More liberal hypocrisy?

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Over at Cake or Death, Chad wonders why the New York Civil Liberties Union holds that:

It’s illegal for the city of New York to randomly search bags on the transit system, but it’s perfectly a-okay, hunkey-dorey, peachey-keen for them to be searched when entering buildings (who happen to house the NYCLU).

Chad sees some hypocrisy in their actions, but then again, hypocrisy is only the “greatest crime one can ever possibly commit” for Republicans. Since the ACLU is not Republican, well, then, they can get away with it. Anyway, check out Chad’s post for a taste of his wit — and wisdom.

Karma….

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Chad has the Greenpeace Karma lowdown…..
Greenpeace’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior II, hits a coral reef, blames inaccurate charts.

There’s just so many aspects about that sentence that makes my soul laugh. How much you wanna bet that had an Exxon tanker hit the reef, they wouldn’t be getting by with paying $7000 for damages, and an “Oops, our bad!”? …. Bad charts, my left nut.

Priceless.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hillary Clinton — (Mendacious) Hypocrite

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Those on the left who get upset at the slightest whiff of hypocrisy among Republicans should be in high dudgeon about Hillary Clinton’s remarks on the indictment of Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. In a statement on Friday, Mrs. Clinton said it was “simply reprehensible” that Mr. Libby “willfully interfered with the investigation into the possible exposure of a CIA agent’s identity.”
Well, it seems Mrs. Clinton did a little willful interference of her own into another investigation, that which independent counsel Robert Ray’s led into an abuse of power in the early days of her husband’s administration, the firing of officials in the White House travel office so the Clintons could give their jobs to cronies. While that prosecutor, like Patrick Fitzgerald, did not bring charges on the underlying offenses, he did find that one of his key witnesses lied under oath. Only Mr. Ray chose not to prosecute her.
In his October 18, 2000 report, Ray “determined Hillary had given false testimony when questioned about the travel office firing.” Giving false testimony certainly sounds like interfering into Mr. Ray’s investigation. By Mrs. Clinton’s own standards, that’s “simply reprehensible.”
Malcontent’s Robbie observed that “For many on the Left, hypocrisy is quite possibly the greatest crime one can ever possibly commit.” Given Mrs. Clinton’s comments and the silence of the left, I would amend that only to read hypocrisy is the great crime Republican can commit because Democrats do it all the time.

Harry Reid Unhinged–Preferring Political Theater to Public Policy

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Apparently, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wasn’t paying any attention to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald when he announced the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney’s then-chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby last Friday. As I noted at the time, Mr. Fizgerald stated clearly, “This indictment is not about the war.”
Today, when breaking Senate precedent by calling for a Secret Session under Senate Rule 21 without informing the leadership of the other party (in this case the Senate’s majority party), Reid acted as if Fitzgerald never spoke those words:

The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.

He must have read a different indictment than I did–indeed, different from the one everyone to the right of moveon.org has read. (Or just read a speech he had written long before the indictment was handed down.)
Paul at Powerline thinks Reid needed this special secret session “to prevent the public from witnessing the spectacle of Democrats making fools out of themselves trying to explain the connection between that indictment and pre-war intelligence on Iraq.” Reid’s antics are nothing more than a stunt, really just a temper tantrum — or perhaps a bone to the party’s left-wing activists — to deflect attention from the president’s rebound in the past few days. And from the failure of the special prosecutor to find what they wanted him to find when he investigated the “leak” of Valerie Plame’s name.
In part, Democrats are still mad that Fizgerald didn’t prove their crazy conspiracy theory about Karl Rove. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts called the Minority Leader’s stunt an “unfortunate event” which resulted in Republicans agreeing “to do what we already agreed to do.”
Democrats aren’t just upset over the non-indictment of Rove and the likelihood of Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, they’re furious that the president they revile has once again seized the offensive. They must now be realizing how they failed to take advantage of the president’s late misfortune, his “past two months of much bad news and many missteps.
If Democrats had spent less time staging such media stunts as that today of Senator Reid, spent less time calling the president (& his allies) names, spent less time misrepresenting his record and put more effort into articulating their ideas and putting forward policies to address the problems facing the nation, they might have kept the president on defense. But, as Mr. Reid’s behavior today shows, they’re more interested in political theater than in public policy.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Liberals Unhinged

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I just bought my copy of Michelle Malkin’s new book: Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Sounds like a raucous good time, never mind the fact that the front cover is awesome.

It is too bad I declined to press charges against my run in with an Unhinged Liberal during the 2004 campaign. I found out later he worked for Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham (D). I just didn’t have the “bandwidth” to deal with the creep at the time. The police investigation lasted about a month, so I think he and his rich daddy in Virginia had a lot of sleepless nights wondering what I was going to do. Humprh! Throw a buttered biscuit at me, will ya!
Anyway, Michelle has the mugshots of some of her featured Unhinged Liberals today. She has always been a great supporter of this blog.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

The “Party of Abortion” Strikes Out Again

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Excellent column from Wes Pruden of the Washington Times today!!!
The left gets what it asked for – Washington Times

California is as far from the reality where the rest of us live as you can get and still keep your feet dry. Californians think Geena Davis, the star of the new television fantasy “Commander in Chief,” really is the commander in chief. So when the ground shifted yesterday with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court — a solid 7 on the Richter scale — nearly everyone here wondered why that nice, sensible President Davis would have done something like that.

With all due respect to Dan and our readers from the Left Coast, I couldn’t agree more with Pruden’s impression of the detachment of that part of the country. PatriotPartner and I wondered if on 9/11 the self-absorbed California elite felt as though they were watching an action flick rather than brutal murders of 3,000 of their fellow countrymen. I still wonder that to this day. But I digress…

The early action in Washington is media skirmishing, as the players jostle and jiggle for position against the day when it will be time to lock and load. The high priests of secularism are desperate to protect the rite of abortion, which is to the noisily devout of the left what the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is to orthodox Christianity.

What a damning, but truthful statement of the current state of the Democrat Party and liberals in general. They worship the State and hold sacred a ‘rite’ which kills unborn babies. To them, the only God is the God of Government — the Almighty Power to Tax, Spend and Force People To Do What They Want.

The first volley at Samuel Alito is that he dissented when his colleagues of the 3rd Circuit declined to evict the nannies of Planned Parenthood from the bedrooms of strangers, ruling that a wife doesn’t have to tell her husband when she aborts their child. A generation ago, cries that the Democratic Party had become the party of “abortion, acid and amnesty” sank George McGovern and set up decades of Republican dominance. Acid and amnesty are but dim echoes of that vanished era, but “abortion” is the rallying cry that unites what’s left of the party of FDR, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy.
It doesn’t work. The Democrats tried to cast the ’04 presidential campaign as a referendum on “abortion rights,” and now we see how risky such a strategy can be. John Kerry, like Al Gore before him, warned that if George W. Bush was elected, he would appoint conservative men and women to the Supreme Court. How right they were. The Democrats got a president, but only in Hollywood and only for an hour once a week.

Unfortunately for the rest of America, we have to live in the real world where a global enemy is intent on mass destruction, and where the Abortion Party-Out-of-Power is intent on undermining our nation at war. My prediction — by year’s end, the real President’s poll numbers will be north of 50% again. Back in majority territory, something the last real Democrat President never had.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Happy Halloween!

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In honor of Halloween, I remembered some photos I had taken on our cruise this summer. I was surprised of how many liberals we ran into. I can only assume that they are on the prowl today, trying to scare the money out of my wallet and appease Al-Qaeda at every chance.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid – “Huh-huh…. I’m from Searchlight…”

Senator Robert Byrd – (looking through his old KKK scrapbook)

Hillary Clinton

Democratic Underground – “Take us to our talking points… we can’t think for ourselves”

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Gone With the Idealism–The Cynicism of Today’s Leftists

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This past weekend at the Liberty Film Festival, in addition to the great flicks I saw, I also enjoyed some fascinating panel discussions. My friend Craig Titley and one of my favorite bloggers, Roger Simon, participated in the Screenwriters’ Panel (perhaps more on that anon) while a panel on the Hollywood Blacklist, a diverse array of speakers considered the question, “Was Communism a Threat to Hollywood?” (I wonder if a liberal film fest would include such a mixed group.)
Impressed by the panel, I bought two of the participants’ books, Richard Schickel’s book on Elia Kazan (in large part because that graduate of America’s finest small college is one of my favorite directors) and Ronald Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left. I began reading Radosh’s book just a few minutes after buying and have found it hard to put down.
In the early chapters, he addresses the idealism of the early Hollywood communists. Back then, communism represented a path to build a better world. Some Hollywood celebrities who joined — or were linked to the Communist Party through their associations or their support of causes with which Communists were involved — did so because of their own experiences with poverty. Others signed up because, in the 1930s (until the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939), the Communists provided leadership “in the resistance to fascism.”
In testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1940, James Cagney explained his involvement:

Under the circumstances under which I was raised . . ., I saw poverty on all sides for a long time. Such a thing leaves its impression; you can’t go through life and build a wall around yourself and say “Everything is fine for me and to hell with the other fellow.”

For the 1930s idealists, Communism served as a positive means to address pressing problems like poverty and what we today would call, social injustice. And the first nation to adopt communism, the Soviet Union, became a “mythic homeland of the radical imagination where the future was being born every day.”
Contrast the idealism of the early Communists with the attitudes of today’s leftists. In the 1930s, leftists had a noble vision of a better world. Today, leftists just project a nasty image onto many present-day leaders, particularly President Bush and his closest associates. They seem more interested in trashing their opponents than in putting forward a positive vision of what they would do in his stead.
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Cindy’s sixteenth (or is it her eighteenth?) minute

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Probably because she was so upset by the fact even CNN devoted too much time yesterday to Hurricane Rita yesterday, thus all but forgetting her rally, Cindy Sheehan, ignored three warnings from police that she — and her cohorts — were breaking the law by sitting in the pedestrian walkway in front of the White House. Had she listened to police, she could have avoided arrest.
In other words, it was a media stunt. Guess she wanted her sixteenth minute of fame. Or is she now on her eighteenth?
In an IM message, Chad of Cake or Death says she’s on her twenty-fourth minute by now. (And tipping my hat to this fine blogger for Cindy’s comment on Rita.)
UPDATE: PrismWarden has pictures while ThatGayConservative notes how even Hillary has dissed Cindy.
GP UPDATE: OneFineJay has some interesting quotes from the “peaceful” anti-war Leftists.
UP-UPDATE: Seems that Cindy’ and her pals announced their intention to get arrested on Sunday, the day before she was arrested. HT: little green footballs.
UP-UP-UPDATE: In commenting on Cindy’s arrest, the Anchoress writes, “it is amazing how much destruction is wrought because of a need to feel loved.” Read the whole thing and Michelle’s post which links it.