Politics Blog

Those hateful Republicans have denied Congress a pay raise:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — The annual raise for members of the House is on the verge of being eaten up in political payback.

Republicans, who were attacked by Democrats in the 2006 campaign for accepting annual raises while not increasing the federal minimum wage for 10 years, say they are inclined to oppose any increase for representatives. And Democrats say they are not likely to enact one on their own, which would open them to attack in the next campaign.

Republican leaders point a finger at the hard-hitting Democratic campaign operation of last year, saying Monday that making the raises a political issue violated a longtime unwritten agreement between the parties.

Making the most noise about this on the Republican side is minority whip Roy Blunt. Roy Blunt is a consummate insider and Washington fatcat. Bloggers and commenters at PoliPundit were disappointed when the Boehner/Blunt establishment group defeated the Flake/Pence reformers in leadership races. Blunt is taking this position purely out of vindictiveness and spite.

Still, vindictiveness and spite can lead to good outcomes, huh? No pay raise for those 535 leeches this year!

This is a pretty good article in GQ online:

The dynamic had begun almost the day he arrived in the Senate, in January 2005. While fellow newcomers like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama observed the customary “freshman silence,” Coburn’s first major move as a senator was to pick a fight with one of his party’s most venerated leaders, Ted Stevens of Alaska, a forty-year veteran of Congress who also happened to be the Senate’s president pro tempore.

The fight was over pork. As the 2006 transportation budget passed through the Senate process, Coburn noticed something odd: $200 million to pay for a bridge in Stevens’s home state—a bridge almost as long as the Golden Gate and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting an island of fifty people to the coast.

I’m not too sure how many people reading or really anywhere would refer to Senator Stevens as “venerated.” More like “should retire.” Anyway, check it out if you have the time.

Gee, this is a real “original” thought:

Although he frequently makes a point of finding something charitable to sayabout his opponents’ arguments, Sen. Barack Obama almost always ends up voting liberal.

“The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact,” the Illinois Democrat wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” a memoir published last year. “Much of what I absorbed from the sixties was filtered through my mother, who to the end of her life would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal.”

Was that before or after liberals embraced Marxist socialism which has failed everywhere it’s ever been implemented? I won’t even bother cataloguing the stupidity of liberal ideas in this post as I’ve spent most of the last year documenting their silliness, lies, and hypocrisy. Which must lead one to wonder, if liberal ideas are “grounded in fact and reason,” why must they often lie about their true beliefs in order to get elected?

Good times:

“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.

“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
…
Mr. Biden seemed to reserve a special scorn for Mr. Edwards, who suffered from a perceived lack of depth in foreign policy in the Presidential election of 2004.

“I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about,” Mr. Biden said, when asked about Mr. Edwards’ advocacy of the immediate withdrawal of about 40,000 American troops from Iraq.

Wow does this guy love to talk. He said Hillary is unelectable, Obama is a good house negro, and Edwards is a know nothing light-weight.

Heck, even John Edwards can afford a 25,000 sq ft mansion in the economy Bush allegedly “wrecked”

U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in a year last quarter as declining energy costs helped power consumer spending and contain inflation, enhancing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s stature at the start of his second year.

Gross domestic product increased at an annual pace of 3.5 percent, the Commerce Department said in Washington today. That was more than forecast and up from a 2 percent pace in the prior three months.

Thanks Speaker Nancy! You sure do get some quick results!

Gee, thanks:

German prosecutors on Wednesday said they have issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives suspected of kidnapping a German citizen in the Balkans in 2004 and taking him to a secret prison in Afghanistan before realizing several months later that they had the wrong person.

The German arrest warrants, filed in Munich, are the second case in which prosecutors have filed criminal charges against CIA employees involved in counterterrorism operations in Europe. European investigators acknowledge that it is highly unlikely the U.S. spies – most of whom worked undercover or using false identities – would ever be handed over to face trial.

Can we pull our troops out of Germany now?

Why in the world this guy wants to go back on the job isn’t clear given what happened to him:

A former Border Patrol agent fired in 2001 for beating an undocumented immigrant on the head with a five-cell flashlight wants back wages and his old job now that a federal jury has found him not guilty of using excessive force.

David Sipe, 35, of Bethany, Okla., had argued he feared for his safety but initially was convicted in the beating.

Government prosecutors were accused of suppressing evidence, and the conviction was thrown out.
…
Sipe’s attorney, Jack Wolfe, described the first case against his client as a “pile of (excrement)” because, he said, some of the testimony was “bought and paid for.”

“We hope we shot a cannon across their bow so they won’t willy-nilly do this kind of stuff,” Wolfe said.

Isn’t that just grand? Suppressing evidence on behalf of illegals to prosecute someone trying to protect the border.

Tree of liberty, meet blood of tyrants.

This money is supposed to help Abbas strengthen PA security forces to fight terrorist groups:

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - President Bush has ordered the transfer of more than $86 million to strengthen forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, a U.S. official confirmed on Tuesday.

The funds are intended to help Abbas prevent terror attacks such as the suicide bombing in the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Monday, in which three Israelis were killed.

Washington is backing Abbas as a “moderate” in his power struggle against the Hamas-led P.A. government, in the hope that he will be able to negotiate a peace deal with Israel.

A U.S. National Security Council spokesman said the money would build “legitimate security forces,” provide law and order in Gaza and the West Bank, fight terror, and facilitate movement and access, especially in Gaza. The money is for “non-lethal supplies and training.”

Those who say Abbas is no “moderate” note that he never disarmed Hamas and other militant groups when he had the opportunity to do so, and they say there is no reason for him to do so now.

Great. One problem with this scenario. Just a few weeks ago I posted about Abbas urging his supporters to turn their guns against Israel, not each other:

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - On the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told supporters on Thursday that they should turn their guns on Israel and not on each other.

One Israeli expert said Abbas has proved that he is not a moderate, and the analysts said the U.S. and Israel should have nothing to do with him.

Did we just finance a terrorist or at the least, a terrorist supporting organization ? If this money is used for terrorism against Israel, is the US guilty of “financing terrorism” according to the Bush doctrine ?

Did President Bush make a mistake in giving the PA this money ?

In just one article, William Arkin, now named Pathetic Putz, calls our soldiers mercenaries, and accuses them of rape and murder:

Here are some gems from his piece:

“I’m all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army.”

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President’s handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect.

But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

Lying hypocrites:

For many in the Senate, they were for a surge of troops in Iraq before they were against it.

“We don’t have enough troops in Iraq,” Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said in 2005.

In 2004, he told NBC’s Tim Russert some things he believes “very deeply.”
“Number one, we cannot fail,” Mr. Kerry said. “I’ve said that many times. And if it requires more troops in order to create the stability that eliminates the chaos, that can provide the groundwork for other countries, that’s what we have to do.”

They will say anything to get elected as their agenda is “be in power.”