Blatant Reality

Yep, it seems that the democrats, who claim they want more bipartisan action, are actually the most partisan in congress.

In fact, the Democrats take nine of the top ten partisan spots, as well as scoring 8 points higher in partisanship as a party. The lone Republican ties for first, though:

 

100% - Charlie Norwood (R-GA)
100% - Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
99.7% - Nita Lowey (D-NY)
99.4% - Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA)
99.1% - Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
98.9% - Xavier Bacerra (D-CA)
98.7% - Diana DeGetter (D-CO)
98.6% - Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
98.6% - Hilda Solis (D-CA)
98.6% - Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
98.6% - Al Wynn (D-MD)

 

Of course, Norwood is dead, and has been since February (h/t: The Anchoress). After Norwood, the next Republican comes in at 94.8%. JoAnn Davis (R-VA) has only cast 134 votes, however, as she has missed significant time while fighting a recurrence of breast cancer. She comes in at #174 on the list of partisans — which means that Democrats occupy all of the previous 173 slots, of those among the living, anyway.

What I find as extremely funny is that Nancy Pelosi, in her speech upon her election to speaker of the House, said that she was expected to be more bipartisan.

“And the American people told us they expected us to work together for fiscal responsibility, with the highest ethical standards and with civility and bipartisanship.”

Obviously she forgot to pre-read her speech before she delivered it. Maybe then she would have been able to edit that part out and now she wouldn’t have to be held accountable for being the most partisan in the House.

Soldiers and civilians alike are beginning to see that we can win in Iraq.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

 

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

 

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

This Merinews article sums it up the best…

It should be the moral obligation of those who were involved in the Iraq war not only to rebuild the whole country but also provide for measures to make the lives of Iraqis better. If they cannot do so then they must be treated not as heroes but as the war criminals.

For those who say that this war is “unjust” and that we should leave now, are not considering the amount of Iraqi lives that would be lost if we did. Even if we shouldn’t have gotten into this war in the first place, we owe it to the citizens of Iraq to help them build a new country and a new life for themselves.

Bush made a mistake when he declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq. I, for one, knew that we were far from finished in Iraq. When a country has lived in destitute for that long and is decades behind the modern world, you can’t just fix everything in a couple years. It is going to be slow going that may have many setbacks.

Whatever the reasons for the Iraq war, we are there now and we can make a difference in the country’s future. Enough with this “Bush lied” crap; we need some bipartisanship that can successfully show the Iraqi people that we are not going to cop out on them. We were their liberators and now we need to be there to help them rebuild, no matter what the cost. And guess what America, they appreciate our help. For those who doubt this, Michael Yon has many dispatches from the country that may change your mind.

If democrats and, sadly, republicans, succeed in getting a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq before it is stable, they may be considered as heroes here. However, those legislators will surely be seen as war criminals in Iraq. Why? Because they may very well be authorizing a potentially bloody civil war.

Even if a civil war doesn’t immediately erupt, the situation in Iraq could still go from bad to worse. How? When a government has to focus on keeping the peace and not rebuilding a country, there is a chance that a new tyrant will emerge as leader of a police state. This is not the prosperous, free democracy that our soldiers have died to see established.

America: This is not some fast-food joint where if things aren’t the way you would like you can just send it back or throw it away. Some things still take time in this world and cannot be sped up much unlike your high-speed Internet connection or the super-charged sports car you own.

Support the war so you can be seen as a hero here, and to the Iraqi people.

Or So Claims Frank Britton in the Pasadena Star.

So the oceans control both the warming and the cooling of the earth. Man’s contribution of these gases is almost not measurable compared to what nature produces. Humans, with all our cars and factories, account for less than 1 percent of the CO2 present at any one time. Furthermore, man does not control the water cycle. We simply are not that important. We can work to keep the Earth clean, but we cannot control the atmosphere. Many climatologists are aware of this but do not give this critical information to the public.

With North Korea shutting down its nuclear facilities, questions arise about where will all the atomic physicist go.

Unlike the arms engineers of the former Soviet Union, the North Korean experts are far from the forefront of their field. But they have honed skills in old technology that could spread with relative ease.

Washington and the North’s neighbors worry they could follow the path of Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan, who became a merchant of nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea itself.

A more immediate concern is that failing to assure the scientists’ future could give Pyongyang another reason to resist disarmament.

As with most solutions, more problems always seem to crop up.

This article by HumanEvents.com swears that a majority of democrats aren’t as anti-Iraq war as we all think. I don’t know if I believe this statement. However, the reason they state democrats seem this way is because they are trying to appease the extreme fringe leftists.

Today’s Democrats are trying to appease two distinct constituencies, which may explain Congress’s all-time low approval numbers. But, with 2008 looming, they will have to decide whether to stand for victory against Islamofascism and take their lumps from the extreme Leftwing or whether to align with the anti-American bullies who hope for their own country’s destruction. For most Americans, that would not be a tough choice.

The democrats should know from history that appeasement can only lead to one thing: you getting screwed over. I for one hope they stand for victory. This wishy-washy nature of our congress is helping the terrorists win. If they start standing for what’s right, the rest will fall into place.

Just discovered this article and though it is 10 days old, it still has relevance to our present situation.

The truth is, liberals should love the war in Iraq, since it’s being fought to a great extent along notions of soft power over hard power. It’s much less about firepower than it is about the power of basic services to bring about peace. It’s about bringing “good government” and civil liberties and human rights to war torn Baghdad, a city that has seen none of those things in decades, if ever. At least half the war’s most vital action takes place in meetings like this one in Al Salam to discuss works projects, school re-buildings and urban renewal. It’s all part of the complex mission in Iraq, a mission that morphed from the defeat of an entrenched dictatorship to one focused on building a civil society that will survive after the Americans leave. CPT Bare and the rest of the US military are trying to build a nation that Saddam Hussein broke, both by keeping the Iraqi people under his boot heel for 35 years and by leading it into needless wars to establish himself as a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar. In Saddam’s rule by fear, the basic idea of taking care of one’s own community broke down in favor of the daily need to survive by avoiding attracting the Baathist government’s attention. The Americans have to remove the fear that built up over decades, restore hope and help the Iraqis rebuild their lives and nation. Hard power may clear and hold Baghdad’s rough streets, but it will be CPT Bare’s relentless application of soft power that will win the war.

Evidence points to Iran’s involvement…

“In the last three months, we have seen a significant improvement in the capability of mortar men and rocketeers to provide accurate fire into the Green Zone and other places,” Lt-Gen Odierno told a press conference.

“We think this is directly related to training conducted inside Iran,” he said.

Environmentalists really confuse me. Twenty years ago they were complaining about the Ozone Hole and how we need to make sure that we don’t allow the hole grow any bigger. Now they are saying that more ozone is leading to more Global Warming!

Ozone in the troposphere — the lowest level of the atmosphere — damages plants and affects their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, another global warming gas whose release into the atmosphere accelerates climate change, the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

 

While carbon dioxide is blamed for global warming, it also has a beneficial effect on plant growth, and ozone counteracts this effect, said Stephen Sitch, a climate researcher at Britain’s Met Office, which deals with meteorology.

Now, what problem are the environmentalist going to pick to solve, the ozone hole or global warming? And, just to clarify, the solution cannot involve killing every human on the planet (minus those godly environmentalists of course). Now I believe that that global warming is a naturally occurring event and there have been times in the past where the earth has been a lot warmer than it is now (see DNA reveals Greenland’s lush past) so this present warming trend is nothing to worry about. Sure things will have to change, but don’t things always have to change in a non-static world?

Iran’s Press TV published an article today stating that it will not stop its uranium enrichment program.

Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said that Iran will not phase out centrifuges in Natanz nuclear facilities even if the US offers security guarantees.