Archive » 2005 » December

Here we go, kids. Via AP:
WASHINGTON - The proposal to drill for oil in an Alaska wildlife refuge will create the most environmentally friendly oil field in the world, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Tuesday - a claim disputed by drilling opponents.
They said the legislation before Congress could allow oil companies to skirt some existing [...]

The Stanley Tookie Williams show starts up again at 12Noon today:
LOS ANGELES – In the kind of funeral normally reserved for a dignitary, religious leaders and celebrities traveled to violence-wracked South Los Angeles to pay respects to the man who helped found a deadly street gang, then spent the years before his execution denouncing the [...]

GOP and the City is covering the NYC transit temper tantrum:
Estimated daily cost of a strike to the city - $400,000,000
Average Salary for a Subway/Bus operator - $62,000
Starting Salary for a NYPD Police officer - $25,100
Trying to get support from a public that makes less money (on average), will get less salary increases (3.5% versus [...]

John McIntyre at Real Clear Politics takes down the clueless Newsweek bloviator and his ilk. Great stuff.

The New York Times’ Eric Lichtblau is back with more Chicken Little journalism. Lichtblau is flying solo today without James “Turkey Lurkey” Risen, who must be making last-minute book edits. Here’s Lichtblau’s latest attempt at hyping the Times’s same old, Bush=King George scare storyline: F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show
The intro:
Counterterrorism agents at the [...]

Germany releases one of the Hezbollah terrorists who tortured and murdered Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem 20 years ago. And, what timing, a German hostage has been released in Iraq.
Debbie Schlussel has the scoop here and here.
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Reader Tony J. e-mails: “Weasel” in German is “weasel.”

There’s a wealth of new information and debate in the blogosphere on the NSA special collections program, including non-Bush-bashing independent legal opinions that the NYTimes, unsurprisingly, had no time and space to see fit to print–even after an extra year of research (or whatever they were doing) on the story.
Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy [...]

Dateline London:
Barbie, beware. The iconic plastic doll is often mutilated at the hands of young girls, according to research published Monday by British academics. “The girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity, and see the torture as a ‘cool’ activity,” said Agnes Nairn, one of the University of Bath researchers. [...]

Where’s John Kerry? American troops are “terrorizing” Iraqi children again (via Breitbart/AP):
An 11-year-old boy from Iraq underwent heart surgery Monday in New York, the first of four ailing children who will be treated this week after their families sought help from the U.S. military. Wsam Rabea was vulnerable to sudden death from a heart problem [...]

Dave at Garfield Ridge has a fabulous gift idea for leak-happy reporters.
Hah. Anyone know what size T-shirt James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wear?
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Meanwhile, Scott Ott spoofs: “Bush Announces Do-Not-Wiretap List.”

***scroll for reax, waiting for Dem response…***
The showdown starts at 10:30am EST in the East Room. If Bush hits as hard as he did in his Saturday radio address, this should be good.
Think he’ll call on Helen Thomas?
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Best part of the press conference: Bush challenging the Democratic Senators who voted for the Patriot Act in [...]

Time magazine didn’t name any this year. Here were some of my personal favorites in 2005:
Michael Yon. Captivating writing, ground-breaking reporting, inspiring photographs from the frontlines in Iraq. Watch the latest video montage of the Iraqi elections posted on his blog here. You’ll be hooked if you aren’t already. As I’ve written before, if there [...]

Tonight. 9pm EST. President Bush addresses the nation on Iraq. Preview:
The speech will mark the first time he has spoken on Iraq from the Oval Office since launching the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
According to the excerpts released Sunday, Bush will hail Thursday’s vote as “the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the [...]

Lowlife Michael Crook, the troop-smearing, cop-bashing, white supremacist sicko, is claming responsibility for the despicable death-wish greeting card received by injured soldier Joshua Sparling at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Recall that the card was signed “Miguel.” Crook also claims that he sent similar letters to VFW halls across the country, as well as to the [...]

Okay. I don’t question that the rock star and the world’s biggest philanthropists are doing good for the world. (Interesting, isn’t it, that Bill Gates didn’t deserve the honor when he was actually creating something, but only earns Time magazine’s highest praise when he’s giving his money away. And, sorry, but Melinda Gates? She marries [...]

Check out Sgt. Matt Lagrone’s Christmas display in Iraq and wish him and his buddies a blessed Christmas.
Thanks for all you do, Matt!
Hat tip: Laura Lee Donoho

Bill Roggio, a terrific milblogger who has been reporting from Iraq, has a new piece in the Weekly Standard sharing his election-day observations from Barwana. Bill tracked balloting to and from poll sites and has a post-election dispatch here. Excerpt:
The elation of the long days of travel and witnessing history was punctured by events in [...]

Anti-capitalism zealots go nuts at a WTO meeting in Asia. (via Power Line)

The Bangkok Post reports:
Riot police fired tear gas at anti-globalisation protestors this evening as violent street battles put the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting into a state of siege.
The tear gas was fired as protestors used metal barricades to charge police lines to [...]

A serious, pro-enforcement measure on border security and immigration control has just passed the House. Three years after I published Invasion, many of the policy recommendations included in the book have been embraced:
The House acted Friday to stem the tide of illegal immigration by taking steps to tighten border controls and stop unlawful immigrants from [...]

Kofi Annan Tells Bush Iraq Vote Went Well

Bush Derangement Syndrome victim
Via Breitbart/AP:
The Air Force Reserve plans to discharge a lieutenant colonel accused of defacing cars that had pro-Bush bumper stickers, the military said Friday. Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, a pilot with 500 combat hours in the first Persian Gulf war and the Balkans, is charged with criminal mischief for allegedly using paint [...]

***scroll for updates…The ACLU wants a special prosecutor (but not for the leakers)…Some on the Left aren’t happy with the Times, either…Arlen Specter says the Judiciary Committee will investigate (the Bush administration, not the leakers)…12/17 Bush fights back…***

This morning, the Drudge Report–HUGE RED FONT and all–chose to aid and abet the civil liberties Chicken Littles [...]

Pajamas Media has highlights from its excellent team of Iraqi bloggers who covered the election yesterday.
Ed Morrissey notices the NYTimes editorial page’s silence.
Turnout is estimated at 11 million. Now, the tallying begins:
Final results in Iraq’s parliamentary election may not be known for two weeks, but early indications show the Shiite tickets doing well in [...]

The Baltimore Sun has the latest on the smelly case. An excerpt:
An e-mail address of a former state Democratic Party worker was used in a discussion about Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s marriage on a conservative Web site, a spokesman for the site said yesterday.
Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for free republic.com, said Ryan O’Doherty’s Democratic Party [...]

From the notoriously biased Associated Press reporter Jennifer Loven, comes this fair and balanced dispatch on the Iraqi elections:
President Bush hailed Thursday’s voting in Iraq as “a major milestone” in establishing a democratic ally for the United States in the Middle East and moving toward the day when American troops can come home.
The appearance of [...]

I am in no mood to dive into the moonbat cesspool on this historic day, but other bloggers have intrepidly surveyed the Defeatocrats’ reaction to the Iraqi elections:
Decision ‘08: Top Ten Kos Kidz Reactions to Today’s Elections in Iraq.
The Officers’ Club rounds up the sourpusses.
All Things Conservative takes a look.
Smile!

Look at how American troops are “terrorizing” Iraqi families.
More Kerry follies here.
And here’s a first-hand account of one of those “terrorizing” American troops. (Hat tip: Philmon)
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Previous:
John Kerry’s liberal math

Via Drudge, the latest candidate for Worst Christmas Display 2005:

Rudolph the Bloody Reindeer
(To quote the always-quotable Kate at Small Dead Animals: “I’d hate to see their display at Easter.”)
Previous nominees:

Hanging Santa

Killer Claus
As if you needed evidence that absolutely nothing is sacred anymore.
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Lots of folks are e-mailing me to explain the bloody reindeer decoration. I know, [...]

Needless to say, if the culprit had been a Republican and the victim had been a prominent Democrat politician, this would be CNN headline news (hat tip: reader Doug R.):
One day after Carroll A. Campbell Jr. died, a Democratic party operative tried to post on the Internet remarks accusing the former governor of being part [...]

Legendary Wisconsin Democrat Sen. William Proxmire died this morning. Didn’t agree with everything he stood for, but he was the original Porkbuster–a crusader against government waste who issued “Golden Fleece Awards” to expose taxpayer-funded boondoggles. Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
He became the scourge of defense-industry lobbyists, pork-barrel public works projects and seekers of tax loopholes.
“It [...]