It's been three long months dear readers (cue the sound of crickets). Anyway, on to more important things: Presidential Politics 2008!

I'm pretty much in agreement with this assessment of the GOP field. It's very weak, especially since Guilliani dropped out. I don't agree with the idea that McCain will drive "real" Conservatives to vote for Hillary Clinton. That is just patently insane.

Nor will it ultimately matter. Hillary Clinton will not win the Democratic nomination. The media is far too in love with Barack Obama, and that is in large part because Hillary is too divisive among independent voters. Of the general field the party, um, fielded, I think it is also weak on the Democratic side. One one hand you have a person who rode in to power on their spouses coattails. On the other, the polar opposite: a candidate with absolutely no record, but he's charming, a left-wing nut-job, and he's black to boot. Oh, and change, lots of change. He's just handing out spare change everywhere he goes. He says change so often, you'd think he's actually targeting the homeless vote.

Once McCain and Obama have their nominations though, this thing is going to go straight Republican. Because McCain will start move to the left throughout the race he'll placate the Indie's. Meanwhile, the Republican attack machine is going to have an aweful lot of questions about Obama's admitted cocaine use, and you know the thing about his Muslim education are going to come up again.

McCain will ultimately win the Presidency. He'll be a mediocre President, but we're all just waiting for Jeb Bush 2012 anyway.

Labels: Democratic Party, politics, Republican Party

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything here. Truth be told, I've just been lacking inspiration, and have been unseasonably busy.

After listening to the fools on CNN blather on and on about how wrong Bush is for commuting Scooter Libby's sentence... something had to give.

Interestingly, back in 2001 Bill Clinton defended the 450 pardons(thats way more than Bush) he handed out during his presidency. On the many reasons a president can issue a pardon, Clinton writes, "A president may conclude a pardon or commutation is warranted for several reasons: the desire to restore full citizenship rights, including voting, to people who have served their sentences and lived within the law since; a belief that a sentence was excessive or unjust; personal circumstances that warrant compassion; or other unique circumstances."

President Bush today said, "I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive." So then the real question is weather or not the sentence was too harsh or not.

Considering that Libby was never charged with leaking Valerie Plame's name, and that the originally leaker, Richard Armitage, was never charged with a crime, then not only does the sentence seem excessive, but also absurd that a conviction even occurred. Clinton himself issued pardons because, "in some cases, co-defendants had received significantly shorter sentences." So why would the same logic not apply when the co-defendant and primary culprit of the non-crime, was not even charged?

Patrick Fitzgerald deemed early in his investigation that no crime was committed by leaking Plame's name, but still decided to charge Libby with lying to investigators who were investigating a non-crime. How can you obstruct justice from being served when there is no injustice to correct? Clinton touched on this point as well:

The exercise of executive clemency is inherently controversial. The reason the framers of our Constitution vested this broad power in the Executive Branch was to assure that the president would have the freedom to do what he deemed to be the right thing, regardless of how unpopular a decision might be.

Now, there is little doubt that President Bush is one of the best ever when it comes to making unpopular decisions. So, is it "the right thing" to do? Libby only had his prison sentence commuted, he wasn't pardoned. He still has a criminal record, and he still has to pay the fines, so he's hardly off the hook. And if you consider the conspiracy theorists' assumption that Libby was acting under direction from Vice-President Dick Cheney, that would be even more reason why Libby shouldn't go to jail, if he was in fact just following orders.

President Bush did the right thing today. Regardless of what the talking heads say, there is nothing unusual about this move - Clinton basically said so.

Labels: politics, President Clinton, President George W Bush, Republican Party, Scooter Libby

So, now the UN wants the US to stay in Iraq. The Iraqi government wants US forces to stay in Iraq. The Republican party in the US wants to finish the job in Iraq. These groups all see that if Iraq is ever to become a peaceful nation, it will be with a lot of help from American troops.

So it boggles the mind to see Democrats falling over each other calling for withdrawal. They seem to be the only party involved that is more than happy to let the people of Iraq suffer in their current state. Not to mention that they don't see a problem in letting Al-Queda in Iraq create a new state-sponsor of terror.

Labels: Democratic Party, Iraq, Republican Party, United Nations

The CBC's brand of activist journalism is tired and old. Two weeks ago Kate at SDA nailed the CBC for photoshopping an image of Toronto to make it appear more polluted.

This week Stephen Taylor has caught the CBC slipping images of Canadian soldiers into reports on Iraq. The CBC intentionally tries to get viewers to confuse the Afghan mission and the war in Iraq. Worse yet, it implies that somehow George W. Bush's veto yesterday has some effect on our troops, which it does not.

When will the CBC stop misrepresenting the truth in order to promote it's own agenda? The CBC can't be trusted. As the proverb goes, "fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"

Labels: Afghanistan, CBC, Iraq, Republican Party

The hunt for Saddam's WMD isn't over yet. From The Spectator:

'Apparently Saddam had the last laugh and donated his secret stockpile to benefit Iran's nuclear weapons programme. With a little technical advice from Beijing, Syria is now enriching the uranium, Iran is making the missiles, North Korea is testing the warheads, and the White House is hiding its head in the sand.'

Weapons inspector Dave Gaubatz is claiming to have found Saddam's stockpiles of chemical weapons, and evidence of nuclear activity in Iraq.

It's not a secret that Saddam had a nuclear program. Will these revelations quite all those who call George W. Bush a liar? Probably not, but it should take a bit of wind out of their sails.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Republican Party

Unwelcome news for those who think that the American "security crackdown" in Iraq is a bad idea (link).

The number of bodies found so far this month in Baghdad — most of them shot and showing signs of torture — has dropped by nearly 50 percent to 494 as of Monday night, compared with 954 in January and 1,222 in December, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

Since the crackdown was formally launched Feb. 14, a total of 164 bodies had been found in the capital as of Monday, according to AP figures, which are compiled from police reports. The AP count showed 390 bodies were discovered in the same period in January.

If this doesn't render moot the cries of Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha, I don't know what will.

Labels: Iraq, Republican Party

Take The Ride:

In his first trip since last fall to the state that holds the earliest presidential primary, Mr. Giuliani stepped closer than he has before to suggesting that he will run.

"Government has got to work in order to allow people to have confidence in it," he said. "And as I look at this, I believe there is something I can do about that."

Suck it up and take the plunge, man!

Labels: politics, Republican Party

Big Hat Tip to The Broom. I watched these several times tonight, and couldn't stop laughing at them.



The same guy has another hilarious one starring Condi.

Labels: Funny, Republican Party, YouTube