Congress Playing The Grinch To Troops in Iraq

Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families, especially those of our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who have died in defense of American liberty while prosecuting the war with Jihadistan.

While Our brave men and women are making progress in the fight to clean out the radical Islamists in Iraq. Majority Senate Leader, Harry Reid, is planning to send the Senate home for a Holiday vacation (at tax payers expense) without binging up the Bill for a vote that would give the troops more money to continue the fight.

His Grinch like action will undoubtedly result in some unintended consequences. The first is that every soldier, sailor or marine killed during his Holiday break will be the result of his power struggle with the President in this blogger opinion.

Even more close to home, there is the very real possibility that many civilian workers at military bases here in the United States will be laid off if the money to continue the fight needs to come out of the Pentagon civilian budget.

Over the years beginning in the Presidency of George the first, may non-military positions on military bases were turned over to Civilians. This released more military people for readiness training and was a shot in the arm to the economy of the Cities where large military bases are located.

The Secretary of Defense has warned the Democrats who are blocking passage of the funding bill, that he may have to begin reducing the civilian work force if the money for the troops gets short. I hope he does it!

The bone of contention with the Democrats is how do they satisfy their constituents who are violently anti-war, and still appear to be supportive of the troops?

Mr. Reid has said the Democrats will not fund the troops with the money President Bush is requesting unless Mr. Bush agrees to withdraw the troops by next December.

Imagine telling a group of dedicated bank robbers that you will guard the Federal Reserve until next December, and then you will send the guards all home for rest. Do you think for one minute the robbers will try to rob a bank until one minute after the guards leave?

Well, the Al queda will do the same thing. Go underground, if the Democrats prevail, and wait until the troops are ready to leave, and then the "Massacre"will begin!

President Bush sternly pressed Democrats to approve money to fund the Iraq war "without strings and without delay" before leaving town for the Christmas holidays, something congressional leaders have already indicated they will not do.
After more failed attempts to pass legislation ordering troops home from Iraq, Democrats have said they plan to sit on Bush's $196 billion request for war spending until next year.
Bush said this will push the Pentagon toward an accounting nightmare and affect the military ability to do its job protecting the country.
"The American people expect us to work together to support our troops. That's what they want," Bush said Thursday after spending two hours meeting at the Pentagon with military leaders. "They do not want the government to create needless uncertainty for those defending our country and uncertainty for their families. They do not want disputes in Washington to undermine our troops in Iraq just as they're seeing clear signs of success."
The last paragraph was excerpted from an AP story online today, and illustrates why I called the Democrats in Congress the Grinch who ruined Christmas.

The Democrats Have a New "Big" Problem

When the dust had settled and the debris from the Twin Towers disaster had been removed, a movement began to undermine the War effort in Iraq. All the Democrat aspirants to the White House and the major players in the Democrat controlled Senate and the House began carping about the failures in Iraq. We can't win, we are loosing, time to bring the troops home and more such tripe was seen and heard every night on TV and radio.

People like Congressman Murtha furthered the attack, and said the Bush war was not winnable.

Fast forward to today, and we find that Democrats and RINO's are trying to force withdrawal by withholding funds to support the war effort. The "un-winnable" war was a big campaign issue for most Democrats, and then the worst display of unpatriotic behavior occurred when General Petraeus spoke to Congress on the progress his troops were making in Iraq.

Senator Hillary Clinton claimed he was lying, and the sycophants over at MoveOn.org. referred to the General as "General Betray Us"!

Well, Mr. Murtha just returned from a trip to Iraq , and it would appear he has seen the light of Truth. The following staement may be a problem for the Iraq anti-war zealots. The following is a quote from Instapundit.com, as written by Glenna Reynolds.

"Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of the leading anti-war voices in the House Democratic Caucus, is back from a trip to Iraq and he now says the "surge is working." This could be a huge problem for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, who are blocking approval of the full $200 billion being sought by President Bush for combat operations in Iraq in 2008. Murtha's latest comments are also a stark reversal from what he said earlier in the year. . . .
Pelosi, who is scheduled to speak to a Democratic National Committee event in Virginia on Friday, will surely face tough questions from reporters regarding Murtha's statement on the surge.
"This could be a real headache for us," said one top House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Pelosi is going to be furious."

This is a stark reversal of opinion as expressed by Congressman Murtha earlier this year.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, who chairs the powerful Defense subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee, has previously stated that the surge "is not working" and the United States faced a military disaster in Iraq.
Murtha told CNN on July 12, following a Bush speech, that the president's views on the success of surge in Iraq were "delusional."
"Well it's delusional to say the least," Murtha told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "As I said earlier, and you heard me say it, it's a failed policy wrapped in illusion. Nothing's gotten better. Incidents have increased. We have had more Americans killed in the last four months than any other period during the war."
Murtha added: "I don't acknowledge there has been any progress made. Maybe in Baghdad. But it just breaks out someplace else. We called for extra troops two years ago. We put money in for 30,000 troops. They haven't even been able to raise the 30,000 troops they have. So they have to break all their guidelines. But there's no progress being made."

Murtha even yelled at a reporter during a recent press conference, telling the reporter that the news coming out of the Pentagon regarding Iraq is not believable. "They don't need to do the things -- you're missing the point -- because the Pentagon says it, you believe it?," Murtha yelled. "You believe what the Pentagon says? Huh? With all the things that they have told us, you believe what -- I mean, go back and look -- 'mission accomplished,' al Qaeda connection, weapons of mass destruction, on and on and on, and you believe the Pentagon?"

Seeing is believing, and I compliment Congressman Murtha for his conversion, but the damage he did to the men in "Country" fighting an idealog enemy was something I am sure many people in uniform will never forget. It is not over yet by a long shot, but we are gaining ground on Our enemy, and Victory is possible and surrender is not an option for true Americans.

AN INTERNATIONAL PARADOX

Everyone seems to believe that despite the failures in the past, We can resolve the Palestinian/Israel dilemma. The Conference in Annapolis will finally lead to peace is the popular opinion.
Even the Congress, at least 135 members, sent a letter to Secretary of State Rice, urging her to make steps toward a lasting peace
U.S. Representatives Gary Ackerman a Jew (D-NY), the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, and Charles W. Boustany, Jr.an Arab, (R-LA), sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to express Congressional support for the Bush Administration`s efforts for convening an International meeting in Annapolis, Maryland about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and to urge a number of practical steps to bolster the prospects for its success toward peace.
The problem is the people in Maryland at the Conference are not the ones who can or will make peace. The radical militants in Gaza and surrounding territories must also want peace to have any agreement made in this Conference mean more than the paper it is written on.
The radicals showed their disdain for a peaceful solution by committing a murder in the West Bank area of Kedumim.
Ynet News reports that Ido Zoldan, 29, of the settlement of Shavei Shomron was murdered Monday in a late night shooting attack near the Palestinian village of Funduk in the area of the Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank.
The terrorists opened fire at the Israeli from a passing car at around 11:30 pm. Magen David Adom paramedics who were called to the site attempted to revive the man, but pronounced him dead a short while later.
Zoldan was survived by his wife Tehila and his two small children.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah, took responsibility for the attack, saying that it was "a protest against the Annapolis conference and a response to Israel's crimes against the Palestinians."
There are two factions that must agree to a peaceful settlement on the Arab side, Hamas and Fatah. Thus far there is no historical evidence that either one has any intentions other than obliterating Israel from the face of the Earth!
Despite the dire history of failures, there are still leaders who think talking will resolve this problem, as evidenced by the following story excerpted from the AP news wire:
U.S. Representatives Gary Ackerman (D-NY), the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, and Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-LA), are this afternoon sending a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to express Congressional support for the Bush Administration`s efforts to convene an international meeting in Annapolis, Maryland about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and to urge a number of practical steps to bolster the prospects for its success.

And if there are not enough idiots serving as leaders of the Countries involved in this struggle for peace. The following story from The Jerusalem Post will show you another example of stupidity.
While our leaders in Washington want to take guns out of the hands of honest Americans, the Prime Minister of Israel allowed the transfer of weapons to a group dedicated to his and his Country men/women eradication.
Last week Israel's Prime minister Olmert approved the shipment of Russian made armed vehicles as a gesture to Abbas ahead of this week's U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, Md.
At this conference, Israel is expected to outline a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank.
The armored vehicles were to be sent by Russia as part of a deal made between Abbas and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2003. Israel, which controls the West Bank borders, did not allow the transfer four years ago, but Olmert agreed to the vehicle delivery after Abbas, earlier this month, reportedly petitioned Russia to send the machinery.
Aside from the armored vehicles, Olmert also approved a shipment of 1,000 rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition for Abbas' forces, particularly Fatah's Force 17 presidential guards and the Preventative Security Services, which serve as police units in the West Bank.
Many members of Fatah's declared military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, openly serve in the Fatah security forces. The Brigades is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks.
Israel's army and security services strongly objected to the transfer of the armored vehicles both out of fear Hamas would seize the vehicles and because the machinery could provide cover to Al Aqsa gunmen who carry out attacks, according to senior IDF sources.
Knesset members today slammed Olmert's decision to allow the armored vehicles.
Benjamin Netanyahu, chairman of the opposition Likud party called on parties in Olmert's coalition government to "leave this reckless and failed government."
Hamas' vows to take over the armored vehicle transfers comes amid warnings from its leaders that the terror group is prepared to seize the West Bank if Olmert hands the strategic territory to Abbas.
"Israel thinks Fatah in the West Bank is there to serve it, but we will take over the West Bank the way we took over Gaza," stated Hamas' leader in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, at a major rally in the Gaza Strip earlier this month.
Al-Zahar, who served as foreign minister in the deposed Hamas-led Palestinian government, became the most senior Hamas leader to state in recent weeks the terror group plans to seize the West Bank just as it took complete control of the Gaza Strip this past June, taking over all U.S.-backed Fatah security installations and reportedly seizing control of large stockpiles of weaponry transferred to Abbas over the years.
Israeli and Palestinian security officials reported that they have specific information that indicates Hamas is quietly setting the stages for an imminent West Bank takeover attempt.
The officials said that among other things, Hamas has been acquiring weaponry in the West Bank and has set up a sophisticated system of communication between cells for a seizure attempt.
In what is considered the most threatening Hamas move, according to the officials, the terror group is thought to have heavily infiltrated all major Fatah forces in the West Bank and has been attempting to buy off Fatah militia members, many times successfully.
According to Palestinian sources, Hamas has, among other things, recruited important members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The terror group particularly has targeted those who were against a deal this past summer in which Olmert extended amnesty to Brigades members as a gesture to Abbas.
The issue of Hamas infiltration of Fatah was thought to have been the Achilles heel that led to the terror group's takeover last summer of the entire Gaza Strip, including dozens of major, U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there. Hamas' seizure is thought to be a partial consequence of Israel evacuating Gaza in 2005.
Hamas' infiltration of Fatah was so extensive, according to top Palestinian intelligence sources speaking to WND, it included the chiefs of several prominent Fatah security forces.
And yet the men in the striped pants and waist coats still babble on. You cannot make a deal with the Devil. This issue regrettably will be solved only militarily not by talk. As we talk our enemies grow stronger. When will we realize the facts and the truth? Isareal is our only ally in that part of the worldand we must not let it be weakened or destroyed.

HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF

Secretary of State Codi Rice is making the same mistake today that Neville Chamberlain made in 1936 when he signed the Munich Agreement with Adolph Hitler.

In the agreement that turned out to be the worst case of appeasement in recent history. Mr. Chamberlain gave up the Sudaten Land to Hitler. A right he did not have to give as Prime Minister of Great Britain, but he did it and when he returned home he proclaimed his agreement was the instrument to end war in "Our Times".

WE know only too well that his proclamation was a falsehood and hollow that led Hitler to pursue his dream of conquering all of Europe. All the Agreement did was give Hitler more time to build up his war machine.

"Chamberlain's Munich Agreement deal (peace for our time) (i.e., the surrender of the Sudetenland to Germany) with Hitler was internationally acclaimed and praised at home and abroad, by among others Pope Pius XI, Ireland's Eamon de Valera, the United States administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canada's William Lyon Mackenzie King. Chamberlain was acclaimed by many British people for avoiding another war."(source Wikapedia)

Not unlike the attitude of too many Americans today, Chamberlain expressed his reasons for his agreement with Hitler with the following words: "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing."

Fast forward to today, and you will find appeasement of an equal gravity. The Annapolis Peace Conference is predicated on the bring together Israel and The present Palestinian leadership to "hammer out" a peace process. The only problem is that the "hammering" will be done on the Israelis!

US and Israeli policy makers are premising the Annapolis Conference on foundations that have led to a series of bloody collapses in Oslo, Cairo, Hebron, Wye, Sharm el-Sheikh, Camp David 2, and the “Disengagement.” They assume that Abu Mazen has adopted a mentality of peace, thus granting yet another victory to the simplistic world of delusions over Mideast’s complex reality.

The late Professor Majid Khadduri, from Johns Hopkins University’, considered the world’s leading authority on Arab definitions of peace and war, noted that Arabs view peace as a tactical means for achieving their strategic objective – defeating the enemy. Peace constitutes a necessary, but temporary, break in the ongoing war against the enemy and/or infidel.

Israel will be forced to release more terrorists and surrender even more vital territory to hostile neighbors in return for more empty Arab promises. Given American pressure on the Olmert government to "take risks for peace" and make "painful compromises", there is cause for genuine Israeli concern since the current Palestinian leadership has never had any intention of preparing its people either for peace or for co-existence with Israel. You need only look at Hamas and Palestinian Authority-published textbooks showing maps of Palestine as encompassing present-day Israel, public statements (in Arabic), incitement in the media, and the toleration and encouragement of terrorist attacks to understand that there is no common ground here. This is not, as the U.S. State Department implies, a fight between two parties equally responsible for a terrible conflict. It is a war to exterminate the Jewish state that is being waged by Arabs and Islamists with differing strategies and agendas on the same extension of annihilation. Israel is our only ally in the Middle East despite the fact we "play nice" with Saudi Arabia where beheading in public is still considered proper punishment. But then Israel has no oil!

A LEAP TOO FAR!

There is no one who has lived or visited Los Angeles, Mexico City, Bakersfield, Dallas, New York, Pittsburgh or Cleveland, who will argue that there is a problem with the quality of the air we all have to breath to sustain our lives. You can see it, you can smell it and in some cities I have visited, you can even taste the air pollution!

But it is a serious breach of the truth and of scientific investigative results to jump from the dangers of pollution of the air we breath to the assumption that this phenomenon is causing "global warming".

The ''consensus'' among scientists, it is said, is that the planet's temperature is rising, the cause of the rise is the use of fossil fuels, and disastrous climate changes are looming unless drastic changes are made. The media likewise tend to take it as a given that the experts are in accord on global warming. So do too many politicians. ''The evidence of global warming keeps piling up,'' says Vice President Al Gore, who has made the issue a personal crusade,( AND A MONEY MAKING ENDEAVOR) ''month after month, week after week.''
So if the scientists are all in agreement, who said this?
''We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto. ... The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
''There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing (or will in the foreseeable future cause) catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth.''

It is a petition signed by nearly 17,000 US scientists, half of whom are trained in the fields of physics, geophysics, climate science, meteorology, oceanography, chemistry, biology, or biochemistry.

The statement was circulated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine along with an eight-page abstract of the latest research on climate change. The abstract - written for scientists but comprehensible by laymen - concludes that there is no basis for believing (1) that atmospheric CO2 is causing a dangerous climb in global temperatures, (2) that greater concentrations of CO2 would be harmful, or (3) that human activity leads to global warming in the first place.

This was reported in the Boston Globe, 11/05/98 by Jeff Jacoby. But the beat still goes on. A relentless assault on scientific truth by those who would see the destruction of the Capitalist system and our way of life, so they can substitute a "One World" Socialist, secularist government. A world where the "special people, performing artists, political leaders and the mega-wealthy(aka Sorros), can tell us how we shall live with the full force of the World Government behind them!

With global warming, however, greenhouse "gasbags" can argue that auto emissions in Ohio threaten people in Paris, and that only global government can tackle such problems. National sovereignty? Democracy? Forget it: global warming has now brought the Left closer to global government, statism, and the eradication of individual rights than it has ever been before.

For decades, environmentalism has been the Left's best excuse for increasing government control over our actions in too many ways. It's for Mother Earth! It's for the children! It's for the whales! But until now, the doomsday-scenario environmental scares they've trumped up haven't been large enough to give the sinister prize they want most of all: total control of American politics, economic activity, and even individual behavior.

The oil industry is just one example of how much influence and damage to our economy and way of life can be caused by Environmental zealots.
Throughout the 1990s, the oil industry spent nearly 25 percent of capital investment -- more than $100 billion -- to comply with environmental regulations, and reduce air pollutants.

Oil refiner Premcor shut two Illinois oil refineries because it could not afford required upgrades; modifications in one refinery alone would have cost $70 million.
Gas prices have also been affected by the government. In order to fulfill various air pollution reduction plans, gasoline sold in the United States has been fractionated into about 17 different boutique fuels.
With three grades of gasoline, refiners produce more than 50 separate blends.
This is expensive, as each blend must be transported separately, which limits pipeline and storage capacity.
Moreover, it is difficult to replace supplies when there are disruptions and when refining capacity is taken off-line to clean tanks and pipelines when switching between winter and summer blends.
Unfortunately, these and other government mandates lead to a loss of $1 trillion in economic output and up to 5 million workers unemployed. Absent government intervention in the market, prompted by environmental pressure groups, refinery capacity would be expected to expand, reducing consumer prices. More economical and secure energy supplies are available if government gets out of the way.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "New oil refineries needed," Washington Times, November 26, 2007

And to top it all. Now President Bush has apparently caved in to the Global Warming scam. Look out America!

SPEAKER PELOSI AND UNIVERSITY OF DELEWARE

As I was growing up I learned that my great-grandparents on my father's side were immigrants who fled Germany. They were originally from the Cities of Weisbaden and Stuttgart in the Bavarian Heartland. They fled Germany not to escape the Horrors of Nazism, but to find a new more profitable life in the 1890's America that they felt had good future for their children. One of their Children was my grandfather and he spoke no English. In fact the complete family spoke only German for a few Years, and although they learned enough English to gain employment. The language spoken in their home was heir native German.

When I was old enough to spend time away from my parents they sent me every summer to spend a week with my Grandparents in Northern, Wisconsin. Grandpa and Grandma still spoke German in their home to each other when they wanted to say something they thought inappropriate to my ears, but to me they would only speak English.

When I was old enough to understand my fathers motives. I learned that he had told his parents not to try to speak German to me. I am sorry he did that, but he wasn't interested in multiculturalism. He was concerned with my learning the language and the great culture that I was to live and work in when I "grew up".

For this reason it is hard for this blogger to understand the way teachers, politicians and leftist leaning advocates of the bi-lingual movement keep insisting we in the United States have to accept that people who speak Spanish only, should be protected from demands from employers that people they employ speak English.

The Wall Street Journal reported on November 19th that Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Speaker of the U.S. House is trying to force the Salvation Army to hire non-English speaking people!

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican from Tennessee, is dumbstruck that legislation he views as simple common sense would be blocked. He noted that the full Senate passed his amendment to shield the Salvation Army by 75-19 last month, and the House followed suit with a 218-186 vote just this month. "I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it's discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, 'I want you to be able to speak America's common language on the job,' " he told the Senate last Thursday."
But that's exactly what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying to do. In March the EEOC sued the Salvation Army because its thrift store in Framingham, Mass., required its employees to speak English on the job. The requirement was clearly posted and employees were given a year to learn the language. The EEOC claimed the store had fired two Hispanic employees for continuing to speak Spanish on the job.

Previous to this disturbing event in Congress, the following was reported about the University of Delaware.

The WorldNetDaily reported on October 30th,2007, the following news from Delaware. It sounds to this blogger as though Speaker Pelosi and her ilk helped formulate the following mandate that denies students at the University of Delaware their Constitutional Right to Free Speech!

"The University of Delaware has mandated a program that requires residence hall students to acknowledge that "all whites are racist" and offers them "treatment" for any incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering the school, according to a civil rights group."
Somehow, the University of Delaware seems unaware that a state-sponsored institution of higher education in the United States does not have the legal right to engage in a program of systematic thought reform. The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of conscience – the right to keep our innermost thoughts free from governmental intrusion. It also protects the right to be free from compelled speech.

This is strangely reminiscent of the types of thought control action taken by Hitler and Stalin, not something one would expect to find on the Campus of an American University. Unfortunately those of us who send off our Teen age children ( and many thousands of dollars)to college, often send them to schools that spend most of their time reprogramming our children's minds, so that they conform to the Liberal bias of today's secular humanists.