"...Sometimes you just have to win...."

A few tidbits from this guy...

"...We are on the verge of achieving the impossible: defeating an Islamic terrorist movement in the heart of the Middle East on a battlefield of their choosing. Tens of thousands of Takfiri streamed into Iraq for the opportunity to become martyrs and coalition and Iraqi forces obliged them. Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been essentially annihilated in Al Anbar, the center of what they boldly declared as their new caliphate eighteen months ago...."

"... Sometimes you just have to win. Some conflicts just need to run their courses and some bad guys just need killing. Nazi ideology was not discredited UNTIL it was defeated on the battlefield. No amount of peaceful persuasion or appeasement worked. People thought communism was a viable alternative to the free market UNTIL it ignominiously collapsed. Massive economic evidence and even the presence of a very large and deadly wall running down the middle of Berlin did not convince the believers to abandon their failed ideology. Earlier forms of terrorism from the Barbary Pirates to the Bader-Meinhof didn’t go away until they were defeated. We tried appeasement in the 1930s and we tried ignorance in the 1990s. These things did not work...."

"...The war against terrorism is not won since a final victory is not possible. This is one of those “eternal vigilance” propositions. Our nation’s first foray into foreign policy involved fighting the Barbary Pirates; whose behavior – adjusted for the technologies of the times – closely resembled those of today’s territorially based terrorists. That was in 1804 and obviously the job is never done. But terrorism can be contained...."

[All emphases mine.]

Via DrewM. (with more information of just who John Matel is) over at Ace's Place.

Adult Supervision...

Rueben F. Johnson wonders...

"...Given the enormous problems the world faces, just when and where are we going to see some adult supervision?"

He asks this regarding the Clintons.

Surely, he's not hoping for adult supervision from the world's oldest adolescent.

h/t Lucianne.

So which party...

...do I vote against?

Hey. I said much the same thing....

...here, but James Fallows points to something I hadn't thought of. (Do also follow his link to the Patrick Smith column, which says what I said, although much better put than I was able to cobble together.)

Via Glenn.

Two and Two Together...

...make four.

First "two".

Second "two".

Good news all around, I'd say.

"Six Scenarios..."

...of present-day unlikely events as predicted by the New York Sun.

Here's to scenario #1...

1) Mr. Huckabee or Senator Thompson break out of the pack and emerge as the Republican nominee, and the Democrats nominate Senator Clinton. Mayor Bloomberg, seeing an opening for a unifying centrist figure, gets into the race with the backing of Senator McCain, Governor Romney, Mayor Giuliani, and Senator Obama.

However, the Sun, many New Yorkers, as well as much (most?) of the MSM are infected with the New Yorker's famous view of America...



Michael Bloomberg is not a viable national candidate as either part of a national party or as an independent. Rudy Guiliani has spent the years since 9/11 making himself known to America in a way that Bloomberg has not. Bloomberg may be a big name in our biggest city, but that does not make him electable across the country.

Canadian Autocrats...

Nearly everybody in the blog world (Ace, Powerline, among others) has already put this up, but for no other reason than to record it here too, I offer the most officious autocrat ever.

Umm. What am I...

...Chopped Liver? [OK. I am chopped liver. But that's beside the point.]

Here's what brought this up.

Yep. The MSM doesn't see it yet, and the D's will absolutely howl, but America needs to get used to three words.

President. Fred. Thompson.

Secret Debate Audio from...

Red State Update...

“...In reality, it’s a traffic violation....”

Another Clinton-era guy explores what the meaning of "is" is...

Sid Blumenthal's lawyer, commenting on the "aggravated DWI" charge Blumenthal received after being observed at more than twice the legal speed limit, and having failed a field sobriety test...

“In reality, it’s a traffic violation,” Mello said, noting that the more serious “aggravated” DWI charge is due to the alleged speeding, not “degree of intoxication.”

Interesting defense: Speeding while drunk is only speeding. Being drunk (or "degree of intoxication", if you will) was another issue.

h/t Glenn.

Maui...

Wowie.

Recent absence due to WifeofAzlib and I breaking away to Maui for a long-delayed trip away for the two of us.

Lots of fun. We had the time of our lives.

Now back to the grind.

Yeah...

Gonna have to find a way to see this movie too.

Please, oh Please, OH PLEASE!!!

...If there is a God in Heaven, let this movie premiere before November.



They'll say she was "swift-boated" with this. What they won't get is that for many of us saying this will be read as: "The truth told about you".

h/t Theo. New location noted.

"...What do you guys hang from the ladders at firefighters’ funerals?..."

"...The American Flag!...Obama doesn’t salute the American flag!"

I had forgotten that part of Obama's recent history. [Do watch the video.] Also, this story might make for interesting general election debate fodder.

h/t Glenn.

"The Rumsfeld strategy DID work...."

Let me repeat that...

"...The Rumsfeld strategy DID work...."

Don Rumsfeld, the big, bad, ogre who couldn't win the peace so easily handed to him, is now, with this post, completely vindicated.

And, by extension, I maintain that in President George W. Bush, we are not dealing with some bumpkin from Texas, but rather witnessing a modern-day Churchill.

h/t Purple Avenger over at Ace's place.

You'll never guess who said...

...In regard to a candidate's non-response to what might be viewed as a distorted media message to the voters, that that would amount to

"...agree[ing] to put bullets in their brains...."

You'll never guess, so read the whole thing.

IBD...

HuckleScary...

"...Huckabee vs. Obama would pit an unelectable Republican against a Democrat who would wreck our economy and weaken our security. And both have blasted the president's success in the war on terror...."

Yeah. Color me less-than-impressed with Huckabee.

"...[T]he most innocent..."

Yep. She-who-must-not-be-elected says she's the "most innocent" (as well as "most investigated, and most vetted").

One wonders, however: Are there degrees of innocence? Isn't innocence either a black or white thing?

OT: The Politico page above had a McCain ad on it's edges when I looked at it. He's shown saluting as he re-enters American hands after his life as a P.O.W. Does anyone else find his use of this image in a political ad to be, at least, inappropriate, if not off-putting?

Leave Brittany Alone...

...before she overdoses on something.

Seriously, the girl is a train-wreck, no less than Anna-Nicole. She's gonna implode some day (or maybe we're watching her do it today), just like Anna and Michael did...the only questions are: How and when.

File this under...

Iowa Caucuses...

I realize I'm just a jammie-wearing blogger, and a poor one at that, and that I'm capable of mis-stating something, and further, that I don't have a blizzard of polls and projections to digest and put out an article on a deadline, but even I know that Ron Paul is a Republican from Texas, not California. [Then again, I'm not, you know, getting paid to write this stuff.]

From ABC News, quoted in it's entirety, in case they get it corrected ever...

Huckabee Takes Iowa; Romney in 2nd
Former Arkansas Governor Rides Momentum Surge to Early Victory
By DAVID SCHOETZ

Jan. 3, 2008—

ABC News projects that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will win the Iowa Caucuses, beating out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a two-man race for the Republican party's top spot in Iowa.

The victory follows a surging December for Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor who has described his campaign as "shoestring" and said that Romney, a business executive before becoming governor, has outspent his campaign "20-1."

Third place remains too close to call with former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., holding a slight lead, based on ABC News projections, over U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Calif.

ABC News also projects that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will win the Iowa Democratic Caucuses. At this point ABC News does not have enough information yet to project who will come in second or third, but early results indicate it will be Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., in some order.

Republicans had expected an estimated 90,000 Iowans  about the population of Billings, Mont.  to turn out to begin the process of steering the party toward a candidate. Many of those Iowa Republicans are more conservative by party standards.

The GOP front-runners had been fairly clear going into tonight with  especially in recent days  an ugly slug fest with critical implications for each candidate's campaign.

Huckabee has leaned on his reputation as an affable every guy during his recent surge. Just last night, he played the bass and traded jokes in Los Angeles last night as a guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno"  a high-profile appearance on the comic's first night back on the air without his striking writers.

But Huckabee was back in Iowa first thing Thursday morning, telling a crowd of supportive Iowans that the Republican race is "about believing in a cause." As the returns began to trickle in, a spontaneous prayer circle broke out at the Des Moines Embassy Suites where Huckabee supporters were congregating. The group prayed for Huckabee's victory as well as some of his more conservative views  including an end to abortion and homosexuality.

Huckabee reportedly was in the air between caucusing locations when his projected win was announced at his campaign's Iowa gathering spot.

On the other side of the matchup in Iowa is former Massachusetts governor and business executive Mitt Romney, a Mormon who has outspended any opponent in the Republican field in his quest for votes. Because of the time and money he's dumped into this first measurement of the American electorate, the expectations for a victory are high, and anything less, even a close second finish, could be seen as a defeat.

As the first reports of Huckabee inching off to an early lead campaign in, Romney aides said they always knew the race would be close, with the direction of the evangelical base a major question for the Mormon candidate. The candidate, meanwhile, said at a caucusing precint in West Des Moines, that tonight was only "the first inning in a 50-inning ball game."

"So, you know, you want to get on base the first inning," Romney said, "but we're planning on doing well."

Huckabee and Romney and their staffs have traded some sharp jabs in the days leading up to tonight, jabbing and counter-jabbing one another daily. Earlier this week, in one of the more unusual bits of political theater, Huckabee pulled a TV ad from the airwaves that he said was too negative regarding his chief Iowa opponent, but he first held a press conference to show the ad to the media. And this morning, in another example of the political fisticuffs, Romney hit back at a comment in The Washington Post by Huckabee campaign head Ed Rollins, who'd said he wanted to knock out Romney's teeth.

Romney made light of his own carefully coifed look, telling Rollins "just don't touch the hair."

Rollins told ABC News shortly after the caucus process began that "his gut" told him that Huckabee would end the night with a 5-point victory.

With just hours to the caucusing, the Huckabee campaign called for an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service into a series of anonymous letters that have been sent to Iowa pastors warning them to stay out of the electoral process. Although the implication was to accuse the Romney supporters of a dirty trick, there was no indication Thursday that any campaign was involved in mailing the letters.

While Romney wanted to claim Iowa to meet the high expectations his campaign set in the state with an early lead in the polls, Huckabee was equally interested in a win to maintain the surging momentum and capitalize on the victory's free publicity.

Romney, whose reported fortune is $250 million, has spent more than $17 million overall in the campaign and more than $7 million on advertising in Iowa alone. That compares with about $1.4 million spent on ads in Iowa by Huckabee, though the Romney campaign claims Huckabee has benefited from third-party spending.

The Republican who places third in this race could gain the most momentum. And the front-runners were not the only ones fighting hard for every Iowan's support.

War hero and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has spent most of the last several months ignoring Iowa and gearing up instead for next week's first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary. Yet, while the two front-runners sling mud at each other, McCain has seen a rise in his Iowa poll numbers in recent days. While he spent today in New Hampshire, he campaigned in Iowa Wednesday. A strong third-place finish in Iowa could propel McCain into a strong contender position against the front-runners in New Hampshire.

McCain, who has been defended by Huckabee during recent attacks by Romney, made the first candidate statement after the announcement of Huckabee's victory in Iowa. McCain congratulated Huckabee, and then took an apparent shot at Romney. "The lesson (of Iowa) is one, that you can't buy an election in Iowa, and negative campaigns don't work," McCain sdaid. "They don't work there in Iowa and they don't work here in New Hampshire."

For Fred Thomspon, the former Tennessee senator and actor, a strong performance would knock some life back into a flagging campaign that has never met the early expectations surrounding the buzz of his possible candidacy. Finishing in the bottom of the Iowa heap, some say, might mean an early exit for the "Law and Order" star.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani chose not to focus on Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead, his campaign strategy looks to larger states, such as Florida, whose primaries come in a few weeks. He has not been polling competitively among Iowa voters. And today, he underscored his strategy by spending the day in Florida  a state, he reminded reporters, that has far more Republican voters than the total who will cast ballots from both parties in Iowa.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, will see if his libertarian politics, fundraising success and online organization translate into delegates.

And finally, there is U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who, despite being the GOP long shot, trailing in nearly all polls, maintains that it's "an open race" -- if only he had more money and publicity.

The Republican caucuses in Iowa differ procedurally from the Democratic caucuses in that there are no viability requirements  votes don't swing to second-choice candidates if a candidate doesn't register enough support in the first round of voting. For Iowa Republicans, the only thing that counts is individual votes. That's why the Republican candidates often spend more time working the small state's populations centers  more bang for political buck.

At stake tonight? Thirty-seven delegates to next summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

ABC News' Jake Tapper, John Berman, Kevin Chupka, Matt Stuart and Ron Claiborne contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Labor Unions and Democrats...

I recently flew with a guy who was going to vote Democratic for the first time ever because he's come to the realization that "we're Labor". I can't (and won't) debate him over this, because as a card-carrying union-member, I am Labor. It's not the first (or second, or third) thing I am, but I can't deny it.

That said, even Democrats are coming to realize that unions aren't always the best thing for the country. The postscript here, makes this point. Following the link to Ygelsia's point, I get this gem...

...sometimes the interests of a given union's members run against the general interests of the country and there's no sense in denying this....

Ergo: I may be a union-member, but I am (in no special order) a libertarian, pro-2A, pro-life, pro-Take-the-Fight-to-the-Islamists, etc, American far before my union interests enter into my decisions.

Iowa...

I sure hope the Iowans had a chance to see this thing...



I have a hard time imagining that, after seeing this, that rational Republicans could choose someone else.

New Orleans...

Well, I finally made it back to post-Katrina New Orleans.

[A brief digression...]
Don't get me wrong. We like visiting the Third World. They have interesting people who make for an interesting culture. The tolerate all kinds of sins. New Orleans was/is our little piece of the Third World. You can be publicly drunk there. Bourbon Street is an industry of vices that you can't see anywhere else in America. White men can dance there.

But let's keep in mind that pre-Katrina New Orleans wasn't everyone's cup of tea. The place was corrupt top-to-bottom, crime was rampant, government didn't function....you name it. Will Collier had a great opinion piece here on what to do with New Orleans.
[/digression]

So anyway, I was in New Orleans for about 15 hours right before New Years Eve. Although I'm sure there may be some, I saw little different on the drive into town from my memory of Pre-Katrina N.O. The French Quarter was busy, but not as busy as I would have expected Pre-K. There were few closed shops.

I did learn one thing however....

I went searching for some sort of greasy spoon where I might get breakfast. What I was hoping to find was a bowl of oatmeal, perhaps at a Denny's. However, I left the hotel a bit later than "breakfast" hours, and coupled with the independent and gourmet nature of the Quarter's restaurants, I didn't find anything. I settled for a place that I'd been to in earlier times...The Alpine Bistro.

I was beckoned in by a guy on the street. What I learned was that this guy's job is to get the customer into the restaurant, and then to look at the menu. If done the other way around, then the customer might move on. The breakfast fare was a bit pricey, but I stayed anyway. My meal turned out to be about what I'd expected. My waitress didn't get my $2.50 cup of coffee on my tab, so I over-tipped her.

In the FWIW department, another "guy" who appeared to be employed there in some capacity (perhaps a "host") looked for all the world like a Drag Queen in his straight day job. Tall and lean, with pants just short enough to show off his fashionable socks matching his tie. He also wore a pony-tail and a nametag that read: "Candy".