Well, I've been really busy with work and life and I haven't been blogging in a while. (Sorry)
My buddy Bruce was asking what was up, so I figured I should set a little time aside tonight and write. I told him that since the mainstream media (MTM) has noticed the improvements in Iraq, I haven't had to do much writing about it. But I told him that with the 2008 Presidential election heating up, I'll probably have plenty to write about!
And boy was I right!
It seems that Hillary Clinton has fallen behind in the polls in Iowa and now trails Barak Obama. And she's freaking out! Today she issued a press release attacking Obama and at first I thought it was a satire piece from the Onion:
Today in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama said: "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for."
Oh really?
"Senator Obama's comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for President," Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer said. "Senator Obama's campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality."
Immediately after joining the Senate, Senator Obama started planning run for President. "'The first order of business for Senator Obama's team was charting a course for his first two years in the Senate. The game plan was to send Senator Obama into the 2007-2008 election cycle in the strongest form possible'...The final act of the plan was turning up the talk about a potential Presidential bid, which was greatly aided by his positive press and suggestions by pundits that he run for President." [U.S. News and World Report, 6/19/07 ]
His law school classmates say that Senator Obama has been planning Presidential run for 'more than a decade.' [A]ccording to those who know him, he has been talking about the presidency for more than a decade. "It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics," says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell. [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]
15 years ago, Senator Obama told his brother-in-law he was planning to run for President. Craig [Robinson] pulled him aside [in 1992] and asked about his plans. "He said, 'I think I'd like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,' recalls Robinson, who assumed Senator Obama meant he'd like to run for city alderman. "He said no -- at some point he'd like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, 'Possibly even run for President at some point.' And I was like, 'Okay, but don't say that to my Aunt Gracie.' I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him." [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]
In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]
In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]
You have got to be kidding me...
First, Hillary Clinton issuing a press release ridiculing another candidate for "planning for years to run for President" is frankly hyper-ironic. Pot, meet kettle.
But the real jaw dropper here is that Hillary dug up Obama's essays from 3rd grade and Kindergarten! LOL
So if you have a 6 or 7 year old son or daughter with political ambitions, you better teach them to be careful with their writings... it may come back to haunt them!
Is she really saying that no one but Hillary is allowed to have dreams of being President of the United States?
This reminds me of the Dean Scream... I wonder if she'll make out better than he did.
Sorry about not posting last week. I've been swamped at work and home!
But anyway...
I found this interesting NBC News report (via InstaPundit) that talks about the Nanny State movement and how it can create kids that are unprepared for the real world. I've written about this before (HERE).
In particular, this phenomenon has struck South Jersey recently, as a 7 yr. old kid was suspended for creating a stick figure drawing of him and his friend playing with water pistols...
Check this out. I think I'll pick up the guy's book!
No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public.
Today I am in Iraq, back in a war of such strategic consequence that it will affect generations yet unborn—whether or not they want it to. Hiding under the covers will not work, because whether it is good news or bad, whether it is true or untrue, once information is widely circulated, it has such formidable inertia that public opinion seems impervious to the corrective balm of simple and clear facts.
SWAT officers expected to find a victim shot to death, drugs and a belligerent armed suspect when they surrounded the home of an unsuspecting couple, but found they were only a part of a false emergency call caused by a teenager who hacked into the county’s emergency response system, authorities said.
As officers swarmed the home with assault rifles, dogs and a helicopter, a Lake Forest couple and their two toddlers inside their home slept unsuspectingly.
On March 29 at 11:30 p.m., authorities allege, Randall Ellis, a 19-year-old from Mukilteo, Wash., hacked into the county’s 911 system from his home and placed a false emergency call, prompting a fully armed response to the home of an unsuspecting couple that could have ended tragically.
On the surface it's kind of comical until you spend a second and think about it. This idiot could have gotten the homeowners shot, the toddlers without a parent(s), and a SWAT team member with unbearable guilt for the rest of his life.
I just received this email from Michael Yon via Basra, Iraq:
Greetings:
Iraq is on the mend, al Qaeda is on the run, and the civil war has abated to a point where the term "civil war" no longer applies.
Accurate war coverage is increasingly important. Even prominent seemingly well-informed persons can get it wrong, such as retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez who previously commanded the war in Iraq. His recent public statements – selectively excerpted and then widely dispersed by the hot winds of media – made it clear that this former senior commander is far out of touch with the current situation.
But there are commanders with a finger on the pulse.
When earlier this year I wrote about the 1-4 CAV transforming an abandoned seminary in a Baghdad neighborhood that had been decimated by civil war, the "surge" had not even begun; but already pundits, politicians and editors had declared it a failure. Though I'd spent only a few days with LTC Crider and his 1-4 CAV soldiers at the new COP Amanche, I ended the dispatch on a note of hope based on observation. I recently received an email from LTC Crider with an update on that Baghdad neighborhood. Please read "Achievements of the Human Heart" and see for yourself.
I was in al Basra province when I saw news reports claiming that Basra city had descended into chaos in the wake of an announcement about the draw down of British Soldiers. I emailed the facts about Basra to several bloggers who hold the media accountable, and the resulting effort got the attention of Tom Foreman who anchors CNN's "This Week at War." We were able to make a CNN interview, and the result is a segment that accurately reflects a complex and changing situation. Bravo to CNN for setting the record straight, and to the tireless bloggers who are making a substantial difference in the way news about the war is delivered.
There are major developments to share with readers in upcoming dispatches. If things go at-least-mostly according to plan (which is all we can hope for in war), and if I can rely on the help of readers who share my frustration with the lack of accurate reporting, we can significantly widen the stream of news flowing from Iraq so more people can obtain a truer picture. This will require the will and generosity of readers. But more on that, soon.
Michael Basra, Iraq
Michael does an incredible job as an embedded reporter in Iraq. If you want a good, detailed report of what's going on in the war (good and bad), please visit Michael's web site. Also, please send him a donation. He is completely funded by the viewers of his web site!
Nathaniel Brooks stole a line from an old Western movie to capture a pair of burglars. A Fort Bend County, TX homeowner fought back when he found burglars in his home. “You know there's something about when you hear a pump shotgun click,” said Nathaniel Brooks. “It makes everybody think twice.” And the two burglars did think twice...
It was an impressive year for Al Gore... he convinced Iran to abandon their nuclear program. He brokered the Anbar Awakening in Iraq. He jetted to Palestine and convinced Hamas and Fatah to stop fighting. Then he got the Israelis to join them. Then he drove up the road to Damascus and got the Syrians to stop blowing up Lebanese politicians.
He deserves his "Peace" prize. Good for him. It'll look nice on his mantle next to the Oscar for Best "Documentary".
BTW, there is a reason he wasn't awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics or Chemistry:
Al Gore's Oscar-winning environmental documentary contains nine scientific errors or omissions, a British judge said, ruling on a challenge from a school official who did not want the film shown to students.
High Court Judge Michael Burton said he had no doubt that the points raised in "An Inconvenient Truth" about the causes and likely effects of climate change were broadly accurate, but in a ruling published Wednesday he wrote that they were made in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration."
Burton outlined nine errors — including Gore's claim that sea level rises of 7 meters (23 feet) might occur in the immediate future — something Burton characterized as "distinctly alarmist." Other errors, he said, included the claim that Hurricane Katrina, the evaporation of most of Lake Chad and the melting of the snows of the Kilimanjaro were all the result of global warming. Burton said there was insufficient evidence to back his claims.
The Nobel "Peace" Prize is a political prize. Past recipients include: Yassir Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Mohamed El Baradei, Le Duc Tho.
Neall lives in Deptford, NJ and works in Exton, PA. He writes about technology, music, books, and news. He is an IT expert and published author. He's also a musician and songwriter.
