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Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Bear Flag League
The Bear Flag League was well represented at the Claremont Institute’s dinner honoring Mark Steyn.
Socal Pundit obtaining Anne Heche’s phone number(?)
Flap and Tammy Bruce. HEH!
Little Miss Attila, Gay Patriot West, John Hinderaker of Powerline Blog, his lovely wife and daughter.
Ken Masugi from the Local Liberty Blog
SoCal Pundit discussing Pajamas Media etc. with John Hinderaker
Matt Peterson of the Local Liberty Blog and his lovely wife.
Next: The Keynote Address by Mark Steyn, filmed by C-Span (Flap will await the video feed) and the after dinner discussions in Mark Steyn’s room.
Stay tuned…….
Previous:
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Dinner
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Reception
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The DepartureMark Steyn Honored at The Claremont Institute’s Sir Winston Churchill Dinner
Technorati Tags: Mark Steyn, The Claremont Institute, Henry Salvatori, Sir Winston S. Churchill Dinner
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Gaggle – Newbusters.org
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Howard Dean Watch: United States Won’t Win in Iraq
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean gestures before his keynote speech at the annual fall DNC meetings, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005 in Phoenix. Republicans will focus on the country’s problems from illegal immigration to divide Americans voting in next year’s midterm congressional elections, much as the GOP used gay marriage as a wedge issue in 2004, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says.
WOIA.com has Dean: US Won’t Win in Iraq
Saying the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.
Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.
“I’ve seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, ‘just another year, just stay the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening.”
Defeatism, Cut and Run – words out of the radical LEFT playbook – the norm for the Democrat Party under Howard Dean.
Dean says the Democrat position on the war is ‘coalescing,’ and is likely to include several proposals.
“I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years,” Dean said. “Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don’t belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don’t have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We’ve got to get the target off the backs of American troops.
Dean didn’t specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a ‘withdrawal,’ but rather a ‘strategic redeployment’ of U.S. forces.
“The White House wants us to have a permanent commitment to Iraq. This is an Iraqi problem. President Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein and that was a great thing, but that could have been done in a very different way. But now that we’re there we need to figure out how to leave. 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and it’s their country.”
Howard the COWARD………
Dean also compared the controversy over pre-war intelligence to the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1974.
“What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate,” Dean said. “It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people.”
Are you kidding me…….and the Democrats expect to WIN elections with this MORON as their leader?
Keep it up, Howard!
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Stanley “Tookie” Williams Watch: Political Risks
Yvette Campbell, of Long Beach, California, chants at a candlelight vigil to campaign for clemency for convicted killer and Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams outside’Schatzi on Main’, the restaurant founded by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Santa Monica, California, December 4, 2005. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection December 13. Schwarzenegger has scheduled a private clemency hearing on December 8.
Reuters has Schwarzenegger clemency review has political risks
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s clemency review this week to determine whether to execute Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams could influence the governor’s ability to rebound from political setbacks.
Convicted of four brutal killings a quarter century ago, Williams has generated a big public campaign calling for clemency because of his anti-gang books aimed at inner-city youth.
The Republican governor will hear from prosecutors and defense attorneys at the clemency hearing behind closed doors on Thursday. He will only have a few days if he wants to halt the December 13 execution by lethal injection at San Quentin prison north of San Francisco.
Some analysts say the former Hollywood action star risks further alienating his party base if he grants clemency.
The Governor has already “JUMPED THE SHARK” with the Susan Kennedy appointment.
Clemency for Tookie would be the NAIL IN THE COFFIN for Schwarzenegger’s political career.
Flap is certain it would prompt a law and order candidate challenging Schwarzenegger in the June primary for the California Republican Party nomination.
“There are already a number of people that have already said that they are not going to vote for him, work for him,” said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly. “If he granted clemency, based on the evidence that has been presented, it would be a disaster.”
Weakened by a stinging loss on all his initiatives in a special election he called last month, Schwarzenegger angered some in his party this week by appointing an openly gay, longtime Democrat as his chief of staff.
Republican fiscal conservatives have also expressed concern about his interest in billions of dollars of new infrastructure bonds. Some analysts say such concerns could prompt another Republican, such as state Sen. Tom McClintock, to challenge Schwarzenegger in the June gubernatorial primary.
McClintock told Reuters he does not intend to run and said politics should not be considered in clemency reviews.
“Political issues should have no place in this discussion,” he said. “It’s totally irrelevant.”
The challenger would not be McClintock but a wealthy self-financed candidate from business or industry. One that would garner the support of the business and law enforcement community.
Stay tuned…..the hearing is Thursday.
Previous:
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Clemency Hearing to Include Claim there were Errors in Trial
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: NOT Afraid to Die
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: A Tookie Store for Conservatives is NOW Open
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Stars rally around Condemned Killer
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Execution
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: NO REMORSEStanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Tookie’s “Human Angelâ€
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Isn’t it The Truth By Cobb
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Schwarzenegger to Hold Private Clemency Hearing
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger MULLS ClemencyStanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: FLAP Over “Tookie Must Dieâ€
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Jesse Jackson, Bianca Jagger Plead for LIFE
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: SNOOP DOGG BEGS SCHWARZENEGGER FOR CLEMENCY
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California’s Life-and-Death Politics
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Death Warrant Signed
Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stanley Tookie Williams, Crips
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The Weblog Awards Watch: VOTE for Flap
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Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Is Susan Kennedy a “Harriet Miers” Moment?
Califoirnia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, center, cuts a ceremonial ribbon to dedicate the new Herbert Research Center at Allergan headquarters in Irvine, Calif., Friday, Dec. 2, 2005. From left are Scott M. Whitcup, M.D., executive vice president for research and developement, founder and chairman emeritus Gavin S. Herbert, for whom the building is named, the governor, chairman and president David E.I. Pyott, and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. Allergan is a leader in treatments for eye-related diseases, but is perhaps best known for its most popular product, Botox, discovered as a beauty treatment as a byproduct of eye research.
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal has Arnold’s ‘Harriet Miers Moment’
Has Gov. Schwarzenegger jumped the shark?Arnold Schwarzenegger stunned California last week by selecting the former deputy chief of staff to Gray Davis, the Democratic governor ousted by the recall that brought Mr. Schwarzenegger to power, to be his own chief of staff.
Conservatives are furious that Susan Kennedy, a 45-year-old former acolyte of radical activists Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, will be Gov. Schwarzenegger’s top administrator, with power to hire and fire staff. Some liberals are angry at her joining a GOP governor; others are bemused. This Wednesday, 450 Gray Davis alumni will fill the state capitol for the unveiling of Mr. Davis’s portrait. Ms. Kennedy will be reunited with David Zingale, another former top Davis aide, who is now chief of staff to First Lady Maria Shriver. Jason Kinney, a Davis speechwriter, quips that Mr. Schwarzenegger has decided to “finish the second term of Gray Davis.” Mr. Davis, for his part, notes that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Some are calling the Kennedy pick the governor’s “Harriet Miers moment.” An executive with low poll numbers, urged on by his wife, makes a bold appointment without proper vetting. That sets off a firestorm of unanticipated criticism. The executive insists he hasn’t changed and asks his allies to trust him.
Arnold has already JUMPED THE SHARK!
Previously:
Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Governor Names Partisan Democrat Chief of Staff – THE FLAP
Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Pat Clarey, Arnold’s Chief of Staff ResignsTechnorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Susan Kennedy
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Stanley “Tookie” Williams Watch: Should California Governor Schwarzenegger Grant CLEMENCY? – The POLL
Updated: The Poll was NOT working so Flap created a new one.
The Los Angeles Times has Californians Conflicted on Williams’ Fate
Deciding whether someone should live or die with the sanction of the state cannot be an easy thing. Schwarzenegger has already said he dreads deciding whether to let the Dec. 13 execution go forward. But although the judgment will not hinge on politics, the choice is particularly fraught for Schwarzenegger as he seeks to recover from last month’s disastrous special election and runs for a second term next year.
Abandoned by a large swath of the state’s Democratic-leaning electorate, Republican Schwarzenegger has worked to reclaim his centrist image by aggressively reaching out to old adversaries, even going so far as naming a longtime Democratic activist, Susan Kennedy, as his new chief of staff.
Granting clemency to Williams “would fit in with that kind of new characterization” of the governor as a more “humane, caring individual,” said Larry N. Gerston, a San Jose State political scientist.
And yet blocking Williams’ execution could further antagonize conservatives already outraged by Kennedy’s appointment and Schwarzenegger’s talk of huge new borrowing to pay for improved roads, ports and other infrastructure projects. “If he blinks on this issue, does he perhaps add more fuel to that fire and open the possibility for a primary fight?” Gerston asked.
But public opinion on the matter appears shaded with nuance. In polls taken over roughly the last decade, a majority of Californians have consistently said they support the death penalty for serious crimes. At the same time, some surveys have also found strong support for an alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A series of random interviews around the state last week — in politically competitive areas reflecting California as a whole — found similar ambivalence among nearly four dozen individuals who agreed to discuss their views on Schwarzenegger, capital punishment and the choice the governor faces.
The Los Angeles Times has their poll here.
Note the Times question and responses:
Should Gov. Schwarzenegger grant clemency to convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams?
Yes. He’s redeemed himself in prison, and his life still has value.
No. The jury’s sentence must be carried out.
I don’t know. (Fortunately, it’s not for me to decide.)
California Conservative Blog has another poll.Note California Conservative asks a different question:
After sitting on death row for 25 years, should convicted multiple murderer Stanley “Tookie†Williams be executed as sentenced by law?
Yes or No
Flap will have his own poll, keeping to the central issue of the December 8th clemency hearing.
UPDATE: This Poll below does not seem to work so please go to this link and VOTE.
Flap will e-mail the results to the Governor’s office.
Please vote and make your voice heard……..
Previously:
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Clemency Hearing to Include Claim there were Errors in Trial
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: NOT Afraid to Die
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: A Tookie Store for Conservatives is NOW Open
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Stars rally around Condemned Killer
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Execution
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: NO REMORSEStanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Tookie’s “Human Angelâ€
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Isn’t it The Truth By Cobb
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Schwarzenegger to Hold Private Clemency Hearing
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger MULLS ClemencyStanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: FLAP Over “Tookie Must Dieâ€
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Jesse Jackson, Bianca Jagger Plead for LIFE
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: SNOOP DOGG BEGS SCHWARZENEGGER FOR CLEMENCY
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: California’s Life-and-Death Politics
Stanley “Tookie†Williams Watch: Death Warrant Signed
Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stanley Tookie Williams, Crips
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Day By Day by Chris Muir