• Bear Flag League,  Mark Steyn,  Politics

    Flap’s Reminder Watch: Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Speech

    Just a REMINDER – set your Digital Video Recorders for those attending Christmas Parties……

    American Perspectives on C-Span will begin at 8 PM EST.

    Flap has heard from the Claremont Institute:

    Steyn’s speech from the Churchill Dinner will air on C-SPAN’s “American Perspectives” this Saturday night (December 17) at 9:30pm ET, and again roughly three hours later. You can also listen to the broadcast at that time at: http://www.c-span.org/watch/cspanradio.asp. The speech is also available for purchase from C-SPAN after it airs by calling C-SPAN Archives at 877-662-7726. We have not heard yet whether it will be available for viewing on the video archive section of C-SPAN’s website.

    Previous:

    Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Bear Flag League


    Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Dinner


    Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Reception


    Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Departure

    Mark Steyn Honored at The Claremont Institute’s Sir Winston Churchill Dinner

    Technorati Tags: , , ,

  • Iraq War,  Liberal Morons,  Politics

    Cindy Sheehan Watch: Spain Protest

    The ASSociated Press has Sheehan Leads War Protest in Spain

    Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan led a small protest Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy to denounce the war in Iraq.

    About 100 protesters carried banners criticizing President Bush.

    Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, called Bush a war criminal and said, “Iraq is worse than Vietnam.”

    The protest also was called in memory of Jose Couso, a Spanish television cameraman killed on April 8, 2003, in Baghdad when a U.S. tank fired at a hotel where many foreign correspondents were staying. Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian, also was killed in that incident.

    Who is financing Sheehan?

    In the meantime,

    An Iraqi walks past torn election billboards in central Baghdad two days after more than two-thirds of Iraqi voters turned out in the country’s landmark election. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari urged Sunni Arabs to unite with Shiites in Iraq’s new parliament following a general election that many hope can help ease ethnic tensions.

  • Iraq War,  Politics

    Iraq War Watch: Democrats Have NO UNIFIED Position

    The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, seen here in September 2005, endorsed a proposal by a senior member of her party calling for an quick pullout of US troops from Iraq. Opposition Democrats are struggling to find a common voice on the war in Iraq, torn between the public disenchantment with the US military campaign and the need to offer a viable alternative the US administration’s ‘stay the course’ approach.

    The Washington Post has Pelosi Hails Democrats’ Diverse War Stances

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that Democrats should not seek a unified position on an exit strategy in Iraq, calling the war a matter of individual conscience and saying differing positions within the caucus are a source of strength for the party.

    Pelosi said Democrats will produce an issue agenda for the 2006 elections but it will not include a position on Iraq. There is consensus within the party that President Bush has mismanaged the war and that a new course is needed, but House Democrats should be free to take individual positions, she sad.

    “There is no one Democratic voice . . . and there is no one Democratic position,” Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors.

    Read all of this foolishness here.

    In other words, they have NO POLICY except they are against President Bush.

    Murtha, Pelosi, et al are just blathering – with NO thought.

    The American people need leadership not political hot air.

    In the meantime in Iraq…….

  • Global War on Terror,  Politics

    Patriot Act Watch: Senate Rejects Extension of Patriot Act – Rudy Giuliani – Taking Liberties

    The New York Times has Taking Liberties With the Nation’s Security by Rudy Giuliani

    YESTERDAY the Senate failed to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, as a Democratic-led filibuster prevented a vote. This action – which leaves the act, key elements of which are due to expire on Dec. 31, in limbo – represents a grave potential threat to the nation’s security. I support the extension of the Patriot Act for one simple reason: Americans must use every legal and constitutional tool in their arsenal to fight terrorism and protect their lives and liberties.

    The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made clear that the old rules no longer work. The terrorists who attacked us seek to kill innocent men, women and children of all races and creeds. They seek to destroy our liberties. They willingly kill themselves in their effort to bring death and suffering to as many innocents as they can, here in this country or anywhere in the world where freedom has a foothold.

    Read it all.

    The Senate Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, rejected attempts to reauthorize several provisions of the USA Patriot Act, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis., center, threatened to fillibuster the measure. Flaning Sen. Feingold uring a news conference after the vote are Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., left, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

    In a stinging defeat for President Bush, Senate Democrats blocked passage Friday of a new Patriot Act to combat terrorism at home, depicting the measure as a threat to the constitutional liberties of innocent Americans. Republicans spurned calls for a short-term measure to prevent the year-end expiration of law enforcement powers first enacted in the anxious days after Sept. 11, 2001. “The president will not sign such an extension,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and lawmakers on each side of the issue blamed the other for congressional gridlock on the issue.

    The Senate voted 52-47 to advance a House-passed bill to a final vote, eight short of the 60 needed to overcome the filibuster backed by nearly all Senate Democrats and a handful of the 55 Republicans.

    “We can come together to give the government the tools it needs to fight terrorism and protect the rights and freedoms of innocent citizens,” said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., arguing that provisions permitting government access to confidential personal data lacked safeguards to protect the innocent.

    “We need to be more vigilant,” agreed Sen. John Sununu, a Republican from New Hampshire, where the state motto is “Live Free or Die.” He quoted Benjamin Franklin: “Those that would give up essential liberty in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”

    But Frist likened the bill’s opponents to those who “have called for a retreat and defeat strategy in Iraq. That’s the wrong strategy in Iraq. It is the wrong strategy here at home.”

    And who were the Republicans who voted against the President?:

    Larry Craig of Idaho

    Chuck Hagel of Nebraska

    Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

    John Sununu of New Hampshire

    voted to block the measure. Frist initially voted to advance the bill, then switched to opposition purely as a parliamentary move that enables him to call for a second vote at some point in the future.

    Here is their contact information courtesy of Hugh Hewitt:

    Here’s the contact info:

    Craig, Larry- (R – ID) Class II
    520 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
    (202) 224-2752
    Web Form: craig.senate.gov/email/

    Hagel, Chuck- (R – NE) Class II
    248 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
    (202) 224-4224
    Web Form: hagel.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

    Murkowski, Lisa- (R – AK) Class III
    709 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
    (202) 224-6665
    Web Form: murkowski.senate.gov/contact.cfm

    Sununu, John- (R – NH) Class II
    111 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
    (202) 224-2841
    Web Form: www.sununu.senate.gov/webform.html

    All contact info for all senators is here.

    The Senate switchboard is 202-225-3121.

    Hewitt’s post is here.

    This is another failure of Bill Frist’s leadership but the Republican defections should be remembered at Republican Primary time.

    Give them a telephone call on Monday and ask the good Senators why they voted against America and FOR the terrorist bad guys.

    Flap does NOT feel safer tonight.

    Update #1

    With a failure of the Senate to vote for reauthorization of the Patriot Act, the anti-methamphetamine provisions and the Combat Methamphetamine Act die.

    Note: Senator Feinstein, D-California, one of the co-sponsors of the Combat Methamphetamine Act voted against her own sponsored legislation.

    But, will Bill Frist call the Patriot Act back for a vote this year/session?

    Stay tuned…..

    Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , ,