No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for July 21st, 2008

Roll bloat – pollinate the information

by @ 15:48. Filed under The Blog.

I’ve included Dr. Melissa Couthier’s efforts as a co-blogger at Right Wing News enough times, I figured I may as well add her personal blog to the ever-growing roll.

Somebody get Obama a calendar

by @ 15:28. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Jim Geraghty runs the timeline that explodes the following utterance from Barack Obama to CBS News’ Lara Logan – “And first of all, if we hadn’t taken our eye off the ball, we might have caught them (Osama bin Laden, the rest of the Al Qaeda leadership, and the Taliban leadership) before they got into Pakistan and were able to reconstitute themselves.” The Cliff Notes’ version:

Late November-mid December 2001 – The leadership of Al Qaeda/Taliban make their great escape from Tora Bora under the cover of negotiations with the local tribesmen.

March 2002 – The US/UK buildup in Kuwait began.

March 2003 – The US and UK move into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Do read the whole thing for some bonus coverage on Obama’s acceptance of the current Bush administration policy regarding getting bin Laden and his stammering on a larger unilateral action inside Pakistan.

New York Times all the way in the tank for the Obamination and Al Qaeda

(H/Ts – Sister Toldjan and Jim Geraghty)

The same day that Rasmussen Reports released a poll stating that 49% of those polled believe that the presstitutes are in the bag for Barack Obama, The Drudge Report breaks news that the New York Times Sedition Slimes rejected the following John McCain op-ed piece:

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation "hard" but not "hopeless." Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there," he said on January 10, 2007. "In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that "our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence." But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, "Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress." Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City"”actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama’s determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his "plan for Iraq" in advance of his first "fact finding" trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.

To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.

Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military’s readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.

No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five "surge" brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his "plan for Iraq." Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be "very dangerous."

The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the "Mission Accomplished" banner prematurely.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war"”only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

I am shocked, SHOCKED that one of the leading mouthpieces promoting the McShame-Slimeroad Lieberal Protection Act would use its status as an exempted press organization to shill for the DhimmiRAT and against the co-author of that act. NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley (who Drudge reminds us worked as a Bill Clinton speechwriter) explains his decision to shaft McCain thusly:

The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information; while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans….

It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.

McCain’s piece works for me because it offers a direct retort to the Obamination. I also could have sworn that “creating (a) stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic all(y)” qualifies as a concrete term of McCain’s definition of victory in Iraq.

I guess that hack wants McCain to accept retreat and defeat. I strongly suspect it will be a cold summer in Hell before that happens.

Revisions/extensions (1:18 pm 7/21/2008) – Lawhawk goes into the memory hole to dig out not only the fact that tne NYT allowed Hamas access, but defended that access by saying that it wasn’t in its interest to present only one side of the debate. I guess that only applies if the one side presented is not the New Sedition Slimes’ side.

R&E part 2 (8:22 pm 7/21/2008) – The Nose On Your Face dug up Shipley’s proposed rewrite of McCain’s op-ed (H/T – Doubleplusundead)

The Morning Scramble – 7/21/2008

by @ 10:30. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Let there be speed…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaFcx09BII4[/youtube]

You best get that extra-large cup of drink; this is going to take a while (hopefully as long as it took me to put the post-weekend edition together):

  • Justin Higgins found the Obamination Express rocking back and forth more than a ship in a hurricane.
  • Jim Geraghty notes that Barack Obama’s schedule is open for Lalapalooza (or is it Comic-Con?)
  • Flip found that details don’t matter to Obama; it wasn’t a single bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor but a whole heap of them.
  • Eric breaks out Spinal Tap and Winnie the Pooh to explain Obama’s Iraq policy.
  • Gina Cobb caught onto the fact the Obamination tax plan would mean a top marginal rate approaching 60% in places like New York. Ditto Wisconsin.
  • Vivian Lee pictures Hillary Clinton serving Obama tomatoes. I think that would be a meal she’s planning on serving about the middle of January 2011.
  • DrewM caught Obama thinking he would be running for Vice President, with an offing of Clinton on January 21, 2011. That would be the only way he could serve the “to 10” portion of his “8-10 years” dream expressed in Europe.
  • Slublog offers up yet another classic SluShop on the “8-10 year” dream.
  • The folks at The American Thinker have this weekend’s Red-on-Red episode. Operation Chaos lives!
  • Ed Morrissey points out that Obama’s second choice for his German speech is historically-deficient. I guess not teaching history has consequences.
  • Rick Moran is ashamed of his brother’s profession and their slavish love for the Obamination.
  • Karl found that Obama couldn’t put up with foreign presstitutes during the Obama World Tour.
  • Speaking of Obama not putting up with foreigners, Jim Hoft found him throwing Britain’s Prime Minister under the Obamination Express. Britain’s only been our best ally for the last 100 or so years.
  • Lady Logician asks who Obama’s character references are.
  • Jason (aka Ick) found the anti-Obamination sign of the day. If I ever need insurance in Manderville, Louisiana, I’ll be sure to look up Bud Gregg’s State Farm Insurance office.
  • Speaking of the Obama World Tour, Michelle Malkin has the T-shirts.
  • Janet Evans discovered the change Obama is talking about; our status as a superpower.
  • Michael J. O’Shea counts the ways the Obamination Presstitute Groupie Corps loves giving Obama tongue baths.
  • Ed Morrissey got a hold of the Obama World Tour dress code. He’ll get the same pass for offending the female half of the Obamination Presstitute Groupie Corps he got for the “Sweetie” kerfuffle.
  • Flip found Dan Rather joining the Osama/Obama mix-up in style. Then again, maybe the Rev. Jesse Jackson did break the ground for Osama bin Laden.
  • Erick Erickson found some more “inconvenient entanglements” that Obama’s advisors have with mortgage lenders. By the way, snow isn’t exactly pure; try letting some melt to see this proof.
  • Warner Todd Huston caught the official cable station of the Obama campaign, PMSNBC, trying to equate John McCain to the Joker.
  • Sean Hackbarth found James Dobson starting to warm to McCain.
  • Bill Quick recalls why the last 6 years of Bill Clinton’s Presidency was relatively-easy to survive; a Republican Congress and Newt Gingrich.
  • Patrick Ruffini has a plan to bring conservatism back.
  • The Vintage one has some good news out of Alaska – the primary challenger to Don “Bridge to Nowhere” Young, Sean Parnell, outraised Young in the second quarter.
  • Soren Dayton exposes the fact the ‘Rats don’t believe in ethics reform. After all, they have a coronation to pay for, and lobbyists are the ones with the excess money.
  • Gribbit found even more evidence that Gorebal “Warming” is a bunch of Bravo Sierra – the estimated temperatures in Europe over the last 1,100 years.
  • Brian says to blame Nancy Pelosi for high gas prices.
  • Bill Quick found a cop that was fired for demanding free coffee and tea from a Daytona Beach Starbucks under pain of reduced response times. I agree that he should also face extortion charges.
  • King Banian explains why airlines want a government takeover of the oil futures market.
  • Ed Driscoll terms the coming death of journalism a suicide. Bonus coverage; The News Organzation That Cannot Be Quoted™ is encouraging even more left-wing bias in its dispatches.
  • Lawhawk highlights the dangers of appeasement; Hezbollah is looking at more Israeli kidnapping operations now that they’ve been proven to work.
  • Matt Naugle has picture evidence of the Presstitute Folly of the Weekend; NPR’s whine that two rather-overweight Ohio women have to cut back on meat because the economy is soooooo bad.
  • Kate and Michael Ramirez discovered the ultimate dipsticks – Congress. Yes, the dipstick is dry.
  • Kathy Carpenter discovered the empty-dipstick Congress wants to raise the gas tax 52.6% and the diesel tax 41.7%. Once again, this proves that the ‘Rats are more than happy with ever-higher gas prices as long as government is the entity getting the money.
  • Emperor Misha I confirms that the MSM is stark raving insane. The letter combination of “a”, “I”, “q” and “D” isn’t exactly the same as “RATS”; after all, “‘Rats” do describe the ‘Rats.
  • Purple Avenger found evidence that Gorebal “Warming” studiously hides evidence of its reality.
  • Dad29 notes that the study noted above that finds, among other things, no historical link between rising temperatures and carbon dioxide comes from a former Gorebal “Warming” apostle. Once again I ask, how are we winning the scientific battle and losing the political war?
  • Speaking of the decline and fall of the presstitutes, Jerome J. Schmitt misses Tim Russert. Russert’s replacement, noted Gorebal “Warming” acolyte Tom Brokaw, failed to ask the Goracle about nuclear power during the course of a 40-minute tongue-bath.
  • Jim Hoft is shocked, SHOCKED that the presstitutes would misquote Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. For the record, it’s “withdrawal on success”, not “withdrawal regardless of success”.
  • Lawhawk caught Algore Goracle comparing offshore drilling to the Iraq invasion.
  • Fred Keller will be running a U.S. Presidents Trivia contest. This ought to be good.
  • Elliot explains for the benefit of the leftosphere what an American is.
  • Jim Hoft found two more pieces of evidence that Gorebal “Warming” is a bunch of Bravo Sierra – the Arctic ice pack has grown 11% over the last year, and sea levels are falling.
  • Mike explains that it won’t be 10 years before any new oil production would hit the pipeline. Bonus coverage – a lefty wants $8/gallon gas.
  • Donna Martinez points out that innovation is the last resort of government. Actually, in Wisconsin, the majority of the bipartisan Party-In-Government doesn’t believe in innovation despite a situation worse than the one in Orange County, North Carolina.
  • Bruce has a few travel tips for the fair-weather airline passengers.

I don’t have the time to see if this is the longest Scramble ever, but it sure feels like it. Maybe I need to expand it to the weekends.

That “Afghan FOB nearly overrun” story is falling apart

by @ 7:25. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Kat)

Stars and Stripes gets the skinny from Col. Charles Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He corrects a couple of misconceptions:

– First, it was a temporary vehicle patrol base, not a full-up forward operating base.
– Second, while the Taliban got within hand-grenade range, and pressed very hard on a particular observation post, they didn’t get into the main position.
– Finally, it wasn’t “abandoned”; rather, it was already planned to be moved on down the line.

Also from the Stars and Stripes – a first-hand account of the battle. Go, read.

Roll bloat – Into the corner

by @ 6:29. Filed under The Blog.

I could’ve said, “Ick,” but that wouldn’t quite be accurate. Please welcome Ick’s Corner to that overbloated roll to your right,.

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