Sheer Lunancy From the Left

Again, Robert Sheer, who once worked for the leftist LA Times, provides us with insight into the liberal mind. I commented on his 4th of July editorial, and he continues with his rants against sane, conservative polices with his usual irrational understanding of reality.

In his latest op-ed of Aug 20th, he spews forth more of his liberal talking points. His premiss for arguments are not based on facts. Let's look at some:

There you have it — in a capsule, the McCain campaign for president, an irrational melange of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality that is proving disturbingly successful with uninformed voters. How else to explain the many millions of Americans who tell pollsters they prefer a continuation of Republican rule when so many of them are losing their homes to foreclosure and the nation is bankrupted by out-of-control military spending.

The economy is in a downward spiral, the national debt is at an all-time high, the dollar is an international disgrace, and inflation in July had the steepest rise in 27 years, driven by oil prices fivefold higher than when President Bush invaded the nation with the world's second-largest petroleum reserves.

First of all, Sheer hates anything doing with patriotism, so he uses this quite frequently in his criticism of Republicans, and Americans in general, in this case "patriotic swagger and blindness." On July 4th, it was "patriotic bluster and beer swilling."

To us "uninformed voters," of course, being a liberal elitist, he doesn't believe we can choose for ourselves. That's one of the problems with America today -- we don't let the liberal elite run everything, you know?

He then leads you to believe that "so many" Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, because you know, those damned neocons are cheating them out of their homes, you know. He doesn't say that, but you know that's what he means. But the fact is that these people are losing their homes because they made bad decisions. The government, many years ago, allowed lenders to lend to just about anybody -- didn't matter if they could repay -- so here we are with the consequences.

Then our national debt is due to out-of-control military spending. Oh? Really? Is it out of control? Or is it at the level we need to protect ourselves, unlike the attacks we suffered in the 1990s and on Sept 11, 2001? What's out of control is social spending, which has gone up much faster than military spending. But welfare programs, income redistribution, in fact, socialism is O.K.

Of course, the price of oil is Bush's fault. And since this is Bush's fault, our economy, inflation, etc is also Bush's fault. This is something I'm really tired of hearing. I just don't understand this Bush hatred, when any honest thinking human knows that all of our problems aren't the fault of one man.

Later in his editorial, while admitting to the victory in Iraq, Sheer has to disqualify it by bringing up our experience in Vietnam and that "victory is not all it's cracked up to be." Really? I guess victories, like World War II aren't important either. Or any of the other "victories" our military has managed to accomplish.

He reminds us of how Nixon rejected the neoconservative addiction to the cold war by his policy of detente with the Soviets and Chinese. Yet, Nixon really accomplished very little. The threat from these two communist regimes remained just a real as ever, and even more so to smaller countries, such as Afghanistan. Only when Reagan used neoconservative policies in the 1980s did he finally end the cold war.

And of course, our efforts against Islamic fundamentalists is "absurdly misdirected." We shouldn't spend more for national defense, oh no. This won't make us stronger. "Vote for McCain, and forget about funding to solve the Social Security, Medicare and subprime mortgage disasters or anything else that truly would make America stronger," he concludes.

Certainly, Mr. Sheer. Medicare, subprime mortgages and Social Security will certainly beat back the terrorists and other assorted bad guys from attacking our citizens, our properties and our freedoms.

This is dangerous thinking. Americans need to wake up and fight for the freedoms we have, because there are too many people willing -- like Mr. Sheer -- to give them away, or others who want to take them away.

Must Reads for the Day

It should be quite evident by now that the Democrats, and liberals in general, are not about freedom of expression, democracy or letting votes dictate the policy of this government or the will of the people. They are about power. They want to run the country as they see fit, because they are, after all, smarter and better than the rest of us. If you don't believe this, start with the first story below, an editorial in the usually left-leaning Washington Post.

No Drilling, No Vote
Speaker Pelosi won't let the House debate the merits of offshore drilling.WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There's a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won't be hearing it in the House of Representatives -- certainly, you won't find lawmakers voting on it -- anytime soon.

Barack Obama Secretly Runs Senate Banking Committee!
Here’s our pal Barack Obama, saying that the Senate Banking Committee — “which is my committee,” he says — passed some bill about something. Problem is, he’s not actually on the Senate Banking Committee at all. Maybe he meant to say he’s on the SENATE LIARS COMMITTEE where he passed a bill about MAKING SHIT UP. This is significantly more important than John McCain saying the Surge caused things that happened before the Surge.

A Look Back: What Democrats Were Saying About The Surge
The enormous improvement in Iraq's security situation caused by the surge has been so undeniable that even the mainstream press has started alternating between ignoring Iraq completely and acknowledging, albeit reluctantly, that the surge has put victory within reach in Iraq.

Change They Can Believe In
Barack Obama’s recent global tour may have been a media sensation abroad, but back home it was a punch line. “There was a huge reception for Barack Obama in the Middle East this past weekend,” quipped Jay Leno. “People were screaming, chasing him, hanging on his every word — and that was just the U.S. press corps.”

The Surge, the Awakening, the Democrats and Rewriting History
McCain wants to start the surge too early, Wesley Clark gets his facts wrong and also claims the Saudis had a hand in calming the violence - the surge has become a bit of a political football in this not yet official presidential contest.

Summer Madness
So an exasperated Sen. Barbara Boxer screams that the farm-belt senators better support her regional selfishness in opposing California off-shore drilling against the national interest, in the same manner she went along with the ethanol boondoggle. Odd that she was so brazen in her confessional.

Random Thoughts

A liberal would have written the headline above as "Random Musings." It sounds more intellectual. But simple words have an impact as well. Hemmingway and Stephen King wrote at the fifth-grade level.

The American Left keeps looking for institutions, organizations or people to blame for the rapid increase in energy prices. Who is it now? Ronald Reagan, of course. See Richard Cohen's column in the Washington Post. You can read it at IDB editorials; that way, you don't have to register if you don't want to, because the Post will make you register. Interesting quote from the column: "The worst part of Reaganism was its political success."

Somebody shoot me, ok?

Sometimes Liberal Logic doesn't compute. With Obama's lean toward the center, some on the left want to make sure we know that McCain has been flip-flopping on Iraq. The U.S. and Iraq are negotiating a security treaty, and the Iraqis want our departure as part of that treaty. This is great news, because the Iraqis are beginning to stand up for themselves. (I guess the surge worked, but I digress). But Jon Soltz at the Huffington Post wrote "There you have it. The Iraqis are basically telling the US that they endorse Obama's policy..." He continues with twists and turns to accuse McCain of twisting and turning. McCain is a flip-flopper because he hasn't come out immediately and say he'll support immediate withdrawal.

Somebody shoot me, ok?

Why is it that we have to cut our "carbon output" by 50 percent by some future date, but the Chinese, Indians and basically the entire third world get a free pass. Are they trying to spend us to death, like Reagan did to the Soviet Union?

Obama thinks we should be embarrassed because we (Americans) aren't all bi-lingual. Europeans come here and they can speak English, he says, but all we can say is merci beau coup (French for thank you very much, in case you're not bi-lingual). He says we should make sure all of our children speak Spanish. Obama is clueless. I lived in Europe for five years, and while many Europeans do speak English, many do not. English is the world-wide language of business, air traffic control, diplomacy, etc. If the world-wide language was French, as it was around the founding of this country, more of us would speak French, as our founding fathers did. If you're going to blame someone for the dominance of English, blame the British.

Nothing wrong with being bi-lingual, but I get the feeling the American Left would make it a requirement, enforced by government decree.

Leave Europe for the Europeans, America for Americans.

I'm I dead yet?

Iraqi Uraniam Transferred to Canada

Iraq had 550 tons of yellowcake, a form of processe uranium used for not only nuclear fuel, but nuclear weapons.

This was reported July 7 by some media outlets. But forget big headlines. This type of news doesn't fit in with the mainstream media's agenda.

To get the full story, here are some in-depth articles and commentaries on the subject:

Iraqi uranium transferred to Canada
Saddam's Nukes
Iraq's nuclear 'yellowcake' moved to Canada

Now that we know for sure that Saddam had nuclear and chemical materials, will the American left change their tune? Don't count on it.

Sunday Commentary

According to the Washington Post, 80 percent of black voters in South Carolina voted for Barack Obama. So why do blacks generally support the Democrat Party? Is it just a question of race? These are questions that perplexe Larry Elder in his recent article, "How Can a ‘Fellow Black American’ Oppose Obama?" I highly recommend anyone not familiar with Larry's writings to give this one a read. He provides a short history of the two parties.

Bob Novak, in an editorial for the Washington Post this week, said Colin Powell will probably support Barack Obama. Arianna Huffington has a field day with this in her Sunday Roundup. I'm thinking of cancelling my Netflix subscription because they are a regular supporter of her site with popup ads. In reading some of the reader comments to her post, it seems liberals hate conservatives more than terrorists.

If you haven't checked out the web site "Reglion of Peace," I suggest you do. According to their research, Islamic terrorists have carried out nearly 12,000 attacks since 9/11.

The Washington Post reports that "a win for his Republican counterpart, John McCain, could mean a fundamental shift to a consistently conservative majority ready to take on past court rulings on abortion rights, affirmative action and other issues important to the right." As if that's a bad thing?

The war in Iraq is illegal and Bush lied (or at least mislead us into war) is still a popular talking point for the left. Norman Podhertz said that "what makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike." Read his editorial in the Wall Street Journal for the facts. Then visit The Atlantic and read Kenneth Pollard's article. Now, you'll be better armed to debate liberals (though they don't pay much attention to facts; they just get in the way).