American Republic Online

A new ad depicts Hillary as Big Brother (stealing Apple’s 1984 ad).  We still don’t know how actually did it.  My guess is that the creator(s) is remaining silent because they saw how Hillary’s campaign reacted to Geffen’s “insubordination.”

A new survey out of Iraq:

49% of those surveyed preferred life now to living under Saddam, 26% preferred Saddam’s, 16% said there wasn’t a difference and the rest didn’t answer.

Even though 26% of them had a family member who was murdered.

And only 27% think they are in a civil war.  They need to watch more CNN…

“A group devoted to social tolerance has been accused of being intolerant.“

While trying to eject 71-year-old Barbara Marques from the monthly gathering Monday, the Rev. Garnet McClure grabbed and shook the chair in which Marques was sitting, attendee Sharon Giottonini said.

McClure, a female pastor at Fremont Congregational Church, reacted after Marques said the 2002 slaying of transgender teen Gwen Araujo might not be a hate crime, several witnesses said.

A scuffle ensued and McClure continued to pull on Marques’ chair, said Giottonini, a member of the alliance and the East Bay Coalition for Border Security, a Fremont anti-illegal-immigration group.

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The U.S. Senate voted on a three resolutions concerning Iraq yesterday:

1. Surrender by March 2008 failed 50-48.

2. The Senate should not undermine the safety of U.S. troops passed 96-2.

3. The Senate should not cut off funding for the troops passed 82-16.

Let’s consider these in turn.

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Osama Bin Laden knows America. He knows us perhaps better than we know ourselves. Granted, he does not know everything, but he knows enough for his purposes. That is, he knows, and has known, what we are only beginning to see: Americans no longer have the stomach for war. Indeed, he took this very fact into account as part of his pre-9/11 planning. Let’s take a look back:

In order to understand where we are, we must understand how we got here. In other words, how did we come to 9/11, and then end up in a war of attrition/insurgency. 9/11 and the war in Iraq are not unrelated, nor were they happenstance. In fact, they are a part of Bin Laden’s larger plan.

Al Qaeda was formed in the wake of the Soviet-Afghani conflict. The main goal of the organization being to re-establish the Caliphate. That is, a political and religious leader over the Islamic world. Having established this, to then extend power to all lands formerly under the control of Isalm, and even the world. But how to accomplish this goal?
In 1997, Bin Laden was interviewed by journalist Peter Arnett. In the course of the interview, Bin Laden revealed his conclusion regarding American military and will:

“We learned from those who fought [in Somalia] that they were surprised to see the low spiritual morale of the American fighters in comparison with the experience they had with the Russian fighters. The Americans ran away from those fighters who fought and killed them, while the latter were still there. If the U.S. still thinks and brags that it still has this kind of power even after all these successive defeats in Vietnam, Beirut, Aden, and Somalia, then let them go back to those who are awaiting its return.”

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This shows the power of the “new media” - that is blogs and such. In a case of pure irony, Al Gore’s financial/social/ecological trickery has been brough to light by his own invention: the Internet.

Aside: Thanks to the Internet, any inspired (bored) person can research (dig around) and find all kinds of interesting (embarrassing) information. Take for instance a blogger that also happens to be an attorney. With the aid of lexus nexus, tremendous amounts of public info filed away in courthouses around the country are a few keystrokes away. Your typical blogger doesn’t have that technology advantage but what they lack in tech they make in sheer numbers. And since blogs feed off each other, one random blogger finds a connection… the blogosphere picks up on it… one mainstream org picks up on that…. and suddenly one random guy has shaped the national news cycle. Pretty sweet eh?

So here’s the scoop: Al Gore is loving the attention his war against Global Warming has brought him. One problem though: his jet-setting lifestye, the big mansion, etc. - well, they aren’t that eco-friendly. The solution: Carbon Offsets. A carbon offset is the expending of money to offset your polution. Now that’s a little vague ’cause offsets abound and vary. The best offsets do things like take your money and plant trees (minus an admin fee of course), but they get much less practical. The next level promises to “research” or “invest” in “green” products or companies. These promises could be a lot of things in practice - ah, the power of vague marketing speak. The BEST level promises to send to a certificate complete with decorative ribbon saying that you bought offsets from them. NO word on what those offsets entail, but you’ve got a clear conscience AND a way to show off to your friends. What could be better?

So now that you understand the “industry” here’s what Gore is doing he is buying “offsets” from a company called Generation Investment Management, LLP. Can you guess who the founder and Chairman of this investment group is? That’s right: Al Gore.

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Speaker Pelosi is taking flak from constituents.  She was called out during a peace protest:
“San Francisco has been against this war from the very beginning,” said Toby Blome, a physical therapist who organized the event. “This is our fifth year of the war, and Nancy needs to wake up and represent San Franciscans.” 

Looking at the bigger picture here, will Hillary be able to walk this line?  Appeal to peace protesters in San Francisco and America’s heartland?  She’ll certainly need to court the former to get the nomination, but if she does, will she be able to to then turn to good ol’ boys in the Midwest?  Hillary’s phoniness has been a major issue, and it seems to your dear editor that it will only get worse.

Al Jazeera sees improvement in the situation in Baghdad:
“…there’s a real change in the city right now…I’m down there all the time, and there’s a positive change in the city. The people are feeling like something is different - not able to articulate exactly what’s different, but they’re feeling that something is different.“

What universal government health care might look like? Well…

look no further than the scandalous mess at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Crappy hospitals, endless waits, mountains of paperwork and, at the end of the day, no real accountability from the people who run the joint. Folks, if the government can’t or won’t take good care of our injured soldiers, what makes you think that it will take good care of little Sally or Uncle Bill?

Health care in the United States is screwed up. This is largely due to bad government policies, e.g., third party payment encouraged through the tax code and multiplying state insurance mandates that unnecessarily boost costs. As the example of Walter Reed is warning us, putting total control of all health care in the hands of those who wrecked it in first place–Congress, states and federal agencies–is the wrong way to go.

Preach.