May 05, 2005

Italy Won't Withdraw Troops in Iraq

Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that he disagreed with some of the U.S. military's conclusions into the March shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, but he said those differences won't affect Italy's friendship with Washington or its deployment of troops in Iraq.
[...]
"We must insist in our commitment and assist the forces of a free and democratic new Iraq,'' Berlusconi told lawmakers.

"Our friendship with the United States has overcome more difficult tests than this one,'' said the premier, a staunch ally of President Bush.

I think that Berlusconi knows our military didn't shoot at those journos on purpose, but he feels obliged to take his countrymens' part, although he knows only too well what liars Communists like Sgrena can be.
Glad the Italians seemed to have calmed down enough to allow him to make this commitment.
And the Danes have promised to keep soldiers in Iraq, also, at least until Feb. 1, 2006.
Thank you, loyal allies!

May 03, 2005

While one First Lady was being charmingly naughty, our former First "Lady" Senator was having a memory lapse about how Kim Jong-Il got his nukes:
A Former First Lady's Selective Memory

In Washington, it passes for business as usual. But in the real world, the spectacle of Sen. Hillary Clinton harrumphing about Pyongyang's nuclear capability sets off the hypocrisy alarm.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last Thursday, the junior senator from New York noted that "we haven't been all that successful preventing" North Korea's "continued attempts to obtain nuclear weapons."

"And," she went on, "we find ourselves now in a position that strikes me as a failed policy with grave consequences for the region and the world."

She later told The New York Times that Pyongyang, which tested a short-range rocket Sunday, couldn't arm a missile with a nuclear weapon "when George Bush became president, and now they can."

This is the sort of rhetoric expected from a politician who is trying to fit herself with the mantle of a hawk — at least publicly.

While playing the part of a concerned statesman, Clinton told Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, that "it is troubling beyond words that we have testimony" that bluntly indicates that North Korea's nuclear threat is growing.

"And you know there's that old saying, you know: If you're in a hole, quit digging. And this administration just keeps getting bigger shovels."

It's interesting how someone in her position of trust can so completely block out facts for political gain. That the Bush administration keeps getting bigger shovels is arguable. But what isn't is this:

The "hole" Clinton is talking about was dug by her husband, who was president for eight years while Kim Jong Il was busily equipping his regime with nuclear strike capability.

In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton made a feeble effort to halt North Korea's nuclear plans. He sent former President Jimmy Carter to Pyongyang to persuade Kim not to pursue nuclear arms.

Carter delivered — but to the wrong country. He cut a deal that had the U.S. providing North Korea with $4 billion worth of light-water nuclear reactors to — ostensibly — provide energy, $100 million in oil and $5 billion in economic and food aid.
[IOW, we, under the Clintoon Administration, gave the NorKs the materials and $ to build these nukes! ARGH!--Jen]

Five years later, the House North Korea Advisory Group said that made the Democratic People's Republic of Korea "the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region."

In return for such generosity, Kim, whom Carter saw as a "vigorous and intelligent man," was supposed to halt his weapons program. Obviously, he didn't.

While the Clinton administration was congratulating itself for talking Pyongyang out of its atomic nuclear ambitions and Carter was telling the world that he didn't see the DPRK as an outlaw nation, Kim was moving ahead with plans to build a nuclear weapon.

The world learned this in October 2002, when North Korea admitted to U.S. envoy James Kelly that it had violated its deal with the U.S. by carrying on a secret nuclear weapons program.

In response, the Bush White House suspended the oil shipments and construction on the light-water nuclear reactors that the Clinton administration arranged.

Now, Hillary Clinton wants the country to believe that Kim didn't restart the program until Jan. 20, 2001, or later.

Yet some security analysts believe the DPRK began a new clandestine program to enrich uranium for a weapon soon after signing the 1994 Agreed Framework with the U.S.

There's also evidence that Kim secretly acquired equipment needed to develop nuclear weapons in June 1998 and brought it in from Islamabad, Pakistan, on a special flight.
[This would be before Musharraf took power there and I'm sure Dr. A.Q. Kahn was involved, though.--Jen]

Despite this, Hillary is planting the idea among voters that Bush not only let Kim restart his nuclear arms program, but also failed to persuade North Korea to give it up.

She's wrong, of course. But even if Bush did nothing, it would be an improvement over the Clinton White House's poor performance.

HilLIARy's such a witch and a liar--just like a Clinton!
We'll be watching her...while she runs for re-election for Senator and if (God forbid!) she runs for the presidency in '08.
I will fight her getting elected with every cell in my body.
Yes, indeedy, these NorK nukes are down to her husband, Jimmuh Peanut and Bill Richardson--perfidious, Commie-loving Dimocrats all.
But it's not helpful, as Rummy would say, to wallow in affixing blame but to deal with the situation we've got today, which is what Sec. of State Dr. Condi Rice did
yesterday:
Rice warns North Korea of American might
Given the fact that Condoleeza give very well be Hitlery's opponent in 2008, this puts us right where we need to be.
Kim Jong-Il should never forget that as of Jan. 2001, there's been a "new sheriff" in town and his posse and it looks like the A Team won't let him.

John Tierney has written a pretty decent piece about Laura Bush's slightly risqué "skit" at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend and the "shocked" reaction to it (from some on both the Left and the Right).
Here's the best part:
Laura Bush Talks Naughty

[...]
Mrs. Bush's performance, and her husband's reaction, wasn't a shock to the reporters who cover the White House. For years they have tried to convince their friends outside Washington that Mr. Bush is actually not a close-minded dolt, and Mrs. Bush is no Stepford Wife or Church Lady. Yes, they're Texans who go to church and preach family values, but they're not yahoos or religious zealots.

The coverage of Mrs. Bush's comic debut may change some minds, but for devout Bush-bashers, it's much easier to stay the course. If you live in a blue-state stronghold, a coastal city where you can go 24 hours without meeting any Republicans, it's consoling to think of the red staters as an alien bunch of strait-laced Bible thumpers.

Otherwise, how do you explain why they're Republican? Or answer the question Democrats asked in astonishment when they saw Mr. Bush's vote totals: Who are these people?

Great stuff, really, even if it is in the NYSlimes!
I thought Lady Laura was a scream!
(The idea of Laura, Condi, Lynne Cheney and Karen Hughes running into Ruth Ginsberg and Sandra Day O'Connnor at Chippendale's was too, too funny!)
For what it's worth, Cedric the Entertainer got some good chuckles in there, as well.
Jackson's Junction has the video , as always, here, if you haven't seen it, but I betcha you have although it's worth seeing more than once!

Power Line: 25 Million!
Congratulations to those fine gentlemen Scott, Paul and John over at Powerline on reaching 25 million hits yesterday!
The blogosphere just goes from strength to strength while our predecessors in the dead-tree division of Old Media go from weakness to weakness in circulation numbers.
OM's TV news hasn't been doing so hot either.
Guess getting the real news is down to we in our Pajamas who never sleep!