Another series of quick hits for you to consider...
Quick Hit #1: Pork, Pork, and more Pork. What is pork, in the political sense? In a word: overspending. A perfect example was the first Iraq war funding bill that Bush vetoed a few weeks ago. In order to get enough support for the withdrawal timeline included in the funding bill, the Democrat-led Congress sent a funding bill to the White House with $24 billion of pork - special projects (usually for specific areas/industries) meant to buy the support of individual Senators. Pork is a part of politics, but shouldn't be. Powerline has posted links to a pork index done by The Examiner. Check this out to see just how often your Senators are guilty of throwing pork into legislation. Hint: it ain't good, especially for Missouri...
Quick Hit #2: MO Senators Bringing Home the Bacon. Speaking of pork, Missouri is one of the worst states overall (especially since Jim Talent left office) at excessive pork. Bond has one of the worst scores on the chart, and McCaskill is only slightly better. This would probably be a good thing to complain to them about...
Quick Hit #3: The Surge Protector. Quin Hillyer at the American Spectator wrote a great column today about how Bush can pull success out of the war in Iraq. His ideas have merit:
1. change the terms of the debate with new communications strategies and tactics (it's no secret the Bush administration has never been very good at communicating their message)
2. do something dramatic (one example would be to utilize the growing unease of several Arab countries at Iran's continued bullying to marshall support for our efforts in Iraq)
3. redefine the benchmarks for success in Iraq (to show the real progress being made)
4. work to "flip" a few noted skeptics
Hillyer maintains that what our troops are doing over there is the right thing to do, and that Bush can still succeed if he is able to use these tactics to buy enough time to let the progress overwhelm the skeptics.
Quick Hit #4: Falling long and hard. The New York Times continues to struggle. Michelle Malkin posts a thread about how its ad revenue has dropped almost 9% over the past year and its financial outlook is very poor. Hm, that couldn't be because they hate everything about America, could it? As Malkin summarizes: "The market speaks."
Quick Hit #5: McCain and Lieberman on Iraq Failure. At least there are a couple of sane voices in the U.S. Senate about this retreat debacle-in-the-making! Powerline says today that McCain reports from his recent trip to Iraq, saying "Should the Congress force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, it would mark a new beginning, the start of a new, more dangerous, and more arduous effort to contain the forces unleashed by our disengagement." He goes on: "Already, the terrorists are emboldened, excited that America is talking not about winning in Iraq, but is rather debating when we should lose." "If we leave Iraq prematurely, jihadists around the world will interpret the withdrawal as their great victory against our great power. Their movement thrives in an atmosphere of perceived victory; we saw this in the surge of men and money flowing to al Qaeda following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. If they defeat the United States in Iraq, they will believe that anything is possible, that history is on their side, that they really can bring their terrible rule to lands the world over. Recall the plan laid out in a letter from Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before his death. That plan is to take shape in four stages: establish a caliphate in Iraq, extend the “jihad wave” to the secular countries neighboring Iraq, clash with Israel — none of which shall commence until the completion of stage one: expel the Americans from Iraq. Mr. President, the terrorists are in this war to win it. The question is: Are we?"
Lieberman joins him in decrying a retreat. Rush Limbaugh reports on an interview Lieberman had with CNN, where Lieberman said, "I think it's worth winning and fighting to win because if we don't, Iran and Al-Qaeda win. Iraq falls apart. The Middle East is in chaos, and they come after us back here at home. I think we have a chance to turn this around, and shame on us if Congress, from here, legislates a defeat that our military will never allow to happen over there."
I only hope they can stem the tide of defectors and nay-sayers and give Petraeus and our troops the time they need to accomplish their mission. The only way our troops will lose is if Washington gets in the way.
There's my two cents.
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