Monday Morning Gaseous Emanations

Lots of gaseous emanations to get your new week started!

First, there's good news on the efforts to get our almost-worthless government to actually do something about gas prices!  President Bush plans to rescind the executive order banning offshore drilling for oil.  This places the burden for offshore drilling squarely on the shoulders of Congress, and has just ratcheted up the pressure on them many times over.  Let there be no mistake: reducing gas prices is now solely the responsibility of Congress!

On a relate note, environmentalists (one of the core Democrat constituencies) are still suing to prevent any sort of expansion of our nation's energy production.  The question is: will Democrats in Congress buck their base to provide more energy for Americans, or will they snub what the clear and obvious majority of the country wants in favor of one of their loudest and most radical lobbyist groups?

Last week, I blogged about the fact that the Iraq War was drawing to a close.  It appears that Iraq now considers it done:

The New York Times mentioned in a story June 21 that Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, was "in the midst of a major security operation." So what happened?

Marie Colvin of the Times of London had an answer Sunday: "American and Iraqi forces are driving al Qaida in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror."

Al Qaida was making its "last stand" in Mosul, and now is done, finished, kaput, said Ms. Colvin, who was embedded with the 2nd Iraqi Division for Operation Lion's Roar.

The victory is so complete that Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki said Saturday his government has defeated the terrorists in Iraq. Defeated. Past tense.

Major General Mark Hertling, who commands U.S. troops in northern Iraq, wouldn't go that far. But he told Ms. Colvin: "I think we're at the irreversible point."

But there's not a peep about this massive victory in any American newspaper.  Also, there was little coverage of this: [o]n the Fourth of July, 1,215 U.S. servicemen and women re-enlisted in the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever, conducted by Gen. David Petraeus in one of Saddam's palaces in Baghdad.  And, oh yeah, those benchmarks:

When Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, they set 18 "benchmarks" to measure the security, political and economic progress. On July 2, in response to a request from a Democratic representative from North Carolina, the U.S. embassy reported the Iraqi government has met all but three.

Progress is even greater than the report indicated, because though the Iraqi parliament hasn't passed laws to share oil revenues or to disarm militias, the government is sharing oil revenues, and largely has disarmed the militias.

Where's the coverage?  There isn't any.  Why not?  Because the MSM knows that spreading the word about these things would be to hand President Bush a monster-sized victory, vindicating the biggest policy decision of his entire administration and undermining the constant demonization they threw at him for it.  It's sad that the MSM places their own pride over real news of American victory in war abroad.

Let's turn to Israel and Iran.  Bush is backing an Israeli plan for a strike on Iran's nuclear capabilities if negotiations fail:

Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an "amber light" to an Israeli plan to attack Iran's main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.

"Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you're ready," the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.

Nor is it certain that Bush's amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility.

In response, an Iranian leader pledged destruction:

Iran would destroy Israel and 32 US military bases in the Middle East if the Islamic Republic was attacked over its nuclear program, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

"The US knows full well that with the smallest move against Iran, Israel and 32 US military bases in the region would not be out of the reach of our missiles and would be destroyed," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Mojtaba Zolnour as saying.

Zolnour is the deputy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

War is coming, in one form or fashion, and someone or something will be vaporized (here's the connection to gaseous emanations).  If you're reading this, you won't be surprised.

The New Yorker magazine recently published a satirical cover of Barack and Michelle Obama, portraying Barack as an American-flag-burning Muslim and Michelle as kind of a revolutionary 'freedom fighter' with camo pants and an assault rifle on her back.  Keep in mind that the New Yorker is a liberal publication, and is trying to portray what right-wingers think of the Obamas rather than poke at the Obamas themselves.  These people are on the Obamas' side!  However, in the spirit of saying nothing bad about the Obamessiah (and, of course, totally missing the SATIRE here), the cover is being condemned by just about everyone as 'tasteless and offensive', a constant stream of gaseous emanations from the MSM and even McCain himself.  However, Michelle Malkin suggests that Barack Obama 'grow a pair', and that this is standard stuff when playing in the big leagues.  To back up her suggestion, she posts a number of offensive cartoons/covers that have been splashed all over in regard to prominent Republicans over recent times.  I guess this is just the latest example of how we're supposed to treat Obama differently than anyone else.  Of course, I'm not sure how he expects this kid-gloves treatment to give him the qualifications to negotiate with terrorists and dictators, but maybe he thinks that the shine from his halo will overwhelm them.

Speaking of Obama, did you know that Margaret Sanger is one of his heroes?  If you're not familiar with the name, she's a devout follower of the eugenics movement.  If you're not familiar with that term, it's basically one of the sickest movements around, with very Hitler-esque intentions:

A strict social order would be formed. At the bottom of it were the base. These were "people who had given evidence of a strong anti-social disposition", including "the black, the brown, the swarthy, the yellow." Christians would also "have to go" as well as the handicapped. Wells devoted entire pamphlets to the need of "preventing the birth, preventing the procreation or preventing the existence" of the mentally and physically handicapped. "This thing, this euthanasia of the weak and the sensual is possible. I have little or no doubt that in the future it will be planned and achieved."

The people of Africa and Asia, he said, simply could never find a place in a modern world controlled by science. Better to do away with the lot….

Population would be rigidly controlled, with forced abortion for those who were not of the right class and race.

Sanger tried to implement this belief system by founding Planned Parenthood, which is one of the biggest perpetrators of about 1.2 million abortions in America each year.  Here's an excerpt from a speech that Obama gave to PP just last year:

In 1966, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America gave its first Margaret Sanger Award to Martin Luther King, Jr. And in his acceptance speech, which was delivered by his strong and wonderful wife Coretta, Dr. King wrote, "Our sure beginning in the struggle for equality by non-violent, direct action may not have been so resolute without the tradition established by Margaret Sanger and people like her."

That struggle for equality is not over and now we are at one of those rare moments where we can actually transform our politics in a fundamental way. But it's going to take people as resolute as Mrs. Sanger and Dr. King—people like your own Cecile Richards—it's going to take young people like Ariana. It's going to take millions of voices coming together to insist that it's not enough just to stand still. That it's not enough to safeguard the gains of the past—that it is time to be resolute and time to march forward.

This is one gaseous emanation that truly stinks.

One of the most grevious disservices that the MSM is doing is covering up the true character of Barack Obama.  He has clearly shown a track record of long associations with the most radical, liberal fringes of society, from unrepentant terrorists to racists to revolutionaries.  Now, we can add racial genocidal advocates to the list.  And yet, if it were just up to the MSM, you wouldn't have heard about any of it.

There's my two cents.