Resica

In today’s summary from the New York Times there is an "oh by the way" mention of a little investigation into the recent release of classified information involving the NYT. For the Times version of what has take place click here.
Is it just me or didn't the NYT take a much more aggressive stance in getting to the bottom of that horrible leak of our gal Val and her lying husband Joe Wilson? For conformation of the "lying" statement refer to the 9-11 Commission Report. I wonder if the Times will be able to blame this leak on Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, George Bush or maybe Scooter Libby? For another view of the situation refer to the article in the The Washington Times. John Hinderaker of Power Line has posted an article on this same subject Throw 'Em in the Slammer, he references an article from Yahoo News in his blog.
It will be interesting to see how this investigation progresses and where the chips fall on this one.

Midway Plane Crash Passenger Sues Airline, City
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Associated Press

Does this warrent any coverage? This has become as obvious as day following night.

Story Here

This was taken from NewsMax.Com
Since I doubt you will see this on TV or read about it in the NYT or LAT I am including the entire e-mail.

Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls

During the 1990's under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon.

On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices" when it "secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants."

But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.

In February 2000, for instance, CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting:

"If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency."
NSA computers, said Kroft, "capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world."

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told "60 Minutes" that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs."

Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling "60 Minutes" that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat.

The "60 Minutes" report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens."

Thanks to NewsMax.Com via their e-mail they brought to the readers attention a group that I had not heard about, It’s My Party Too. Take a look at the Advisory Board, it is filled with the usual suspects. Of course since the potential for publicity exists our personal favorite John “Maverick” McCain is right in there. Delaware only has one Representative in the House of Representatives and our left leaning Representative Michael Castle is a member of the Advisory Board. A surprise member is Bob “Get’er up” Dole. Here are a few others:
. Senator Susan Collins (Maine)
. Former Ambassador/Senator John Danforth (Missouri)
. Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (Maryland)
. President Gerald R. Ford (Michigan)
. Senator Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania)
Well you get the idea, with the exception of Dole and Ford; there aren’t any real surprises. Check out the Advisory Board
Interesting reading and well worth a visit to the site.

Mexico Condemns Immigration Bill
This article falls either under the category "good" or "I Don't Care." Fox News Com had this article on their web site but it was taken from the feed of the Associated Press. It is interesting to note that AP doesn't doesn't refer to illegal immigrants as illegal immigrants but rather as "undocumented immigrants."

What a lousy week,
.The Senate has nixed provisions of the Patriot Act
. The New York Slimes leeks classified information on wire taps by National Security Agency, read their take on this situation here
. The bill to extend the tax cuts doesn’t even see the light of day.
. The senate under the Main Stream Media’s President, John McCain gives Al Qaeda
status under our constitution, I bet Osama feels much safer now knowing that we won’t “yell at him” or make him “kiss a pig “ when he is captured.
Sidebar: Would prefer him to be killed not captured!
Sidebar: Of course there was an election in Iraq, but that didn't get much coverage.

Well the Nobel Peace Prize goes to Mohamed ElBaradei, an internationalist who published an anti-George Bush article just before last year’s presidential election. Here is an article on this award from the Washington Post, Director of U.N. Nuclear Agency Accepts Nobel
This is just another case of these elitists putting a stick in the eye of our President. Remember they chose the world famous hammer technician former President Jimmy Carter, best known for his decisive handling of the Iran Hostage Crisis and of course building houses, for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. His current major international initiative is to criticize the current president at every opportunity he is given.
While it appears that ElBaradei has done little to stop the spread of nuclear weapons he is a favorite of the international left...hence fully qualified. Interesting is an article today in The Sunday Times-World, Israel readies forces for strike on nuclear Iran , seems Israel has little faith in the Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

Sam Johnson, Congressman….do you know who he is? Well check out his Congressional Web Page.
He disagrees with Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Senator John McCain of Arizona. So you know, this guy can’t be all bad. In the case of Murtha it is his cut and run strategy. The McCain issue is the recent “torture bill.”

From his bio:
After growing up in Dallas and graduating from Southern Methodist University, Johnson began his 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying demonstration team. In the Korean War, he flew F-86s in 62 combat missions.

In the Vietnam War, Johnson flew F-4s. While flying his 25th combat mission in 1966, he was shot down over North Vietnam. He spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war, half of that time in solitary confinement. Fellow POW Capt. James Mulligan, USN (Ret.) recalled the day Johnson was allowed to return to a joint cell. He walked into the room with the two other detained American officers, "stood at attention with tears in his eyes, and said simply, 'Lieutenant Colonel Sam Johnson reporting for duty, sir'...after he had not talked to or directly been with an American for three full years." Johnson recounts the details of his POW experience in his autobiography, Captive Warriors.

A decorated war hero, Johnson was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, one Bronze Star with Valor, two Purple Hearts, four Air Medals, and three Outstanding Unit Awards.

Sam Johnson knows about torture, if you doubt that, look at his hands. He opposes the recent McCain bill that passed the Senate and is leading a drive to defeat that bill in the House of Representatives. Torture is illegal now and we don’t need a bill like McCain’s, in his opinion it will hurt our combat troop, intelligence efforts and our ability to conduct war.

Dick Morris, advisor supreme to Slick Willy and former important senator Trent Lott discusses poor Hillary's current problems with the left in The Hill.

A funny little ditty.

Mark Levin, Lawyer, Talk Show Host, WABC, New York.

This is one of the songs that Mark plays regularly on his radio show. Click on the link and enjoy the pictures that have been added to the music. Link to DNC Theme Song
Mark Levin Show is on from 6:00 PM till 8:00 PM EST on WABC, Mark Levin Show.

I was reading Scott Johnson's blog on Power Line. Power Line is one of my favorite blogs and should be daily reading for anyone who follows the political scene, both national and international. In this blog Scott discusses a recent article by Jay Nordlinger the managing editor of National Review, he writes under the name Impromptus, in this article from National Review he comments on the presidents recent speech at Tobyhanna Army Depot and the fact that it gets no coverage and how well the president laid out his thoughts.

It’s strange to say that a president doesn’t get enough attention — that his speeches and arguments are ignored. But I think this may be true of GWB. Over and over, he speaks clearly about the War on Terror, and other matters, and month after month, people say, “Why isn’t the president saying anything? Why doesn’t he speak out? Has he no defense of his policies?”

Problem is, Bush can give a speech to a few hundred people, and the rest of the world takes little notice (or isn’t given very much).

Poor president, I’m saying: Doesn’t have a big enough megaphone. “Get real, Impromptus guy!”

But consider — consider not just this latest Iraq speech (Wednesday’s), but the one he gave on Veterans Day (November 11). He spoke at the Tobyhanna Army Depot, in Pennsylvania, and I urge anyone interested to read this speech. He says why we are at war; he says who our enemies are, and how they’re related; he says how the war is going; he outlines his vision.

Now, you may disagree with Bush, and you may despise him: but it should be impossible to say that he has no clue.

I wish to highlight a few passages from the Tobyhanna speech.

It has been the custom of world leaders and other politicians to omit the Israelis in lists of terror victims — not Bush. He said,

“In the four years since September the 11th, the evil that reached our shores has reappeared on other days, in other places — in Mombasa and Casablanca and Riyadh and Jakarta and Istanbul and Madrid and Beslan and Taba and Netanya and Baghdad, and elsewhere.”

The presence of Netanya on that list shouldn’t be remarkable — but in our often-disgusting world, it is.

And was he once shy about identifying the enemy? If so — and I think everybody pretty much always got the message — he’s over it. He handles the question nicely:

“Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; and still others, Islamofascism. Whatever it’s called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism, subversion, and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.”

How do you like this, concerning jihadist aims?

“Some might be tempted to dismiss these goals as fanatical or extreme. They are fanatical and extreme — but they should not be dismissed. Our enemy is utterly committed.”

He took after Syria for what it does to decent people. For example, the regime “arrested Dr. Kamal Labwani for serving as an advocate for democratic reform.” Countless Russians testified how important it was that Jeane Kirkpatrick named names of prisoners on the floor of the U.N. Very little is more important than this naming of names — and when the U.S. president does it, that is big stuff indeed.

(Might GWB mention a Cuban or two — or 100? I mean, specifically?)

How about the notion that our presence in Iraq is itself the cause of terrorism?

“. . . we were not in Iraq on September the 11th . . . The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse.”

And “over the years, these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence: the Israeli presence on the West Bank, the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we’re not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We’re facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of killers — and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response” — you know what that is.

And the guy is not too sheepish about declaring what we’re doing to the enemy in Iraq:

“Two weeks ago, in Operation Clean Sweep, Iraq and coalition forces raided 350 houses south of Baghdad, capturing more than 40 of the terrorist killers. Acting on tips from local citizens, our forces have recently launched air strikes against terrorist safe houses in and around the towns of Ubaydi and Husaybah. We brought to justice two key senior al-Qaeda terrorist leaders. And in Mosul, coalition forces killed an al-Qaeda cell leader named Muslet, who was personally involved in at least three videotaped beheadings. We’re on the hunt. We’re keeping pressure on the enemy.”

As in his October speech at the Reagan Library, he spent some time on the similarities between the Cold War and the Terror War — between Communism and Islamofascism. And then he laid this on ’em:

“Some observers look at the job ahead and adopt a self-defeating pessimism. It is not justified. With every random bombing, with every funeral of a child, it becomes more clear that the extremists are not patriots or resistance fighters — they’re murderers at war with the Iraqi people themselves.

“In contrast, the elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong and steadfast. By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress — from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, to the ratification of a constitution — in the space of two-and-a-half years.”

Yes.

People say, over and over, “Why isn’t Bush saying anything?” He is — but is anyone bothering to listen? It’s not all that hard, even if Dan Rather — or whoever the new guy is — won’t dump it in your lap. Again, I urge you to read the Tobyhanna speech — skip the boilerplate about veterans, and how much money the administration is spending on them, at the beginning. The guts of the speech will take you maybe 15 minutes to read. It will be worth it, if you want to know the president’s view. As I said, you may disagree with him, or think he’s full of it — but you should at least know where he (and, by extension, we as a country) stand.

I have said for many years that Bush should hold more press conferences. Prime-time ones, in the East Room, or whatever. It would give him an opportunity to speak to people — lots of people, not just a crowd gathered in an auditorium. Let the questioning be hostile — the more hostile the better. Bush can handle it, and he would impart information, or opinion, that people should have. The White House staff should feel no need to protect him. He can talk. In his fashion — homespun and unpolished — but he can talk.

Well finally the President has a good week. His speech at the Naval Academy went well and Joe Liberman's support for the war effort didn't hurt at all.
For months the Democrats in Congress have been crying that the president doesn't have a plan for the war. Well he does, it is available at the White House Web page, just follow this link.
Iraq Strategy
It is 35 pages long, so have at it Lib's.
To provide additional help in understanding the mission and our goals, you may want to take the time to read the Presidents Speech.
Text of Presidents Speech
Wes Prudent who writes for the Washington Times describes the President speech this way:
"But his speech to the Class of '06 at the U.S. Naval Academy about what must be done in Iraq was straight, plain and delivered with the bark on, no asterisks, no dodgy footnotes, no loopholes, and none of the selective emphasis that rendered his immigration speech an unexploded shell." To read more of his article go to:
Wes Prudens Complete Article
Let's hope the President and his administration keeps up the feedback to the country.