BackyardConservative

Holder for Terror

2009-11-21T07:56:00.000-06:00

When it comes to terrorists, you would think that an al Qaeda operative who targets an American mom sitting in her office or a child on a flight back home is many degrees worse than a Taliban soldier picked up after a firefight with U.S. Army troops.

Your instinct would be correct, because at the heart of terrorism is the monstrous idea that the former is as legitimate a target as the latter. Unfortunately, by dispatching Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda leaders to federal criminal court for trial, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be undermining this distinction. And the perverse message that decision will send to terrorists all over this dangerous world is this: If you kill civilians on American soil you will have greater protections than if you attack our military overseas.

Change of Venue for KSM?

2009-11-18T20:15:00.009-06:00

Chris Muir.

And no way to Thomson. No terrorists in Illinois.com.

More. Andrew McCarthy, NRO on Sen. Durbin's misrepresentations. And will Osama bin Laden be read his Miranda rights?

More, in case you missed it. Kirk vs. Durbin on Thomsen. (Durbin--"A dream come true. Think of all the realtors selling homes.") Biggert vs. Schakowsky. conservativeBrand here and here.

Going Rogue

2009-11-18T19:40:00.006-06:00

Look what I found at the local Wilmette Borders the other day. I don't recall any conservative getting such attention. Am halfway through Sarah's book, which I got today. Catching up on other news. Back blogging in a few days.

P.S. Sarah garners Oprah great ratings.

And even someone at Huffpo appalled at Newsweek sexism.

Jacksonian Democracy

2009-11-09T21:36:00.008-06:00

A reminder. Greatness and humility. The pigeons are fans. That cannon's lookin' at you kid. Lafayette Park.

Taking a break. Back in a week or two.

Non-denial

2009-11-09T21:11:00.003-06:00

Obama’s qualifications were will-o-the-wisp. His supporters cited his “potential,” as they had to, because his only actual feat was his first book — and the claims that this was ghosted have been met by non-denial. The Asia Times characterizes these rumors as “well-established,” which tells one something about current foreign assessments of Obama. The president’s long-standing ties to the radical left should have tipped the balance to the negative.

Taking on the Dysfunctional Elites. Sarah Palin

2009-11-09T20:33:00.005-06:00

This is the most incisive piece I have read on the subject. James V. DeLong, Pajamas Media:

The frenetic hostility to Sarah Palin, even by many on the Republican side, is unnerving, because her qualifications to be president are objectively better than those of almost anyone who has been on the national ticket over the past decade.

A reasonable conclusion is that these qualifications are precisely the cause of the hostility. To admit to the reality that the dominant political class, including the MSM and the punditocracy of both parties, has been giving us abysmal presidential candidates, to accept that a hockey mom plucked from small-town Alaska is better than the best that the political class can come up with, would require recognition of the terrible truth that the system has become deeply dysfunctional. Doing this would force our political elites to look into an abyss of serious questions about the functioning of our democracy. Palin creates a cognitive dissonance so intense that it simply cannot be accepted.

Sarah is back, unfiltered. She's worked hard her whole life, worked her way up, and she knows what works. She's strong and she has rock-solid integrity. Unlike many of her critics.

Maleficent Maureen. Liberal Chauvinist Pigs. Snotty Stuff.

Sarah is the Fresh Air. Sarah is the fresh air. As DeLong says, we need more Palins, not fewer.

P.S. Matthew Continetti, TWS, The Palin Persuasion: A case for the new populism:

In a 1978 radio commentary that he wrote while overlooking traffic from a hotel room window, Reagan distilled the populist belief in individual ability. "They are not 'the masses,' or as the elitists would have it, 'the common man,' " Reagan said of the people driving cars on the highway below. "They are very uncommon. Individuals, each with his or her own hopes and dreams, plans and problems, and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth." Reagan's mission was to remove the obstacles that prevented these men and women with "quiet courage" from realizing their potential.

Time for a cup of tea.

Previous posts: Good for Kirk, Sarahcuda in Play, Women of Accomplishment

Pungent Imagery from Pawlenty

2009-11-09T18:42:00.001-06:00

The Middle Coast.

Pfizer Abandons Kelo Site

2009-11-09T17:29:00.005-06:00

Doesn't this make you really steamed? After stealing Susette Kelo's property in cahoots with the city, now they decide they don't want it.

This is one of the reasons I started blogging. Government abuse of power, and media complacence.

We only see more of it these days. All the more reason to keep blogging.

Fire Bean 2010!

2009-11-09T17:20:00.001-06:00

Bean is TOAST!!! Fire Melissa Bean 2010--join the TeaParty.

SEIU Shame

2009-11-09T13:57:00.000-06:00

Dan Proft, GOP candidate for Illinois governor: SEIU: No Shame and No Give

State Worker Beat Up At SEIU Meeting. This time in California.

President Uses Sexual Slur to Demonize TeaPartiers, Others Extremists

2009-11-09T12:52:00.005-06:00

Heritage Morning Bell:

Following last Tuesday’s election, the last thing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wanted to do was allow Members of Congress to go home and talk to their constituents about the $2.6 trillion health care bill she was marshaling through Congress. The centerpiece of Pelosi’s trap and pressure campaign was a Saturday address by President Barack Obama in the Cannon Office Building, where Obama warned Democrats: “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit [Democratic voters] and it will encourage the extremists.”

The extremists. That is how the President of the Unites States describes Americans who do not want to see the federal government control over half of all health care spending. And just who are some of these extremists? Looking over just today’s papers we find:

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria: “Obama’s message to the country appears to be, “We have a dysfunctional health-care system with out-of-control costs, and let’s add 45 million people to it.” Americans see a health-care bill that has been produced by the old Democratic machine rather than the new Democratic technocrats — more Lyndon Johnson than Larry Summers. It might be the only way to get a law passed, and it might please the party’s base, but it will dismay independents.”
The Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt: “Health-care reform should not add to the deficit. It should control health-care costs. And, once reform is passed, the government will get serious about deficit reduction. Unfortunately, the House bill fails his first test.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT): “If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote.”

Everybody listed above acknowledges we desperately need to fix health care policy. They just do not believe that the House plan is the best way to go about doing so. Conservatives have our own, patient centered, vision for health care reform. There has even been some legislation introduced, some better than others, that reflect this vision. Supporting health care policy that empowers patients, and not a new Health Czar, is common sense, not extremism.

There is a reason the leaders on the left are desperate to keep Members of Congress in Washington and away from their constituents. If they had to face real Americans, defenders of the House health care bill would have to defend the facts that their bill:

Has a true ten year cost of $2.6 trillion while our country already faces record deficits.
Raises taxes by $700 billion while our country already faces 10.2% unemployment.
Massively expands a Medicaid program that already provides substandard reimbursement rates, is bankrupting states, and is bankrupt itself.

And that does not even include the possibility that Obama’s Health Czar would use the authority granted in the bill to use the public option to destroy private health care entirely. Perhaps most striking about the President’s performance on Saturday is that he opened his 20 minute health care pep rally with some remarks about the tragic shootings at Fort Hood, Texas. That, Mr. President, is extremism. Opposing policies through democratic means is not.

Fashion on the Forefront in Pakistan

2009-11-09T12:24:00.001-06:00

Models defy Taliban with 1st fashion week.

Related post: Not Enough Faith in the Virgins?

Death to America!

2009-11-09T11:58:00.000-06:00

Iran accuses criminally clueless lefties, Berkeley grads, who had been arrested after wandering into Iran on a hiking holiday (complete with music video. "Bauer had been living in Damascus, Syria, with Shourd, his girlfriend") on its border with Iraq--of espionage.

Death to America!

P.S. Perhaps they will meet some fellow students in jail, those who survived. Iranian ones. Who actually understand the value of freedom.

Dems Would Have Us All Be Sheep

2009-11-09T11:12:00.012-06:00

Last Thursday, even as lone-wolf Nidal Malik Hasan was gunning down his fellow soldiers, Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee stripped a provision from the Patriot Act which would allow tracking lone-wolf terrorists. Panel OKs revised antiterrorism law:

The bill went to the full House on a 16-10 vote along party lines; Republicans cast all the "no" votes. GOP lawmakers said the legislation would hinder law enforcement and intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism.
The legislation would allow the act's never-used "lone wolf" provision to expire at year's end. The provision lets the government spy on non-Americans even when they are not linked to a recognized terrorist group.

Clearly no biggie. It's just non-Americans who aren't a problem apparently.

Wrong on both counts. God help us.

More. (Yes it has to do with non-Americans. Yes, Americans are a problem.) Cato rolls out the snark. Perhaps Julian Sanchez should think about the chilling effect on those sworn to protect us to do their jobs--when they are being subjected to criminalizing policy decisions after the fact. Perhaps he should give some thought to the erosion of their civil liberties and our long-term freedom as a society. (Sharia does not sound promising to me.) Too much to ask apparently. Maybe you don't worry about terror in your city. But I do.

P.S. More on criminally clueless leftists for "peace". Rescue them with your pen.

P.P.S.

(b) "lone-wolf" surveillance was never opposed by anything but a fringe of privacy extremists: sensible people realize we have to be able to monitor someone who is obviously a terrorist even if the government hasn't yet developed enough evidence to connect him to a known terrorist organization — even if that's not intuitive, the Zacarias Moussaoui experience makes it easy to grasp.

More.Charles Krauthammer:

We have not had a second attack in the eight years and we have not had any significant scandals or abuse of these powers in violating the liberties of Americans. It is really quite a remarkable achievement.

Playing Quidditch at Northwestern?

2009-11-09T10:55:00.001-06:00

Earthbound, it's called Muggle Quidditch. They have an intercollegiate league of their own, but I somehow don't think it will really catch on:

Here's brief look at the game: Each player needs a broom. One hand must be kept on the broom between your legs at all times as players run around trying to throw a slightly deflated volleyball, known as the "quaffle," past a goalie and into one of three goals, which are essentially Hula Hoops attached to PVC piping -- all this while trying to avoid being hit by rubber kick balls, or "bludgers."

That broom seems cruel.

Crime up 30% in Wilmette

2009-11-09T10:21:00.002-06:00

It certainly seemed like the crime rate was rising to me. Now we have more than anecdotal evidence. Wilmette Life:

The Illinois crime rate fell 0.3 percent in 2008, with reports of arson showing the biggest decrease -- by nearly 10 percent -- but total numbers of burglaries, murders and robberies showing increases -- at 4.3 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

The crime rate for all of suburban Cook County rose 1 percent in 2008 from 2007, but statistics for Chicago's individual northern suburbs were mixed.

The number of burglaries reported in Wilmette was five times higher in 2008 than a year earlier, helping that community's crime rate to jump 30 percent.

Theft reports climbed by nearly 50 percent in Glencoe in 2008 from 2007, contributing to the nearly 34 percent rise in that community's crime rate.

Not surprisingly, it's an issue in neighboring Chicago as well.

P.S. The print edition has a chart--Kenilworth is up 39%. With the exception of Winnetka, at 1.8%, the lakeshore communities are hit hardest. Winnetka follows the pattern, though, in thefts, up 27%.

An Important Great Lakes Case

2009-11-09T09:56:00.000-06:00

Waukesha, Wisconsin looks for water from Lake Michigan. WSJ, City's Water Problems Test Great Lakes Agreement: Wisconsin City Wants to Tap Nearby Source, but Region's States Can Get in Its Way; Milwaukee Also Must Be Sold.

Wilmette is on the water and sells its excess to neighboring towns not so fortunate.

Remember this dispute when talk of ethanol comes up. It's a big water-waster. Actions have consequences--subsidizing non-economic activities distorts the wise use of resources.

As for Waukesha and its residents, they will have to make their case.

Don't you know

2009-11-09T09:02:00.008-06:00

First soldier shot from Homewood. Thankfully alive.

Drudge: Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda... Army Major Used 'Electronic Means' to Connect with Terrorists...
But let's not jump to any conclusions.

Because, don't you know, the enemy is us.

P.S. British spies help prevent al Qaeda-inspired attack on New York subway

More on Homewood soldier Najee Hull. Sun Times. Rockford area woman wounded as well. CBS2Chicago.

More. The 13 murdered here.

Not Enough Faith in the Virgins?

2009-11-08T22:42:00.004-06:00

Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Frequented Local Strip Club

Some of the 9/11 hijackers hit Vegas before the bloody day. One messed up bunch.

Melanie Phillips, The Spectator:

Americans were particularly astounded that Islamists were even being recruited to serve in the British police and other parts of the establishment.
The fact was, however, as I have written and said on a number of occasions, America was going in a similar direction, albeit more slowly and with a quite different demographic. While the vast majority of its Muslim citizens appeared to be people who really had come to the US to get a slice of the good life and had signed up to American values, there was a growing element amongst US Muslims which was becoming steadily radicalised. Worse still, the FBI and other counter-terrorism agencies had been influenced by their appeasement-minded British cousins in the security world peddling their wholly false analysis of Islamic terrorism as having nothing to do with religion, encouraging US officials similarly to downplay or passively allow the rise of US radicalisation. (See for example this story about the silence over a Hizb ut Tahrir conference in Chicago.)
Now we have seen the horrific outcome.

And the reaction of Janet Napilitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security?

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

Prsumably a "man-caused disaster". Politically correct to the death. Ms. Secretary, let's not jump to any conclusions:

A Muslim veteran affairs organization says it has not received reports of harassment from Islamic soldiers, contrary to claims by a relative of the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Abdul-Rashid Abdullah, deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told FoxNews.com that the nonprofit group has not received a single report recently of a U.S. soldier being harassed “simply because he was Muslim.”

So what are we to conclude? Let's not miss the clues next time, please. God help us. Most of us are not big on hell on earth. These guys only treat their women well in paradise? Really? (What do their women get to look forward to?)

We need to have enough faith in our own beliefs--in the universality of the principles of Western civilization. Endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We need to defeat this twisted Islamofascist credo.

Flower Pots on the Porch

2009-11-08T09:39:00.000-06:00

Our FOUL-mouthed president

2009-11-07T23:43:00.004-06:00

I thought I was done for the night but this:

The President of the United States Said That? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
President Obama, in his pitch to Democrats on the Hill today (from the New York Times):

Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”

And he's off to Camp David rather than Fort Hood. Encouraging the real extremists.

When anger goes cosmic, in reaction. But still, we are civilized. I don't know about our president two-face.

I'm starting to say the bland face of evil. I've never said that before about him, but I've said this before--this guy hates America. He's a hater.

Big Brother Dems: Bean, Halvorson, Foster

2009-11-07T22:28:00.005-06:00

UPDATE: Add Lipinski to the list.***From the Illinois GOP:

Illinois GOP Chairman: Pelosi's Government-Run Health Care Experiment Is Wrong For Illinois

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady issued the following statement today on the passage of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ government-run health care experiment:

"Today is a disappointing day for Illinoisans as Nancy Pelosi, Melissa Bean, Debbie Halvorson and Bill Foster ignored the concerns of voters and rammed a trillion dollar 1,990 page government-run health care bill through Congress ignoring pledges of transparency and bi-partisanship. Illinois for generations will be forced to deal with the consequences of this legislation that increases health care costs, increases taxes on small businesses and the middle class, cuts Medicare and puts a Washington bureaucrat between you and your doctor.

“This Tuesday, the American people made clear at the polls that they oppose bigger government, more spending and higher taxes, but this is exactly what they are getting with this new government-run health care legislation. Melissa Bean, Debbie Halvorson and Bill Foster chose to vote with their liberal buddies in Washington rather than in the best interest of their constituents back home, and this vote will not be forgotten by Illinois voters in 2010.”

Final Pelosi Bill Vote

2009-11-07T21:59:00.013-06:00

220-215

It passes with two to spare.

I say hell to pay.

We got 39 Dem votes. That is above expectations. One Republican crossed over. (Cao of Louisiana) This is nothing for the Dems to celebrate.

More.

sorendayton

Harry Reid is got to be wetting himself. If this is all they have in teh house, then there's a zero chance in the senate

More.

BarackObama

This is history.2 minutes ago from web

Let's hope you are. One term.

More.

mkhammer

The loss of your childrens' earning potential. #whatdemswerecheering

More. Instapundit:

IF WE DON’T GET NATIONAL HEALTHCARE, THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON!

Participants also said Obama had referred to this week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed. His remarks put in perspective that the hardships soldiers endure for the country are “what sacrifice really is,” as opposed to “casting a vote that might lose an election for you,” said Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J.

Well, there you are then.

More. Philip Klein, AmSpec: Pelosi's Pyrrhic Victory

More.

PatrickRuffini

Cao would have been with us if his vote would have made a difference. Don't focus on Cao. Focus on Snowe, Lincoln, Liebs, Nelson.

More.

kathrynlopez

channeling nancy pelosi? From my perspective we won tonight

:) Good night. We live to fight another day.

GOP Motion to Recommit Vote Now

2009-11-07T21:52:00.002-06:00

NRO:

A staffer puts it this way: "Stops the Medicare cuts that eliminate choices for seniors, and pays for it by enacting real medical liability reforms. Will Democrats side with seniors, or the trial bar?"

More here. Trying to improve the bill before the final vote.

P.S. 13 Dems vote with GOP. 3 Republicans side with the eeevil trial lawyers. Goes down 187-247-1

ericjodom

RT @JasonBurk: It says a lot about a party that prefers Medicare cuts to tort reform. #tcot #HRC #killthebill

Stupak pro-life amendment passes

2009-11-07T21:20:00.005-06:00

RichLowry: strange: 60+ dems vote for stripping abortion funding THAT WAS NEVER THERE, we were repeatedly told by B.O., et al

philipaklein

Final tally: Stupak passes 240-194-1

Shadagg (R-AZ) votes present.

More. 64 Dems vote in favor. But of course no guarantee it will survive conference. Three times Rep. Boehner, Republican Leader asked Democrat committee chairman to guarantee to support it in conference and they would not.

P.S. Now the vote on the Republican substitute bill which is sadly going down to defeat. Party line vote looks like, except for one R. Cao?

More.

PatrickRuffini

Cao voted for Boehner. Tim Johnson (IL) voted no.