Fareed Zakaria is no fan of the GOP and is well known for bashing George W. Bush.  However, this article confirms the simple fact that George W. Bush understood the Middle East and he had a brilliant plan to change things.  What Zakaria got wrong is that it wasn’t Bush who blew this opportunity, it was Obama.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/where-george-w-bush-was-right/2015/03/26/07a4251a-d3f1-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html

There was a U.S. president who understood the danger of blind support for Arab dictators, no matter that they were admirably secular in their outlook or willing to jail jihadists or to stay at peace with Israel. He said, “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe.”

His secretary of state was clearer about the connection, explaining that in the Arab world, “there were virtually no legitimate channels for political expression in the region. But this did not mean that there was no political activity. There was — in madrassas and radical mosques. It is no wonder that the best-organized political forces were extremist groups. And it was there, in the shadows, that al-Qaeda found the troubled souls to prey on and exploit as its foot soldiers in its millenarian war against the ‘far enemy.’ ”

That was George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. The fact that Bush’s administration so botched its remedy — regime change and occupation of Iraq — should not blind us to the fact that it accurately diagnosed the problem. The Arab world provides no easy answers, trapped as it is between repressive dictators and illiberal democrats. But that does not mean that blindly supporting the autocrats is the right answer.

Zakaria omits the part where Iraq was stable and secure when Bush left office.  While Maliki was not ideal, he was a lot better than the alternatives and he was working with the U.S.  Iraq was holding elections and was on its way to becoming a true democracy.  The leader was nowhere near as important as the system itself.  That is the whole point of a democracy.  We get good leaders, we get bad leaders, we get terrible leaders, but we don’t get dictators and all leaders eventually lose power. For example, Harry Reid just announced that he will not seek re-election.  (Ok, stop clapping and read the rest of this.)

As soon as Bush left office and Maliki realized Obama was just going to leave, he quickly aligned himself with Iran. Bush’s dream of a constitutional democracy in the Middle East that would have been a beacon of hope to the entire world was just thrown away.  Obama viewed Iraq as the unnecessary war.  He could not have been more wrong.   Zakaria at least got the point. That alone is a minor miracle.  The question is whether or not anyone in either party is listening.

TDM

If you listened to the main stream media, Benjamin Netanyahu was in serious trouble seeking re-election in Israel.  When I heard that President Obama had dispatched his ace community activists to Israel to campaign against Netanyahu I was pretty sure Netanyahu would coast to victory.  The safest place in any election is to be solidly against Obama.  That is true here.  It is true is Israel.  In addition, Netanyahu jumped way up in the polls by moving hard right just before the election.  The main stream media was horrified.  Liberals are appalled.  The citizens of Israel flocked to the polls in support:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-israel-election-idUSKBN0MC2G620150318

Netanyahu abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state.  It is about time.  Why would Israel continue to pretend there is any possibility for a two state solution when the Palestinians remain committed to destroying Israel?

He also announced that he is going to resume building settlements on occupied land.  Quite simply the nation of Israel sent a strong message that they are not going to continue bending over backwards to accommodate people who have zero interest in accommodating Israel.

This is a total repudiation of President Obama’s vision for Israel.  Netanyahu stood up and said enough with the nonsense.  The result was a huge victory, for Netanyahu.  It was also a huge public slap in the face for Obama.  Obama is responding, as expected, like a spoiled eight year old.  He didn’t even have the class to call Netanyahu and congratulate him on his victory.

Once again the exit polls, apparently conducted by the same clowns who botch exit polls in the U.S., were wrong.  This appears to be another example of the main stream media reporting what it wants to believe rather than what is really happening.

Republicans need to learn from this.  Running a Republican establishment candidate, like Jeb Bush, would be a recipe for disaster.  If Republicans want to win the Presidency, they need to elect a candidate ready, willing and able to effect radical change in this country.  I believe the country will unite behind such a candidate.

If Netanyahu had listened to the wise counsel of the main stream media he would be the former Prime Minister of Israel.  Lesson learned.

TDM

Virtually everyone is missing the point with regard to the open letter to the leaders of Iran signed by 47 Republican Senators.  Democrats responded quickly by literally accusing Republicans of treason. Actually, if you want an example of treason look at John Kerry’s visit to Paris to meet with our enemies during the Vietnam War.  Or check out Ted Kennedy communicating with leaders in the Soviet Union to block Ronald Reagan from negotiating a nuclear weapons treaty.  That is what treason looks like.  The letter may or may have not been a great idea from a political standpoint, but it is absurd to call it treason.

But ultimately none of that even matters.  The important thing is that, once again, the Obama administration failed to even recognize an opportunity.  Anyone who has ever watched a police show knows the good cop, bad cop routine.  The bad cop acts like an out of control maniac.  The good cop intervenes and offers to help.  The good cop is far more dangerous for the suspect than the bad cop.  We see this technique all the time because police use it all the time.  Police use it all the time because it works.

That letter set up the Obama administration to use the “good cop, bad cop routine.”  They could have used it during negotiations with Iran by pointing out that Obama had to sell any deal to a skeptical congress or it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.  He could have done that, but instead he was too self-absorbed to notice or too arrogant to care.  Instead of using the letter as leverage, Obama hysterically tried to pretend that congress doesn’t even exist.  So, instead of good cop, bad cop, we ended up with dumb cop.

This would almost be funny, except that this unforced error has the potential to set up a nuclear holocaust.  The dumb cop is not very amusing when there is this much at stake.

TDM

Just this week, Democratic pundits were all predicting that Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States.  She was a female, she was liberal.  Her last name was Clinton.  What could possibly go wrong?  That was yesterday.  Today, top Democrats, still covered with fop sweat after listening to the Netanyahu speech are desperately seeking Susan.  Ok, not Susan exactly, but they are desperately seeking a candidate to be President.  I expected Hillary Clinton to self-destruct, but I never expected it to happen this fast. But then I never imagined even Hillary being so incredibly stupid.

Once Hillary realized she was going to be Secretary of State she took action to prepare.  She bought a domain name called “clintonemail.com” and set up a private e-mail box.  It was registered the day of her Senate hearing.   It has been confirmed that Hillary Clinton did even not have a government email address during her entire four year term as Secretary of State.

This is absolutely unbelievable.  It is clear to anyone, even some liberal Democrats, that this was intended to allow Hillary to email without any possibility of scrutiny.  That fact that she did this before even taking office is mind numbing.  But there is more than the usual Clinton cover-up going on here.  This literally is a threat to national security.

According to the following article the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya was dismissed from his post…wait for it …for using a private e-mail account:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/clinton-state-department-ousted-ambassador-using-private-email_876183.html

He ordered a commercial Internet connection installed in his embassy office bathroom so he could work there on a laptop not connected to the Department email system. He drafted and distributed a mission policy authorizing himself and other mission personnel to use commercial email for daily communication of official government business. During the inspection, the Ambassador continued to use commercial email for official government business. The Department email system provides automatic security, record-keeping, and backup functions as required. The Ambassador’s requirements for use of commercial email in the office and his flouting of direct instructions to adhere to Department policy have placed the information management staff in a conundrum: balancing the desire to be responsive to their mission leader and the need to adhere to Department regulations and government information security standards.

Guess who the Secretary of State was in 2012?  I doubt seriously that anyone could fire a U.S. Ambassador without approval from Hillary.  Talk about the ultimate in hypocrisy.

It gets worse, much worse.  General Petraeus just plead guilty to a felony for failure to secure classified documents.  If Hillary sent a single classified document via this e-mail she probably violated the same law.  Since she did not even have a government e-mail, ALL of her Secretary of State e-mails when through her private e-mail server. Wow!  This explains why the White House is not even pretending to defend Hillary.  They are terrified that the next question will be:  “What did the President know and when did he know it.”  That also may be difficult to do, because a lot of people at the White House, including President Obama undoubtedly sent and received e-mails from Hillary’s personal e-mail account.  It is hard to pretend that no one at the White House, including President Obama, realized that Hillary had her own private e-mail account.  This is unbelievably stupid.

Many are assuming that Hillary will skate through this scandal too because the DOJ will never investigate.  But I would remind you that Richard Nixon had pretty good control of the DOJ during the Watergate fiasco.  How’d that work out?  When you get a Select Committee investigating something this explosive anything can happen.  If Nixon were still alive he would tell you all about that.

At best Hillary is absolute toast as a potential candidate for President. She just became the dream nominee, for any Republican challenger.  Now, look around for all those Democrats ready, willing and able to take her place. See anyone?  Anyone at all?   Keep looking.  When you find one, let me know.  How about Jerry Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Harry Reid or Andrew Cuomo?  Oh my.  Go ahead and giggle.  You deserve it.

This is what happens when a party is taken over by the extreme left wing.  No one with an ounce of common sense could possibly have survived a Democratic primary over the past decade or so.

Who knows where we go from here.  Just when you think liberals have reached the absolute lowest level of incompetence and abject stupidity, they somehow manage to find a whole new level.

TDM

The following article in Al Arabiya news is stunning:  This is hardly a right wing conservative rag:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2015/03/03/President-Obama-listen-to-Netanyahu-on-Iran.html

Note that the author is not exactly a friend of either Netanyahu or Israel:

It is extremely rare for any reasonable person to ever agree with anything Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says or does…

The Israeli PM managed to hit the nail right on the head when he said that Middle Eastern countries are collapsing and that “terror organizations, mostly backed by Iran, are filling in the vacuum” ….

In just a few words, Mr. Netanyahu managed to accurately summarize a clear and present danger, not just to Israel (which obviously is his concern), but to other U.S. allies in the region….

despite this being perhaps the only thing that brings together Arabs and Israelis (as it threatens them all), the only stakeholder that seems not to realize the danger of the situation is President Obama, who is now infamous for being the latest pen-pal of the Supreme Leader of the World’s biggest terrorist regime: Ayottallah Ali Khamenei. (Although, the latter never seems to write back!)

The good news is that this destroys the vision of Obama the evil genius determined to rule the world.  That person does not exist.  The bad news is that the evil genius is replaced by someone who is stunningly arrogant and incompetent.  Obama is so focused on doing it his way that he has failed to realize he is on the wrong side of the road heading toward a cliff.  If he was the only one on the ship of state this would even be fun to watch but the opposite is true.  This blunder has the capability to set off the unthinkable, a nuclear war.

It is downright frightening to realize that the man the American people voted for a President of the United States is so obviously incompetent.  Incredibly has still has sole authority to handle this crisis.  I don’t think any other nation on earth would tolerate this.  In Great Britain there would be a vote of no confidence and a new election.  In most democracies a leader this pathetic would be hounded by the press and would eventually leave office.  Sadly, in this case, the press refuses to do anything but provide cover for Obama. In other countries, there would be a military coup.  None of that can happen here.  The only two options are for something to happen to Obama or for congress to impeach him.  Neither is likely to happen anytime soon.

It was great that Boehner had the stones to ask Netanyahu speak to a joint session of congress.  Now the question is whether or not people were really paying attention.  If Netanyahu is right this country is in grave danger.  If he is wrong, then prove him wrong. There is no middle ground here.  There is far too much at stake for that.

If you think what Netanyahu said was scary, keep this in mind:

the only stakeholder that seems not to realize the danger of the situation is President Obama,

The only thing worst that this is what will happen next is something doesn’t change.

TDM

When I was very young I remember listening to “The Shadow” on the radio.  Actually about the only thing I really remember is the way the show started: “Who knows what evil lurks in the mind of man.  The Shadow knows.”  For some reason that phrase still resonates with me.  Who could have imagined that 60 years after the last “The Shadow” broadcast this rings true once more.  In a story almost too good to be true, “The Shadow” made its way into the White House.  It turns out that the official portrait of Bill Clinton has a blue shadow, painted there in honor of Monica Lewinsky.  The following article in the Huffington Post explains the shadow and incredibly why it is there:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/02/bill-clinton-portrait-monica-lewinsky_n_6784460.html?1425315421&icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D621268

“It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there,” Shanks said. “It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.”

This is beyond hysterical.  This is the real legacy Bill Clinton earned.  It is exactly the way he should be portrayed.  It is why the Clintonians are now desperately trying to have the portrait removed.  In addition, the timing, just before the Hillary Clinton coming out party is deliciously appropriate.

Who knows what a scum bag we elected to the Oval Office.  The shadow knows and now everybody knows why the shadow is there.   It just doesn’t get any better than this.

TDM

It is hard to watch this congress debate the obvious and conclude the ridiculous.  Both Republicans and Democrats support funding the DHS.  So, vote on that.  I am sick and tired of both parties holding up good legislation so they can try and slip in something the other party does not want. I hated it when Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi did that.  I hate it when John Boehner and Mitch McConnell play the same silly game.  Now Republicans are going to end up doing the obvious anyway, only now they get zero credit and a ton of deserved criticism.

This does not mean that Democrats are being the adults in the room.  The opposite is true.  In this case Democrats are fighting to prevent cutting funds intended to process illegal executive orders by President Obama. If this seems stupid, keep in mind that this is the same class of clowns who shut down the government to avoid extending the ObamaCare individual mandate. This of course is the same individual mandate Democrats are now trying desperately to extend.

Republicans need to just do the right thing and stop with the games.  Passing a clean DHS funding bill is the right thing to do, so do it.  Stopping Obama illegal executive orders on immigration is the right thing to do, so do it.  Say what you mean and mean what you say.  Is that too hard to understand?

It is not only stupid to negotiate with liberal Democrats, it is unethical and irresponsible.  The only compromise liberal Democrats ever consider is the one that benefits them politically without regard to the consequences.  Republicans have no duty to negotiate with Democrats until Democrats start acting responsibly themselves.

Sadly the silly season is probably going to continue until the November 2016 election.  The good news is that this will be here sooner than you think.

TDM

In honor of the cold weather back east, I decided to do some research.  I lived in Bergland, Michigan for several years starting in the 4^th grade and ending when my parents moved following my freshman year in high school.  I remembered the winters as being really cold.  Sometimes our memory plays tricks on us, but I was right about this. It turns out that Bergland is the coldest place in Michigan, at least based on the average January night time temperature of -1 degrees.

http://www.nmu.edu/upperpeninsulastudies/node/17

Ironwood and Watersmeet, which are quite near Bergland, are in the books too.  On January 17, 1982 Ironwood never got above -21 degrees.  I am sure there are colder places, but I didn’t live there.  We certainly noticed the cold weather, but it didn’t exactly keep us indoors in the winter.  People in that part of the country know how to dress and they handle the extreme cold just fine. I actually thought it was kinda neat when the temperature got below -20 degrees.  I mean let’s be honest here.  When the temperature gets down to zero that is plenty cold.  At least when it gets way down to -20 degrees or something you can brag about how bad it is.  Somehow that always made me feel a little warmer.

Now, don’t you feel better?  There is a word for the weather they are having in New York City right now.  We called it spring.

TDM

The Obama administration is in a desperate race against time to stop the bleeding from a huge self-inflicted wound.  Last year 80% of people who signed up for ObamaCare paid almost no premium.  That is because if you said you qualified for a subsidy, you got the subsidy.  No questions asked.  So a lot of people signed up, paid a small amount of premium and life was great.  Now, when they file their 2014 tax returns they are getting an unpleasant surprise.  Suddenly they learn that they didn’t qualify for the subsidy after all.  Instead of getting a tax refund this year, they have to pay Uncle Sam back for that subsidy.  Oops.

The following article explains what is happening:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2015/02/20/glitch-i-have-to-pay-back-my-obamacare-subsidy-n1959747?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

What makes this wound hurt even more is that Democrats fought Republican efforts to delay the individual mandate to the bitter end.  That’s right folks, Republicans gave them an easy out and they were too stupid to realize it.  Democrats own this fiasco.  They have owned it from the start when they passed it with no Republican votes.  They doubled down on stupidity when they shut down the government rather than consider any changes.  One of those changes was to delay the individual mandate.

Democrats are now seeking 13th-hour relief for people caught off guard by the results of that tax “slog.”  Liberals who voted against Republican efforts to delay the individual mandate tax are now very concerned about their constituents’ interactions with the individual mandate tax.  The Washington Post explores this amusing, predictable political panic in a piece entitled, “Democrats Are Bracing for Another Obamacare backlash:”

This reminds me of a scene from Animal House when the gang had trashed Flounder’s car:

“Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes!  You f#**ed up,.  You trusted us!

Democrats thought that delaying the individual mandate would destroy ObamaCare.  Instead, being too stupid to delay the individual mandate has the potential to destroy the Democratic Party.

Democrats are in near panic, almost begging Republicans to delay the individual mandate.  Sometimes, stupidity is its own reward.  Watch and enjoy.  It is extremely rare to see so many supposedly brilliant and decidedly arrogant people desperately trying to wipe the egg off their collective faces.

“Congratulations America.  You messed up, you trusted Democrats.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were willing to shut down the government in 2013, to make sure you enjoyed this nice little surprise. You sure showed Ted Cruz didn’t you?’  How about a big round of applause.  Nice work!”

TDM

The attached video, courtesy of Airman Brian Kolfage is a stark reminder of how much the main stream media distorts reality.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=622410927821028&fref=nf

The conventional wisdom is that George W. Bush lied to congress about the WMD in Iraq. The conventional wisdom is that there was no relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.  The conventional wisdom is that George W. Bush made a huge mistake by invading Iraq.  The conventional wisdom is based on repeated lies and distortions by the main stream media.  The truth is there for anyone willing to see.  This is well documented, but I suspect most people know none of this.

Bill Clinton is the one who claimed that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of WMD.  Watch the video of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.  Then explain to me how Bush managed to trick them into doing this?  Nonsense.

The truth is that every major official in the Clinton Administration and every top Democrat in congress believed that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of WMD. So did the Bush administration and top Republicans in congress.  That is because the U.S. intelligence community strongly believed that to be true.  There were only a handful of people who expressed doubt, but none of them had any credible evidence to support their opinion.

It gets worse.  The Clinton administration had reason to believe that Iraq was providing nerve gas to al Qaeda.  The following incident has been ignored or downplayed by the main stream media.  Yet, this seems really significant.  Most people are shocked to learn that there was at least some evidence that Saddam Hussein was helping al Qaeda get nerve gas. Here is what the main stream media, and unfortunately the Bush administration, never told you.

Bill Clinton attacked a factory owned by Osama bin Laden in the Sudan because the CIA found verex the precursor to Sarin gas on the site.  The intelligence said that this came from Iraq.  Later a site inspection failed to verify the presence of verex.  That is why Republicans joked about Clinton bombing an aspirin factory.  If only that were true.  However, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.   This incident is well documented.  The following excerpt is from page 116 of the 9-11 Commission Report:

Ever since March 1995, American officials had had in the backs of their minds Aum Shinrikyo’s release of sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway.  President Clinton himself had expressed great concern about chemical and biological terrorism in the United states.  Bin Ladin had reportedly been heard to speak of wanting a “Hiroshima” and at least 10,000 casualties.  The CIA reported that a soil sample from the vicinity of the al Shifa plant had tested positive for EMPTA, a precursor chemica for VX, a nerve gas whose lone use was for mass killing.  Two days before the embassy bombings, Clarke’s staff wrote that Bin Ladin has invested in and almost certainly has access to VX produced at a plane in the Sudan.

Much public commentary turned immediately to scalding criticism that the action was too aggressive.  The Sudanese denied that al Shifa produced nerve gas, and they allowed journalists to visit what was left of a seemingly harmless factory.  President Clinton, Vice President Gor, Berger, Tenet and Clarke insisted to us that there judgment was right, point to the soil sample evidence.  No independent evience has emerged to corroborate the CIA’s assessment.

A contemporary CNN report from 1998 confirms not only the suspicion that this was a chemical plant, but that there was a direct connection between Osama bin Laden and Iraq:

The U.S. knew bin Laden had been pursuing the development of chemical weapons “within his organization and in cooperation with Sudan’s National Islamic Front,” the official said. Bin Laden had worked with the Sudanese in the 1990s to test “various poisonous substances and to improve techniques for using and producing them,” the official said.

Bin Laden “has provided significant funding for Sudan to build its military-industrial complex,” the official said. The National Islamic Front’s leader Hassan al-Turabi has said bin Laden’s organization would “furnish weapons and munitions for use against enemies of Islam.”

Read the following and ask yourself if there is any evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden:

The U.S. also believes Iraq has been a “foreign benefactor” of Sudan’s chemical weapons efforts.

“Iraq admitted to UNSCOM that it planned to produce VX for its CW program using the EMPTA process,” the official said. “And prior to the Sudanese soil sample, Iraq was the only country we knew of to have pursued this production process.”

Additionally, Shifa officials were in contact with Iraq about its VX program, the official said. Shifa had signed an agreement to provide veterinary drugs to Iraq as part of the oil-for-food program, but according to the United Nations, the contracted material was never delivered.

The main stream media continues to report that there was no relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.  They shout down anyone who dares question that conventional wisdom.  They ridicule Bush and Cheney for even hinting at a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. The facts, obviously, tell a very different story. It was Bill Clinton who determined that such a relationship existed long before Bush became President.  It was Bill Clinton who indicted Osama bin Laden for conspiring with Iraq to conduct terrorist attacks.  The following excerpt is from that indictment:

https://www.fas.org/irp/news/1998/11/indict1.pdf

In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular

projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda

would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq

We’ve been lied to by the main stream media over and over and over again. I will never understand why the Bush administration didn’t fight back.  I also don’t understand why Republicans did not rally around their President.  I am astonished that so many people in the main stream media ignored the obvious and reported the ridiculous.

Did they really think that Bush lied to trick us into an unnecessary war?  If I thought Bush did that I would lead the impeachment parade myself.  There was never any evidence of this.  Yet liberals wanted to believe that Bush was capable of this, so they pretended that this was true.  If there was a shred of evidence supporting this theory Democrats would have rushed to impeach Bush.  They were bitterly angry at the Clinton Impeachment and they wanted revenge.   Sadly these outrageous lies have been repeated so many times that far too many people believe them to be true.  However, repeating a lie does not make it the truth. It is terrible that the media covered up the serial lying by Brian Williams, but it is far worse that the media has been lying about the Iraq war since day one.

Ask yourself a simple question.  Imagine you are President Bush.  Imagine watching the horror of 9-11.  Wouldn’t it be logical to worry about al Qaeda getting possession of a WMD?  You know that Osama bin Laden wants another “Hiroshima” with at least 10,000 deaths.  You have read the report about the al Shifa factory.  You have seen the intelligence suggesting that Saddam Hussein is ready, willing and able to provide nerve gas to terrorists.  What would you do?  Would you just ignore this and hope the CIA was wrong?

This is not speculation.  This is well documented.  No one disputes any of the above. They just ignore it and keep repeating the same lies.  Are they too stupid to recognize the truth or are they just too biased.  Ultimately, does it matter?  The important thing to understand is that the main stream media has lied about this over and over again.

I strongly believe that if most people knew about al Shifa and they knew that there was evidence that Saddam Hussein was providing Sarin nerve gas to al Qaeda their perspective on the Iraq war would change significantly. Isn’t it about time someone reported the cold hard truth?  Is that too much to ask?

TDM