Around The Blogs

Here's a round up of some interesting links for your reading pleasure today.

Just how dirty was Eliot Spitzer, including on campaign finance?

And Michelle Malkin keeps tabs on the countdown to his resignation. Reported to be soon.

Via Instapundit - STRYKER CREWS IN IRAQ defend their rides.

And for more politics, The Politico and Real Clear Politics are always good reads, while Memeorandum is the place to check for any large, or emerging memes.

Comments

[IslamoLlama]

Spitzer to Iraq on a solid 2:1
That's the best national coverage I've seen all week. Maybe Dan's punditry is finally getting around.
Nope... no wait... I think I caught a Spitzer's-whore-nipple-slip.
Eyes up here, Dan! Eyes up here!

[Aye Chihuahua]

Spitzer's resignation: Classic coitus interruptus

[Totally Heterosexual Conservative]

I tried to get through to Senator Vitter's office for comment earlier but no one appeared to be manning the phones.

[chris]

Oh heavens. What will we tell teh troops??

[Fred Beloit]

Why are the Lefty trolls who come here so ill-informed?, he asked. Why it is because they get some of their news from the BBC, he answered. News like this:

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=12&x_article=1464

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Oh heavens. What will we tell teh troops??"

Not to drink their bath water?

5 of 59 water plants had bad water wooopdy doopdy

[chris]

Yes, we need clean water so that teh troops can WIN!!!

[Fred Beloit]

LOL, chris, Moe, WPE, all you other birds of a feather, is this where you folks hide, you rascals you":

"...121 million people---almost exactly 41% of the population--- were outside the income tax system.

That leaves 59% of the rest of us who pay ALL the taxes in the United States."

http://webutante07.blogspot.com/2008/03/truth-about-taxation-in-this-country.html

[Fred Beloit]

Moe, did you know that Hillary never made any serious mistakes in her foreign policy responsibilities during the Clinton administration? Did you know that? You know why? The Obama campaign's Craig Greg or Greg Craig or Graig Creg or Creg Graig can explain why.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBqNQ

It is because she never had any serious foreign policy responsibilities.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Hey Fred; I have a new poster 'paul' in another thread calling me a traitor and all the typical "If you dont agree with everything I say you're a rethugnican slug who should be killed" crap. I'm having a blast taunting the little fishy. Seems all our left leaning pals think that Dan should get off the LoveGov and onto more important issues like two year old news from Iraq.

[chris]

2 year old news from Iraq? Heck, you guys have been winning over there for 5 years!

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"2 year old news from Iraq?"

Ah chrissy I've met a new poster that makes even you likable. His name is paul and he took our little Lama to school today. Oh he was marvelous!!! I look forward to more of his 'wisdom' in future.

[templar knight]

"Ah chrissy I've met a new poster that makes even you likable."

Huh? The only thing less likable than chrissy is a snake. Now...now...chris, don't take offense, I meant it in a nice way.

[Fred Beloit]

If chris will read this:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0811,374064,374064,1.html/2

he may abandon his lib ways and come into the sunshine. By a former lib, it is his story of redemption and rebirth.

Be patient with Village Voice. They seem to be capacity-challenged.

Now I'll search for Paul. So many geniuses, so little time.

[IslamoLlama]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/12/fox-news-connects-spitzer-and-vitter-controversies-incorrectly/

Even FOX News has the balls to compare Spitzer to Vitter. Sadly, its one of the most fact-free and wingnutty comparisons possible, but at least they haven't totally missed the boat.

I am touched that Fred's got the time to go bemoaning the tax code (maybe you Republicans should have done something about that back between 2000 and 2006 when you had the chance to do more than bitch), foolish liberals, and Hillary Clinton.

But "Sadly, No!" bet you to the David Mamet thing.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9034.html

Yeah, movement liberalism has really suffered a loss now that Mamet is packing his bags and going home. God forbid we loss Sen. Lieberman or Joe Klein next. Then all will be lost! Lost!

" I found … that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president—whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster—were little different from those of a president whom I revered.

Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh."

Sadly, No!

"A quick history review for Mamet is in order. Eisenhower arguably started the Vietnam debacle by sending Diem to Vietnam and funding and training his armies there. The first U.S. ground troops were sent there by LBJ. Kennedy won the Kennedy-Nixon election by a margin wider than the number of electoral votes from Illinois. There is no evidence that any CIA agents were among the Cuban exile force that invaded Cuba, much less “hundreds” of them. Sorenson always said that Kennedy had significant input on the book. (Bonus question: tell me, David, if I reveal to you that Brent Bozell wrote The Conscience of a Conservative for Barry Goldwater, will you become a liberal again?) And if Kennedy was in bed with the Mafia, what on earth was Bobby Kennedy doing going after all those mob members?"

And A for effort, but this still looks like another big fat wingnut Fail.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"The first U.S. ground troops were sent there by LBJ." 11,000 "advisors" were sent by Kennedy, Johnson escalated the number to over 1/2 million. Nixon brought them out in 73.

"There is no evidence that any CIA agents were among the Cuban exile force that invaded Cuba." Dont confuse 'agent' with 'operative' or hired hand. The CIA did hire people to assist in the invasion.

And yeah, it'd be kinda stupid for the USAG to arrest his brother the President on a RICO act charge.

[templar knight]

Very interesting, Mollama. However, I remember you nutroot types calling for the resignation of Vitter after he got caught in his little trist. The fact that he did not resign doesn't change the fact that you nutroots called on him to resign. So why do you want to criticize others for doing the same damn thing you did? You come off as nothing more than...let me think...a whorish hack.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Well the cops caught one of the bastards who killed the girl at UNC-CH

[templar knight]

Thank God for that, Willie. But there is still a void left in the World, I'm afraid. Very sad and upsetting.

[narciso]

Actually our involvement in Vietnam oes back to the early 40s, when O.S.S. agents like Paul Helliwell and Archimedes Patti, first aided as part of our efforts in Southern China. They were taken in by this Stalinist pretentions at Nationalism. With Iraq, the US and the world's involvement really begins in 1980, although France and the Soviet Union; played a larger part before that period. The CIA did have two operatives on the beach, William' Rip' Richardson and Grayston Lynch; much like the O.S.S. had the Jedburgh teams during WW2; Fidel
had contacts with the KGB going back to his time in Mexico, if not sooner. The Bay of Pigs, must be understood as part of the Cuban Civil War, that still goes on to this day. The problem is liberals, basically accepted that Castro's accession to power ended the matter.

[Fred Beloit]

For Paul, chris, LOL, and more:

"According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans — a slim majority — now believe “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007.

The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going “very well” or “fairly well” is also up, from 30 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent today."

You can read more at the Politico site.

[chris]

Wow, time to celebrate with a new yellow ribbon sticker! My congratulations and enduring admiration to all who made it possible to be doing fairly well against a 3rd world superpower without an army after a scant 5 years. You must all be very, very proud. In another 5 years and another $600 Billion who knows, we may be doing VERY WELL.

Again, congratulations!!!

[WAHOO WILLIE]

This agreeing with the lefties has GOT to stop. I'm very near in agreeance with of all dweebs chrissy. As usual though her lack of knowledge makes it difficult. Chrissy, Iraq *had* the 4th largest army in the world, they just had no will to fight. Still, certain ACTUAL FACTS remain. While the Iraqi army was destroyed and the following insurgency 'contained'. There is and never will be any "winning" there because Americans do not possess the will to do what is necessary to subdue the population...period. We can throw away thousands more lives and trillions of dollars, stay 100 years and still no more than six months after we leave those "people" will be sawing each others heads off and beating their women senseless for showing their ankles. That IS what they have done for thousands of years and only they can change it. They may have hated Saddam but his sort of rule is all they understand. THEY DO NOT WANT OUR LIFESTYLE. I was against this adventure before it began. Do I support dropping the ball and running away? I saw what happened to the Vietnamese, nothing like watching refugees being shelled to drive home a point, but I believe the inevitable is that as soon as we leave chaos will ensue so I can't say for sure anymore.

[chris]

It's time to cut and run. Nixon did it in Vietnam and Reagan did it in Lebanon. Bush's Folly is winding down.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Yes, Nixon gave into public pressure and left Vietnam...then the Congress cut off funding and the S. Vietnamese found themselves without bullets to fight the NVA.

Reagan left Lebanon because the UN said to.

[chris]

Wow, the guy who singlehandedly defeated communism backed down to the UN. Interesting.

[seekeronos]

I sort of agree with this:

"--- While the Iraqi army was destroyed and the following insurgency 'contained'. There is and never will be any "winning" there because Americans do not possess the will to do what is necessary to subdue the population...period. We can throw away thousands more lives and trillions of dollars, stay 100 years and still no more than six months after we leave those "people" will be sawing each others heads off and beating their women senseless for showing their ankles. That IS what they have done for thousands of years and only they can change it. They may have hated Saddam but his sort of rule is all they understand. THEY DO NOT WANT OUR LIFESTYLE. ---"

Turth be told, we could have handled this one of three ways -

(a) Leaving the Ba'ath Party intact to run things on a low level, albeit with us holding them on a very short leash. In short, a slightly kinder, gentler continuance of the former regime with better management, and naturally, unrestricted access to the oil. Everybody would have been happier: we would have $2.35/gal. gas, the Iraqis would have had the lights and water come back up online a lot more quickly, Badr & Sadr would never have had an opportunity to run amok, and Iran would have been constrained by our presence, and not so easily able to abet an Islamic revolution there as was the case before the Surge. An oversimpliflication, but workable for the sake of this argument.

Oh, and invite missionary organizations to move in and start converting the Iraqis with the Gospel of Christ.

(b) Partition Iraq between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with a free Kurdistan in the north. We split oil revenue with the Saudis (they get to keep pressing down the majority Shi'ites) Jordan gets the Sunni slice up to and incl. Baghdad, and the Kurd get their oil revenues too. Turkey gets told to "deal with it nicely" if they value their EU membership (getting the EU to play that card would involve some work).

(c) re-assessed the CIA docs and have held off on invading Iraq indefinitely, because the Constitution requires us to have (*gasp*) a declaration of war from the Congress before waging war on a foreign nation.

I thought, and still think to a large degree, that option 3 would have been the better of the three.

All that said, back in the "here and the now", we have a bunch of soldiers in Iraq who are doing a fairly good job of winning Iraqi hearts and minds, we've largely caused AQ-Iraq to be discredited amongst the wider population, and kids just want to get on with their lives instead of being being compelled by wild-eyed clerics to do their dirty work for them.