Drew Emmer linked to a Time article titled Why Ron Paul Scares The GOP and said it was worth reading. I’ll be honest, I didn’t make it past the first paragraph before I spit out my coffee in a Jom Carey-esque way screaming ‘oh come on!’

There used to be an organization for people who believed in a truly limited government — limited taxes, limited spending, limited interference in individual lives and limited intervention in foreign affairs. That organization was known as the Republican Party. But the only one of those beliefs that still motivates the G.O.P. establishment is limited taxes. In 2008, people who still hold all of them joined the Ron Paul Revolution.

I believe in a strong national defense and the expansion of freedom across the globe for the benefit of all man-kind. Does that make me a Democrat? Apparently to Ron Paul and his movement.

I’m sorry, but if I’m not allowed to be a Republican because Ron paul and his supporters want to take the GOP back to the days that led up to Pearl Harbor, just where am I supposed to take my political beliefs? We live in a global world now. Oceans and borders mean nothing. Traditional isolationism, which sounds just lovely, is unrealistic. It will not keep America safe, and leaving evil men free to take over the rest of the world and spread oppression through terror doesn’t seem like a good idea. Eventually they will reach our own shores.  

It sucks, I wish we weren’t the only country left with both the desire and capability to defend freedom and liberty around the globe, but God has blessed this nation with both. We have a responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves, especially when our own security is at stake should the evil men be left alone to as they will. 

So, do I have to become a Democrat now in order to make Ron Paul and hi supporters happy? Can the GOP still be the home to those who believe in defending America and freedom? 

Why are the terrorists from Flight 93 getting recognized in an honorable way at the proposed Flight 93 Memorial?

Along the flight path are to be placed 44 translucent blocks, equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists:

Go read the rest at Anti-Strib and make sure you follow thru to sign the petition.

RF Flashback: Let’s “Not” Roll

Update:

Local lefty apologist blogger who purports to be a moderate says the design has been changed, but an astute RF reader noticed that Mr. Burnett’s letter was dated March 2008. So I did some investigatiating and discovered there seems to be the tweak in the number of people being remembered down to 40. (not including the terrorists)

But there is no circle Flash, it is still a crescent. I suppose you could pretend that these brilliant terrorists managed to slam the plane into the ground flying exactly toward from Mecca, but that would be kind of….. well a sign that these sick twisted animals are willing to murder complete strangers for their religion and helps generate why people like me think it is them that are full of hate. 

Of course I am getting my info from the National Parks Service, part of the Government controlled by Bush…….. so I am sure they just forgot to ….. oh wait, you used the same link. 

People are at war with us. I thank you for your son’s service and wish him a safe return. I wish no one would have to go fight to defend America and we could live in the peaceful utopia lefties dream of, but that is not the reality. We do have sycophants in the world who will do us harm and everything they can to destroy our way of life, yes even you Democrats and anti-war peacenicks. They are non-partisan in their hatred of us. 

Stay tuned for my non-lefty approved version of a 9-11 memorial looks like. 

Update #2:

Join other freedom loving patriots tonight to show your support for the troops.

Join me and other Freedom Loving Americans who stand in support of our Troops at the Lake Street/Marshall Ave. Bridge on the 5th Anniversary of the Liberation of Iraq.  The Anti-war Kooks will be there.  Let’s show ‘em that they do NOT hold the majority opinion.

Bring signs, American Flags, Bells, Horns.

5 - 6 PM

I have been diametrically opposed to John McCain being the Republican  Presidential nominee for 4 years. But……
John McCain now IS my candidate, and he will be on the ballot against either Hillary who promises to garner my wages to pay for entitlement and nanny state programs and has a record of balancing the budget on the back of the military.
OR Obama who is going to stop just short of Hillary on the Domestic front (if my liberal rhetoric decoder ring is correct) but he has promised to fight the war on terror with a fax machine by sending “strong statements” when sitting down face to face with tyrannical dictators and thugs won’t work.
Despite my differences with McCain, he is whom I will vote for in November.

I don’t want to worry about who will answer a “red phone” to respond after the next terror attack on America. I want a President who will force those who wish America harm to be running and hiding, not plotting their next attack.

Our enemy doesn’t have a very long list of demands. In fact, it is just one. An end to America. Some may be fine with that if there is some “peace” involved first.

For me, the best thing I can provide for the next generation in the ‘08 election is a President who will make sure there is an America left for them to take over when this generation is done playing politics and “believing in change” or was it “hoping”……

That’s my question for why anyone would need to hallow out a book so they could take a boxcutter onto an airplane.

Republican Deputy Whip Rep. Eric Cantor lead the charge today against Pelosi and the Democrats who refuse to keep America safe.

House Republicans have walked out to protest the Democrats’ refusal to consider senate-passed FISA legislation that would enable America’s intelligence agencies to effectively monitor terrorists who are plotting to attack. While Democrats can’t find time for that, they did find time to debate the merits of specific individuals on the Administration staff

Even the Senate passed the bill. They didn’t veto it. But Pelosi and her House Democrats have to carry the water for the friend’s of America’s enemies now I guess and have cleared the way for terrorists to plan for their next attacks within America’s borders….. and our intelligence community will be barred from listening to the phone calls before it is too late.
I wonder where Bluedog Rep. Tim Walz (D MN1) stands on the issue?

Ed and Michelle are both standing in solidarity with the Danish cartoonist who are now the target for assignation squads. Why would cartoonists be at risk of being murdered?

I stand with Ed & Malkin & Freedom.

To the fanatical Muslim extremists, I say bring it on.

I was flipping around the channels after the SOTU last night and happened to catch Anderson Cooper with John McCain. Of course McCain was still on the attack against Romney, but I think he may have fired a giant hole in his port side.

Let’s go to the transcript.

COOPER: And welcome back. Our political coverage continues; a very big political night; a very big political week to say the least. Ordinarily, Senator John McCain would have been sitting in the audience at tonight’s State of the Union address. But on the eve of this crucial Republican primary in Florida he was watching from Tampa after a day of heavy campaigning. Some pretty rough shots from Mitt Romney including the allegation that he is not really a conservative. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MCCAIN: Their major concern is the transcendental threat of radical Islamic extremists and how to keep this nation safe. They know that Governor Romney wanted to set a timetable to get out of there when things were really going tough.

Look, he — he ran millions of dollars in negative ads against Governor Huckabee, he has run them against me and they aren’t going to succeed in Florida. And then people are going to be looking at his record as governor; very weak economy, jobs fleeing the state, loss of manufacturing jobs, $730 million in tax increases, and now they’re saddled with the $245 million debt from his government mandated health care system.

So, look — I’m giving my positive vision. There is a lot of people here in the state of Florida that reject this kind of attacks that he has been engaging in. And I’m confident that we are going to do well tomorrow. Though I think it will be close.

Do you notice how he attacks Romney, then says he is not going negative?

COOPER: You said that he wanted to set a timetable. There are a lot of folks who — even those who support you — say that is not the straight talk they’re used to. I know you are referring to –

MCCAIN: It is absolutely straight talk. It is absolutely straight talk. It is –

COOPER: He gave a quote in April. He said –

MCCAIN: It is absolutely straight talk. Yeah. It is absolutely straight talk. He said he wanted to set a timetable. I read it many times I would be glad to read it again.

COOPER: Well, he said — right here it says, “There’s no question that the president and Prime Minister Al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement.”

I mean he is not saying –

(Note this for later in the post)

MCCAIN: No, you have to read the rest of the quote.

COOPER: — timetable for withdrawal.

MCCAIN: You have to read the rest of the quote where he says we are not going to tell the enemy when we are going to be gone. That is an important part of that quote. If you’d read it and it is obvious that he was ready for the timetables.

That was the toughest time; that’s when the Democrats declared the war lost. That was when timetables were the buzzwords.

Am I wrong or is McCain reaching on this one? Is McCain insane on his line of attack, or did he get the quote wrong?

Searching through YouTube, I see both McCainiacs and Hucksters cherry picking the quote that was part of an ABC interview last April. Of course they cut off the video immediately at the point where he says timetables. (see note above in the transcript)

When Cooper was reading McCain what Romney said, McCain made the point of saying you had to read the rest of the quote. McCain even went on to say the part about the timetables being private. Is McCain saying he wouldn’t have benchmarks or goals with his military leaders and coalition allies?

Anyways, here’s the clean video from the Romney interview uncut.

Frankly I think Romney sounds pretty good there. He was not sounding like a Democrat calling for public timetables for withdrawal, but rather having strategic goals with the leader of our coalition partner nation in Iraq. I’m sorry, but that is kinda what a Commander in Chief is supposed to do.

I think McCain is aware of the situation on the campaign ground, and now that the race turns to states where it is a Republican;ican contest that can’t be swayed by Democrats and Independents alone, he knows he is in deep deep trouble. His campaign has picked this one quote to make the cornerstone of their case against Romney. It is a weak case, but unfortunately it is the only thing they have to hang their hat on, so they are committed to making it mean something.

Unfortunately, all it is really doing is showing how desperate and nasty Sen. McCain is to his fellow Republicans, and on an issue that the differences are barely noticeable. Too bad he has yet to show the same disdain when his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have said far worse and more surrender monkey stuff, on the floor of the US Senate, or over the airwaves for our troops to see.

I think the Romney video from April speaks for itself, and McCain is straight talking himself right out of credibility.

Have you seen the Mark Levin smack down of the notion that McCain has a conservative record? Well you really should if you think he will represent your conservative principles in the Oval Office.

The Real McCain Record
Obstacles in the way of conservative support.

By Mark R. Levin

There’s a reason some of John McCain’s conservative supporters avoid discussing his record. They want to talk about his personal story, his position on the surge, his supposed electability. But whenever the rest of his career comes up, the knee-jerk reply is to characterize the inquiries as attacks.

The McCain domestic record is a disaster. To say he fought spending, most particularly earmarks, is to nibble around the edges and miss the heart of the matter. For starters, consider:

Go read the rest, Levin goes through a list of bills John McCain not only supported, he was a Chief author of.

Here’s a nice nugget to get you to make the jump.

McCain-ACLU — the unprecedented granting of due-process rights to unlawful enemy combatants (terrorists).

McCain has repeatedly called for the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay and the introduction of al-Qaeda terrorists into our own prisons — despite the legal rights they would immediately gain and the burdens of managing such a dangerous population.

While McCain proudly and repeatedly points to his battles with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had to rebuild the U.S. military and fight a complex war, where was McCain in the lead-up to the war — when the military was being dangerously downsized by the Clinton administration and McCain’s friend, former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen? Where was McCain when the CIA was in desperate need of attention? Also, McCain was apparently in the dark about al-Qaeda like most of Washington, despite a decade of warnings.

Now go read all of Levin’s post and follow the links to each example. McCain is engaged in Clintonesque revisionist history on the campaign trail.

Oh and maybe it would be a good idea to take a look at how John McCain was praising Bill Cohen back in December of 1996 when President Clinton was ramping up his second term Cabinet.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, first of all, one thing I know that Bill will do, and that is rely on people like John White and others to manage the day-to-day operations of the Pentagon, because I think the President chose him for the policy aspects and the really tough decisions that are going to have to be made. You know, we–

JIM LEHRER: Not for the management.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: No.

JIM LEHRER: Not for management skills.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: No. We have got to adjust our military establishment to the Cold War reality, post-Cold War realities. We have not done that. There’s going to be enormous in-fighting amongst the services over an ever-shrinking pie and over roles and missions. Bill Cohen played a key role in the formulation of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, and he has the ability, the background, and the knowledge. And by the way, he knows the Defense establishment throughout the world.

He’s traveled extensively, he knows them, and he has good relations with all of our major allies, but he’s going to have to be the toughest kind of referee when we decide to really build a military establishment that’s going to stop buying weapons systems that were tailored for the Cold War, and adjust our roles and missions to meet the threats, which are very difficult and very challenging for the post-Cold War era, and Bill, I think, is uniquely capable to address that, and the day-to-day management of the Pentagon, if I were him, I’d find the best manager I know–and by the way, John White does a good job there.

McCain seemed to be on board with military cuts and less troops. And believe it or not, he called Cheney weak.

Also note the last line of that interview where he pretty much advocated for the Clinton cabinet.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Not at all, and I don’t, frankly, see a problem with any of these individuals [ed: the Clinton cabinet appointees], and there may come a nominee that the Republicans decide to, you know, to challenge, but I would predict that they will all get–Madeleine Albright’s nomination, many Republicans will seize as an opportunity to review the foreign policy, national security policy of this administration, but at the end of the day, I think she’ll be overwhelmingly confirmed.

Do you notice how he spoke of Republicans as his opponents back in 1996?

Which John McCain will get inaugurated if he does win?

Huh, what? Just read this.

eeding cows in Kosovo.

The ethnic strife in the Kosovo town of Vitina underscores the challenge that confronts NATO-led peacekeepers as the southern Serbian province prepares to declare independence.

Nearly a decade after Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, tensions still run high between its ethnic Albanian majority and Serbian minority — and the Western military alliance hopes its “boots on the ground” approach will make both sides feel safer as they face an uncertain future.

Can anyone tell me why it is ok to stay as long as needed to have the political solution in Kosovo, but not in Iraq?