Don't Know Much About History

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If you were to ask the average American where Al-Qaeda came from you'd probably be met with a blank stare; not surprising considering the current quality of American education. If you were to ask a slightly better informed American the same question there's a pretty good likelihood that you'd hear that the US helped create them in Afghanistan in the 1980's. This would be just another example of the success of liberal opinion as propaganda and failure as fact. There's another story out there, a far more inspiring and instructive story and it has the benefit of being true.

Former White House speech writer and 9/11 Commission senior aid Michael Johns has posted a terrific piece, Charlie Wilson's War Was Really America's War, on his blog that clears away much of the fog that has blown in of late, covering the unlikely accomplishments of a relatively small number of visionaries (Charlie Wilson, Ronald Reagan, et al.) in bringing down the Soviet Empire and also in attempting to stop the growth of Al-Qaeda. Using the recent movie, Charlie Wilson's War (based on the eponymous book) as a frame of reference, Johns sets the record straight on the singular importance of US assistance to the Afghan freedom fighters following the 1970's invasion of that country, in the endgame of the Cold War. He also highlights how despite active US concern and intervention Osama bin-Laden and other non-Afghan forces began to emerge. Contrary to the Left's reinvention of this particular historical event, bin-Laden was not a creation of the CIA or the US at all . In fact, the Reagan Administration was aware of and sensitive to the mujahideen's concern over bin-Laden and his nascent movement, often taking direct, if covert action to mitigate its influence.

History often echoes to us here in the present and the events of that time sound eerily familiar to us as we hear the struggles of our current war. Like today, the Democrats of the 80's and 90's did all in their power to block a Republican president's long-range and ambitious plan to confront an implacable enemy. There was nothing sure and certain about the positive result of the final days of the Soviet Union just as there is nothing sure and certain about the results of our current conflict. In retrospect it is easy to see that our failure then would have been a continuing catastrophe for millions of people world-wide. What awful consequences might our failure now bring upon the world? Without remembering the past as it actually happened and learning its lessons it is possible we might just find out to our deep regret.

Who Are These Guys Working For, Anyway?

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Today House Democrats severely crippled the United State' ability to gather intelligence from our foreign enemies as they let the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act run out at midnight. The possible ramifications of this remarkable abdication of responsibility could well be literally, explosive. Without a reauthorization, wiretapping, listening in on the enemy overseas will now require obtaining a warrant each time such surveillance is undertaken, bogging investigations down in a thick and ugly mire of legal complication.

Additionally, without FISA's protection any telecommunications company assisting the government in conducting this sort of investigation will be subject to potential litigation. The proposed reauthorization is so sensible and necessary that it has wide bipartisan support, but not in the Democratic leadership which once again is showing how beholden they are to the Moveon.org lobby of far Left extremists who attempt to disguise their anti-Americanism in claims of concern for civil-rights.

Congressional Republicans, for the first time in a long time showed something of the spirit that existed in the early Gingrich Congress when yesterday they rose up and walked out of the House in protest over the Democratic leadership's refusal to address this issue. Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama has given a strong hint of the kind of change he'd like to bring to national security by voting against the reauthorization on Tuesday and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton showed us all a thing or two about leadership when she didn't bother to show up to vote on the matter at all.

Many people dismiss politics as tiresome gamesmanship and sadly it is often just that but this is a game with very real winners and losers. The actions of the leadership of the Democratic Party are showing that in order to win in the eyes of their most extreme elements they are also willing to make terrorists who have America in their sights winners as well with the American people being the only losers.

And The Winner Is...

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008:

Well it's been a long, hard-fought campaign but finally we're here at the finish line; Election Day, and boy are we here at McCain Central pumped! Oh sure, we've had our ups and downs along the way and yeah the polls don't look good, but hey, who believes polls anyway? We've fought like crazy for what we believe in and I know it is going to pay off BIG TIME.

The first couple of months after Senator McCain became the presumptive front runner were a little rough, of course. Those talk radio creeps just wouldn't cut the Senator a break even after he reached out to them. I'll never forget how proud I was when Senator McCain said, "Yeah, I heard that Limbaugh on the radio today. My friends, he sure can talk, eh? Hehe". It was like he was giving El Rushbo a great big hug. That's why I was so shocked when Rush kept on attacking my guy over illegal immigration and CAFE standards and global warming and Gitmo and ANWR and the Gang of 14 and all that other stuff. It was like he really didn't believe that Senator McCain is as conservative as Ronald Reagan. Why, the Senator was a foot soldier for Ronald Reagan, for goodness sake. I mean I heard him say so himself!

That's why I was so proud of him when he went to all the Republicans in the House and Senate, even the fifteen of them who weren't retiring this year and convinced them to speed the Fairness Doctrine through before the election. I was in the room with him when he told them all, "These guys are beating my head in and unless you a..holes (I love it when he's so direct, like that. Now that's leadership!) pass the G..damn Fairness Doctrine this party, this country and my G..damn campaign are going to go right down the crapper." That and the sort of crazed, I'll-break-you-in-half look on his face got them jumping his way, that's for sure.I understand that Rush, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and a bunch of others are getting together to form some sort of blog network but the Senator has beaten them to the punch and the Even More Fairness Doctrine is already making its way through the legislature. Blog this, you guys.

It was just about at that time that the Senator realized that his polls were never going to improve among conservatives, and he did what he always does, he reached out and made his big play for independents. I was there in the room with him again when he came up with the campaign slogan that's become a rallying cry, "About As Conservative As You'd Want". That let everybody know that he was their kind of conservative, you know, one who was kind of independent in his conservatism, sort of. I get chills hearing it even today.

One of my favorite moments was the day he made his vp choice just before the convention. Nobody in the party saw it coming when after his big build-up the Senator finally said, "Hehe, and he's got about a billions bucks, too, the rich bastard hehe. I'm proud to present my choice for running mate...Michael Bloomberg!" Oh yeah, the big shots in the party squirmed and screamed and everything just because Mayor Bloomberg wasn't a Republican anymore but Senator McCain had read all those newsmagazines about how Bloomberg was one of those new kind of politicians. All the network anchors and everybody said he was just great and besides since money wasn't exactly flooding in, if you know what I mean, Bloomie's deep pockets have really come in handy...like paying for the campaign-handy! Ha! That's what happens when you reach out. You get things done!

Of course Barak Obama's choosing former Marine, Senator James Webb wasn't a bad choice either, I suppose. It sort of killed our plan to make Obama out to be kind of a skinny pantywaist a central part of the campaign. But when the news got out (thanks ex-Senator Clinton!) that Senator Obama had been a drug "kingpin" for a year in his younger days we really made hay out of it. Of course the media said he turned it into a positive with his "The Audacity to Turn Dope into Hope" speech, but we know America didn't buy it, no matter what the polls said afterwards.

The debates were really something, too. That Obama guy thinks he's so smart. I don't care what the polls said after each of them and what the papers said either. I know that Senator McCain really brought it to him. I think everyone remembers the healthcare debate where Senator Obama pledged not only to provide universal healthcare but to extend it to everyone's (including illegal aliens', I mean immigrants') pets, too. Senator McCain delivered one of his best comebacks when he famously said, "Yeah, I've got a pet, Barak; a dog. You know what I named him? "Bite Me". Yeah, Bite Me, Obama, Bite Me hehe!" (I always enjoy the way he laughs at his own jokes, even if no one else does.) And remember when Senator Obama said that if Venezuela didn't start selling oil to the US again he'd bomb England? Senator McCain didn't even have to respond to that one. The look on his face said it all.

There were some disappointments along the way, of course. The media, for one. All the years John McCain had been in the Senate being a maverick and everything, the press loved him but just as soon as it becomes obvious that he's got the nomination all sewn up they start jumping all over him, as if he were just some regular old Republican. And when the New York Times endorsed Senator Obama, well let me tell you that was the first and only time I've seen a tear in the Senator's eye. Bunch of turncoats...

Well very soon now we'll show them all. I can hardly wait to see tomorrow's headlines. Boy is everybody in for a shock. Let's see, the polling places have just closed. Hmm. Where is everybody? They know the party is going to be held here...Maybe they're all coming together. Yeah, I bet that's it. I can hardly wait...


Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Late Edition Special:

Obama Romps! First Black President Wins In Greatest Landslide In American History!
Takes EVERY State and EVERY Town!
John McCain Says, "G..damn Conservatives!"

The Long Sundown - The Archbishop And The Eschaton

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Rowan Williams, the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion has of late gotten himself into a bit of trouble. In a recent radio interview the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Mr. Williams said that he believed that it "seemed unavoidable" that Islamic sharia law would at some point find some sort of accommodation within Great Britain. There then followed quite an amazing reaction with screams of outrage coming from many quarters, indeed: the public, leaders of other religions and even the British Prime Minister who felt the need to make rhetorically clear that "British law must be based on British values". Well!

In truth one has to wonder what all the fuss is about. One would almost think that Britain still retained something of a spine, still had some sort of pride in its national identity, wasn't in a demographic and cultural death spiral. In fact Britain today is in the midst (along with most of its European brethren) of one history's most remarkable acts of national suicide and from the reaction that the Archbishop's comments have engendered it would almost appear that the British people are somehow not aware of this fact. More likely it is just one of the last remaining vestiges of British cultural reflex; it is simply not proper to say certain things out loud...such as the reality of the ongoing British surrender to Islamic culture. How veddy veddy un-British.

Some have said that the end of the British Empire began just as soon as it was noticed that "the sun never sets on" said Empire. Well the Empire rose and the Empire fell, contracting into itself until its colonies shed themselves of their foreign patron leaving Britain, the island nation, alone with its memories of glory and its traditions and the hope of finding its way into a future it had largely set in motion.

For a nation that had throughout history shown such pride-filled vigor it is somewhat surprising that that vigor is now turned to self delusion and self-destruction. The home of world terrorist activity isn't any place in the Arab world it is London, or Londonistan, as French counter-terrorism agents dubbed it in the 1990's as it became the destination of choice for Islamic extremists who were so readily welcomed into “that sceptred isle”. Instead of becoming alarmed at the arrival of such a vast number of shady characters of dubious intentions Britain found itself caught up in the multicultural moment, wherein it was declared gauche to find fault with any culture other than one's own. Taking this sensibility to mad extremes Mother England has gone supine, as members of an alien and hostile culture move in and have started to set up housekeeping, screaming at any imposition of British tradition and now increasingly, law.

Self-loathing has become the new national past-time. Christianity is now only honored in the breach. British history and literature are now only taught in the most superficial of ways. Islamic traditions and customs, many of which are at odds with Western values - the Islamic treatment of women as chattel, the Muslim deprivation of freedom of speech – are increasingly held in higher esteem than those native Western values.

Rowan Williams’s recent comments are hardly the first time he has given voice to ideas that strike out at the heart at what had once been Western culture. At one point he found a moral equivalence between US fighter pilots and Islamic suicide bombers. On another occasion he found those who defend themselves to be no different from those who attack them. On yet another occasion he apologized for Britain bringing Christianity to the rest of the world; an odd sentiment for one who supposedly believes that the belief in Jesus Christ is the road to human salvation.

Rowan Williams is but one member of a nation that has not only seen that the sun has set on the British Empire but is ensuring that sundown is coming to Britain itself. Soon the light that is now flickering will die. The darkness will be cold.