Sunday, July 20, 2008
MSNBC Gun Poll...
You can get to it here.
| Do you agree with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Washington D.C.'s handgun ban? * 27015 responses | |||
| Yes. The Second Amendment clearly establishes "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." 88%  | |||
| No. The Second Amendment's wording of the right to bear arms refers to militias, not to individual self-defense. 12% | |||
| How do you feel about gun control? * 27077 responses | |||
| The regulation of all firearms is necessary to facilitate public safety. 10% | |||
| The right to individual gun ownership is necessary to ensure freedom and personal security. 67% | |||
| Americans have the right to bear arms, but certain types of guns should be restricted. 23% | |||
| Do you own a gun? * 26739 responses | |||
| Yes 73% | |||
| No 27% | |||
Woman Sues Wal-Mart, Others for Discrimination Against Her and Her Pet Monkey
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — "A southwest Missouri woman sued Wal-Mart, local health officials and Cox Health Systems, claiming they discriminated against her and her monkey named Richard. Debby Rose of Springfield said in the lawsuit that the 10-year-old bonnet macaque helps curb a social anxiety disorder that can cause her to have panic attacks in public. The suit contends the Springfield-Greene County Health Department lacked the authority to decide that Richard is not a service animal under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Health officials in 2006 sent letters to restaurants and grocery stores, advising them not to let Rose in with the monkey. Rose also alleges she was denied access to Cox Health Systems facilities. The three entities declined to comment on the lawsuit." More and more nutty gals are calling for various animals to be classified as necessary for their very existence, and ask any bus driver in this neck of the woods and he or she will tell you that these wackjobs try sneaking them onboard dressed as babies, and in carriages, strollers, and those papoose slings that were all the rage a while back. When confronted they pitch the mother of all hissy fits and some need to be physically restrained lest they injure themselves. Cats, dogs, snakes, monkeys, ferrets, gerbils, squirrels even. Time was they'd dose 'em with laudanum and/or relocate these nuts to their very own rubber room. Now they find lawyers to help them sue and it costs all of us plenty of money. Pictured: Example of creature being hailed as a necessary companion animal.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Gun Registrations Off To Slow Start in D.C.
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would willingly live in D.C.
Aside from politicians and those that make a living following them around, the District is certainly not a place one simply says, "Hey, honey! Pack your bags. I've finally managed to swing our move to D.C!"
The climate sucks, the place is full of battling minorities, lawyer types, and talk show hosts who never said a damned word about the lack of 2nd Amendment rights until it became fashionable.
Now they've offered an amnesty period where those who've kept guns illegally can have them examined, test-fired, and registered.
"Officials said they expect that most of the gun owners who show up to register weapons in the weeks ahead will be people who kept revolvers in their homes illegally during the ban and who want to take advantage of a six-month amnesty period that began yesterday.
Others, such as Heller, might have purchased revolvers legally in other jurisdictions, including Maryland and Virginia, and then left the guns in the care of friends or relatives when they moved to the District. As Newsham told Heller yesterday morning, those guns can be legally transported into the District, provided that they are taken directly to D.C. police headquarters for registration.
The only application received yesterday was from a woman who brought a revolver to the registration office under the amnesty program, officials said.
After the gun was test-fired and the woman completed registration paperwork and a written test, she went home with the gun to await a decision on her application.
By law, she must keep the gun in her home, unloaded and either disassembled or fitted with a trigger lock, and she is not allowed to use it, even for self-defense, unless her application is approved. The process involves a background check for disqualifying factors such as a felony record or history of mental illness.
Von Breichenruchardt stressed that Heller did not need amnesty because he broke no laws. He called the semiautomatic handgun ban "foolishness" and said it almost certainly will be challenged in court.
"The Supreme Court has given its ruling," he said. "Mr. Fenty and the city council are not above the Constitution of the United States."
Fenty and the city council have always been above the Constitution. Liberals are like that. Since they don't trust themselves and are forever bitching and moaning and predicting doom, they figure everyone else must feel the same way and so of course they shouldn't have the ways and means to go postal at the drop of a hat.
Anyway, I had a busy and productive day shooting hogs with various platforms and munitions to determine real-world penetration and stopping power. No hunting season for hogs here in Florida. See 'em, shoot 'em, case closed. Now if we could only breed them to walk on their hind legs and wear lots of layers of denim they'd be the perfect depository for unwanted rounds.
JUDGMENT YOU CAN TRUST
My assessment is that the surge has not worked and we will not see a different report eight weeks from now.
Barack Obama. July 18, 2007.
His assessment. Like the guy has half a clue, even.
One Click Does It All
Interesting doohickey that lets you write a letter to the editor after finding your local papers for you. Here. Don't let the Freedom States Alliance name throw you. Bunch of marxist nitwits who want us disarmed and yesterday isn't soon enough.
Found : The War on Guns
At: Armed and Safe.
Who Does Obama Think He Is?
Well, I'll tell you who he thinks he is, then read Krauthammers extended version.
For years he's been told that he's oh so special, not because of anything he's accomplished, but because his forebears were treated harshly. This means the entire country, nay the world, should genuflect because he believes that his people happened to be the only ones ever kept as property. Yes, he's had a liberal education and doesn't know any better, but thats part of what makes him so funny.WASHINGTON -- "Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.
Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush 41 -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?
Does Obama not see the incongruity? It's as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)
Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?
Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.
It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.
Obama may think he's King Canute, but the good king ordered the tides to halt precisely to refute sycophantic aides who suggested that he had such power. Obama has no such modesty..."Click here for the full magilla, and thanks to our friends at The Smallest Minority from whence the link originated.
Which Serenity Character Are YOU?
Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
| Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.  |
Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...
Thanks to everybody's favorite Ride Fast & Shoot Straight 'er
As For Me...I'd Like To Try One On A Pig...
"This weapon injects a freezing cold ball of compressed gas, approximately the size of a basketball, at 800psi nearly instantly. The effects of this injection will drop many of the world's largest land predators. The effects of the compressed gas not only cause over-inflation during ascent when used underwater, but also freezes all tissues and organs surrounding the point of injection on land or at sea. When used underwater, the injected gas carries the predator to the surface BEFORE blood is released into the water. Thus giving the diver added protection by diverting other potential predators to the surface."
Dang thing is pricey at $380 but its a cool idea. Got the link from The War on Guns, and but of course the Brits have gotten wind of this and are staining their undergarments as we speak...
Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs
Wow. The entire country on alert. Good thing plain old regular knives aren't easily adapted to a WASP or all of Europe would simply move out and head for Canada.Army Shoots Pigs To Simulate Battle Wounds...PETA Breaks Down And Cries
HONOLULU — "The Army on Friday was holding an exercise involving shooting live pigs and treating the gunshot wounds in training it says is critical to saving soldiers' lives but which has sparked outcry from animal-rights activists. The training, held at Schofield Barracks for Iraq-bound troops, is being conducted under a U.S. Department of Agriculture license and the careful supervision of veterinarians and a military Animal Care and Use Committee, said Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division. "It's to teach Army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury," Cheng said of the medical trauma training. The soldiers are learning emergency lifesaving skills needed on the battlefield when there are no medics, doctors or facilities nearby, he said. PETA, however, said there are more advanced and humane options available, including high-tech human simulators. In a letter, PETA urged the Army to end all use of animals, "as the overwhelming majority of North American medical schools have already done." "Shooting and maiming pigs is [as] outdated as Civil War rifles," said Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department. The Norfolk, Va.-based group demanded the exercise be halted after it was notified by a "distraught" soldier from the unit, who disclosed a plan to shoot the animals with M4 carbines and M16 rifles. "There's absolutely no reason why they have to shoot live pigs," PETA spokeswoman Holly Beal said. The bloody exercise, she said, is difficult for soldiers because they sometimes associate the animals with their pet dogs. Cheng said the exercise is conducted in a controlled environment with the pigs anesthetized the entire time. He had "no doubt whatsoever" in the effectiveness of the instruction, which he called the best option available at the base. "Those alternative methods just can't replicate what the troops are going to face when we use live-tissue training," he said. "What we're doing is unique to what the soldiers are going to actually experience." Cheng didn't have details about the number of pigs, how they were acquired or the weapons involved in the training. The soldiers being trained are with the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which is deploying to Iraq this year. "We understand [PETA's] concerns and point of view. At the same, the Army is committed to providing the soldiers with the best training possible," Cheng said. Disappointed at the Army's decision, PETA on Thursday instructed its 2 million members to inundate the Army with calls and e-mails. "We're hoping at the 11th hour here that we can have this stopped. We have to hang on to hope," Beal said. PETA believes the U.S. military has conducted similar training using pigs and goats at other bases." Well dammitall to hell, ya weepy sisters. We'd MUCH prefer using the real thing but them there moslems got an even better lobbying bunch then the pigs do.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Outraged NYPD Wants To Drink & Shoot
"FOR city cops - dedicated men and women on duty 24/7, 365 days a year - it was too little. And far too late.
Yesterday, Detective Ivan Davison, who may have saved lives by shooting a violent perp, was handed back his gun. If the NYPD expected thanks after treating this brave officer like a common criminal, think again.
One of Davison's brethren in Brooklyn, a sergeant with 15 years on the job, spoke for the entire department when he told me it makes little difference that the brass had a change of heart.
"The damage is done," said the sergeant, who asked me not to use his name - and who can blame him?
"Someone is going to get hurt down the line."
The sergeant speaks with the eloquence born of experience in scary places. He joined the NYPD because "I almost think of it as a higher calling. I want to help people."
But now, he said any cop who draws his weapon is treated with suspicion.
Detective Davison got into it early Sunday with alleged miscreant Stephon Allston - a man with a long rap sheet and a bad temper. Allston allegedly shot at Davison three times and, luckily, missed. The cop shot back, wounding him.
But then, Davison was forced to take a Breathalyzer test - an insane rule enacted after the 2006 Sean Bell shooting. It showed he was slightly over the legal intoxication limit for driving. Remember, he was off duty.
He was stripped of his gun and put on modified duty. Treated like a criminal, not a savior.
Said the sergeant, "The whole Police Department is on edge.
"It's a shame. If I take action, they're going to crucify me.
"I'm on duty 24 hours a day. I carry my gun off duty because I have a family," he said. "But after the Sean Bell incident, we don't have the backing of the police commissioner. We don't have the backing of the mayor.
"Now, the only way I'd ever take out my gun is if my family [was] involved [in a crime]. Everyone on the job is more cautious." He noted, with urgency, "a second or two of hesitation could cost our lives or civilian lives."
Mayor Bloomberg has said Davison acted properly. That did not soothe.
"Our standing takes a back seat to mollifying the community.
"I'd like to think we're all professionals. But this gives us something to think about. It's on every cop's mind, it's on every supervisor's mind. That split-second hesitation - God forbid one of us gets hurt."
Is there hope?
"I have five years left. It's a shame. You have all these senior officers who don't want to stay past their 20."
Who will protect the city when he's gone?"
I've been trying to find out more info on this story because something stunk from the very beginning. Off-duty cop goes to break up a street fight and winds up trading shots at bad-breath range with one of the participants. He fires three shots but of course does little damage, reinforcements arrive and take him and the guy he winged to the hospital. The cops blood alcohol level hits the scale at .9, and since the city doesn't want its officers playing cops and robbers above .8 he's in trouble. Says he suffers from high blood pressure and won't leave the hospital because he isn't feeling all that tip-top, but the bosses want him to go and take a SPECIAL test for booze they claim is more accurate than what is available at the disease-centers. He refuses, and is put on modified duty.So it wasn't just the fact that he violated some hard to understand rule...if they don't want cops drinking and shooting they should just TELL them so, flat out...but that he broke several other regulations as well. Out of the woodwork crawl cockroaches like Al Sharpton, who demanded the city institute its NoDrunkCopsShooting imprimatur after the Sean Bell fiasco, but THIS time he's on the side of the black cop who had one too many. And of course the cops are weeping that the city will disintegrate if they can't shoot at people while drunk on their ass but few if any of those in the know expect anything BUT their inability to just man-up and do the job.
None of it would sting as much if regular peons were allowed to defend themselves like the police can. The sergeant quoted above carries HIS gun off duty because he has a family. Good to know that cops are the only ones special enough to protect their families, isn't it. And what a crying shame that they've been forced, kicking and screaming but of course, into being more cautious. The bottom line is that every last one of them considers his or herself a lord of the manor who is head and shoulders above the hoi polloi, and that being so very extraordinary they deserve more rights to exercise with absolute impunity.
Dial 911, just like anyone else if you've been drinking, unless of course you're in immediate danger, but I for one can't understand why anyone would get plastered while packing but thats another story. Far more average citizens carry guns than do police officers and the responsible ones do not guzzle down at a gin mill then go shooting up the town because some low lives are scuffling in the street. Ammunition has no common sense. People who've taken an oath to protect & defend should.
Oh and PS to Miz Peyser. Being "stripped of his gun" doesn't mean they treated him like a criminal. He was never under arrest, still being paid, and all they did was treat him like they'd treat you or me.
Shameful, isn't it? A cop being manhandled like he was just a citizen.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
An Armed Society Is A Far More Safer Society...
by Maureen Martin
"There is literally living proof in Florida that its concealed carry and other pro-gun laws save lives.
From 1987, when the concealed carry law was passed, until 2006, murder and non-negligent manslaughter rates in Florida plunged 45 percent, to 6.2 per 100,000 persons from 11.4, according to crime rate statistics compiled annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
More people are alive today in Florida thanks to those laws, which kicked off a nationwide trend toward adoption of conceal-carry provisions. Today almost 40 states have followed Florida's lead.
Florida was light years ahead of the federal government. The U.S. Supreme Court just last month — June 26 — invalidated a federal law banning handgun possession within homes in the District of Columbia, a federal jurisdiction. Importantly, the court held the Second Amendment codified a pre-existing, inherent human right to possession of handguns. "The right to self-defence (sic) is the first law of nature," the court wrote, quoting an early American constitutional scholar, and when individuals are prohibited from keeping and bearing arms, "liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
"The mere potential for an armed citizenry deters violent crime," The Heartland Institute argued in its friend-of-the-court brief it submitted in the case. Heartland cited a prison study in which "approximately 40 percent of the inmates interviewed reported that they chose not to commit a particular crime because they feared that their victim would be armed."
FBI crime rate statistics for Florida prove that point. Every type of serious crime has dropped significantly in Florida since 1987. Burglaries are down 58 percent, robbery is down 47 percent, forcible rape is down 28 percent, and aggravated assaults are down 20 percent.
The data indicates that even the mere possibility that Florida citizens might be armed and therefore have the capability of protecting themselves are deterrents to criminals.
Police can't be everywhere — and courts across the country have ruled that in fact municipal police forces have no duty to protect their citizenry. In the notorious case of Riss v. City of New York, the highest court in the state of New York ruled in 1968 that a young woman maimed and scarred by her boyfriend's hired "thug" had no right to police protection, even though she had repeatedly reported to police he was threatening to attack her.
The dissenting judge wrote, "What makes the city's position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York which now denies all responsibility to her."
And, as David Kopel, noted Second Amendment scholar and director of research at the Independence Institute, argued more than a decade ago, "If a gun permit helps a woman feel safe enough to go jogging, her increased sense of security is an important social benefit."
Crime rates are dropping dramatically in Florida, and people undoubtedly feel safer. Florida's pro-gun laws are working."
Martin, an attorney, is senior fellow at The Heartland Institute.Wow. A lawyer making sense.
Boggles.
The Herd Panics...
AURORA, COLORADO | "The report sounded ominous when Aurora police responded Tuesday morning, July 15, after hearing a man with a AK47 and a banana clip was seen in a Home Depot Store.
Police surrounded the store at 3475 N. Salida St., just before 9 a.m. Employees and customers were brought out of the store as officers with rifles searched the interior for the reported gunman.
K-9 units were also called in the search the store.
Then, an employee came forward and told police that a man matching the description of the gunman had been inside the store earlier.
The employee said the man was carrying a nail gun and was looking for parts. He had left before police arrived."
So then, the police simply "heard" that a man carrying an AK was seen in a Home Depot.
I see.
What they seriously need to start doing is to publish names whenever one soccer mom or another goes apeshit and waddles away screaming that she saw a gggg-gun.
Mississippi Remains Most Obese State, CDC Reports
ATLANTA — Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee lead the nation when it comes to obesity, a new government survey reported Thursday. More than 30 percent of adults in each of the states tipped the scales enough to ensure the South remains the nation's fattest region. Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2007 findings are similar to results from the same survey the three previous years. Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list, often so close that the difference between their rates and Mississippi's may not be statistically significant. Why is the South so heavy? The traditional Southern diet — high in fat and fried food — may be part of the answer, said Dr. William Dietz, who heads CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division. The South also has a large concentration of rural residents and black women — two groups that tend to have higher obesity rates, he said." In all seriousness, seeing is believing and hardly a day goes by without my absolute shock upon gazing upon what would once be considered fat-lady-circus-material when venturing into town. Traveling across the world itself many times over, I have simply never seen anything as remotely disgusting anywhere else.
And Now, A Look At Charming Moslem Cartoons
Hamas Children's Show Discusses Severing Hands As Punishment for Theft
A popular Hamas children's television program shows a giant bunny character who is lured into stealing money — and then is sentenced by a child host to have his hand chopped off.
In the July 11 installment of "The Pioneers of Tomorrow," which aired on Al-Aqsa TV, the recurring character "Assud the Bunny" creeps away from his napping father with a handful of cash. Assud begins to second-guess his decision to steal his father's money, but Satan successfully encourages him to go through with the petty theft.
Assud then discusses his "crime" with child TV host Saraa, and a young girl is heard saying, "The Prophet Muhammad said: 'If my daughter Fatima had stolen, I would have chopped off her hand. If you were in Saudi Arabia now, they would chop off your hand.'"
A heated debate follows between Saraa and two young viewers, who discuss whether Assud deserves to have his hand chopped off. (Under strict Sharia law, a person caught stealing is subject to having his hand amputated.)
In the end, Assud vows never to repeat his sin and pleads with his young counterparts until they consider his repentance, according to The Middle East Media Research Institute, a media monitoring group that provided a translation of the show.
Luckily, Saraa has just the right compromise to resolve the conflict. "Well, if we don't chop off his hand, maybe we should chop off his ear?" While such children's programs are considered shocking for U.S. audiences, they are widespread and popular in Arabic culture. Other characters on the network have included a "Farfour the Mouse," a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike who martyrs himself fighting Israel, and "Nahoul the Bee," designed to inspire future homicide bombers. A March 30 program, also aired on Al-Aqsa television, showed a boy stabbing President Bush to death after exclaiming, "I will kill you, Bush, because that is your fate." Quick now...which of the above cartoon characters deserves a hand-job for being a crook...
Nike Withdraws 'Air Stab' Shoes With 'Runnin' 'n' Gunnin' Logo
Nike has withdrawn a range of shoes called Air Stab following the spate of knife murders across the U.K. The company pulled the range from its Nike Town store in central London, the one shop which sold the shoe, in the last couple of days "given the current climate." The running shoe, whose name is derived from "stability," was first released in 1988, a Nike spokesman said. The current limited edition "retro" range was launched two years ago. One style of the current range carried the logo Runnin' 'n' Gunnin' on the inner lining and heel. Nike said the Air Stab "may be an unfortunate coincidence timing-wise" but rejected any suggestion that the company condoned the use of knives A spokesman said: "The shoe was first launched in 1988 as a stability running shoe, hence the name Air Stab. It has nothing to do with knives or knife crime. "While it may be an unfortunate coincidence timing-wise given current problems regarding knives, we completely reject the idea that we are in any way condoning or encouraging the issue of knife usage." Crimestoppers, the crime fighting charity, said it was "astonished that a major retailer such as Nike could be this naive and act so irresponsibly with its marketing. "With the current gun and knife epidemic that is sweeping our country we would expect retailers to be taking a more sensitive approach to promoting products to a young and impressionable market." However, Nike spokesman George Honneycut said that he would be changing his name as well, as "cut" sends the same wrong message, and will be joined in a formal court petition by Thomas McWeather Slice, VP of accounting. CEO Howard Stitch has yet to decide what he will do, but did say that his personal secretary, Ms Loretta Slash, would no doubt be compelled to seek another less controversial name.
Dick Morris Tells Nasty John How To Vanquish Obo
Subtitled: And Now For A Look At The Painfully Obvious
"THE shadow of the Iraq War still hovers over the 2008 presidential race. Indeed, though it's the issue that made Barack Obama (giving him his running room to Hillary Clinton's left), it may now become his chief vulnerability.
Weak on national-security issues, untried, inexperienced and (perhaps) naive, Obama can find the Iraq issue hard to handle - if John McCain plays it right.
Obama has long since won the issue of Iraq-past - opposing the war before anyone and voting continuously and solidly against it when others waffled.
Yet McCain is winning Iraq-present: A majority of Americans believe that the surge is working. Casualties are down so far that the pessimistic left has shifted its doom-and-gloom to Afghanistan.
But McCain's key opportunity is to exploit the issue of Iraq-future.
To start, he must ask Obama: "Why won't your troop withdrawal allow al Qaeda and Iran to move into the vacuum, taking over Iraq to use it as a base for terror against us and Israel?"
Obama will hem and haw, but McCain must keep at him - and force his opponent to confront the consequences.
How will Obama answer?
He can't shift his position on his signature issue much more - or he'd get an even worse rap for flip-flopping. So he'll start by stressing the ongoing troop presence that he'll allow in Iraq.
He has said (vaguely) that he'll permit sufficient troops to cover our pullout, protect our embassy and pursue al Qaeda terrorists. Now he'll try to sell the idea that his gradual withdrawal over 16 months and his ongoing troop commitment will hold al Qaeda and Iran at bay.
But who'll believe that? Experience has taught Americans to expect the worst about Iraq. They're inclined to agree that, if we pull out, al Qaeda will move in. It's also self-evident that Iranian influence will grow as ours' declines. (To the extent that we do believe it, Obama will alienate the left and drive voters to Ralph Nader.)
His next dodge will be to talk up diplomacy - that a dialogue with the mullahs can hold Iran at bay. But no negotiations are possible with al Qaeda - and Americans realize that talks with Iran will go nowhere unless we have the leverage of force. His reliance on diplomacy will come off as naive, reinforcing the impression that he's not ready for the job.
Eventually, he'll have to say he's prepared to go back into Iraq if the situation deteriorates. Voters will realize that a nominal troop presence and diplomacy won't do the job.
That's when McCain moves in for the kill: "So, isn't your rigid adherence to withdrawal inviting a third Iraq War?"
He can claim the mantle of the true peace candidate - saying that he'll stay in Iraq, keep control, build up the Iraqi army and keep US casualties down. Obama's pullout, he can warn, would mean an inevitable third Iraq war. Obama is stuck seeming either naive - or just as likely to get us into a war as President Bush was.
The success of the surge has created an ideal situation for McCain. What had been the chief Democratic argument against the Republicans can now be their best tool to destroy Obama."Next up, Dick's advice...in an essay spanning several thousands words...offering that the one who gets the most votes wins, so try and do that.
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