GOP Vixen

Judea Pearl on Cavuto

Hoping some of you caught the fabulous interview that Encino's own Judea Pearl, father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, gave at the top of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Fox today (the show re-runs later if you missed it). The topic was opposition to the White House apparently nudging towared Iraq withdrawal, and Dr. Pearl gave a stirring, poignant, and eye-opening assessment of the situation, condemning the moral relativists who compare U.S. military actions in Iraq to heinous terrorist activities.

Dr. Pearl has a piece in the New Republic that echoes the themes on Cavuto:

"Indeed, following an advance screening of A Mighty Heart, a panelist representing the Council on American-Islamic Relations reportedly said, 'We need to end the culture of bombs, torture, occupation, and violence. This is the message to take from the film.' The message that angry youngsters are hearing is unfortunate: All forms of violence are equally evil; therefore, as long as one persists, others should not be ruled out. This is precisely the logic used by Mohammed Siddiqui Khan, one of the London suicide bombers, in his videotape on Al Jazeera. 'Your democratically elected government,' he told his British countrymen, 'continues to perpetrate atrocities against my people ... . [W]e will not stop.'

Danny's tragedy demands an end to this logic. There can be no comparison between those who take pride in the killing of an unarmed journalist and those who vow to end such acts—no ifs, ands, or buts. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31, 2002."

Dr. Pearl kindly contacted me after I wrote the column on the "Mighty Heart" screening with the loopy panel discussion afterward, where I reported on the troubling "buts" heard there. In addition to his New Republic piece, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to another much-needed piece recently written by Dr. Pearl: "Anti-Zionism is Racism," from New York Jewish Week.

Cindy Sheehan gives up war protesting

After all that time in a lawn chair outside the Crawford ranch, she came to the conclusion that  her son "did indeed die for nothing." In a letter on Daily Kos on Monday titled  "Good Riddance Attention Whore" (I swear, we didn't come up with that title), Sheehan says she's pooped, impoverished, and pissed as hell with Dem lawmakers. But she needs to look on the bright side: At least she found love during her journey.

The bitch is back

Sexy snaggletoothed Muqtada al-Sadr has returned from months of R&R in Iran to make a profound statement:

"No, no for Satan. No, no for America. No, no for the occupation. No, no for Israel."

Rah rah rah, sis boom bah! Like House Democrats, Muqtada wants a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, because then he can give the all-clear for his Iranian cronies to come and help set up a similar style of theocracy in Iraq. To facilitate this goal, Muqtada obviously took some P.R. training from Ahmadinejad & Co., because he returned spouting the same refrain favored by Mahmoud: I am the great uniter. I want to draw together all factions in peace and harmony to kick the crap out of America and the evil West. Join me because I'm so damn charismatic (and have the munitions to back it up)!

Will Iraqi Christians and Sunnis -- the objects of his newfound affections -- fall for his harmonizing B.S.?

Al-Qaida won't be offering life insurance for its Iraq leader anymore

This just in: the successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- Abu Ayyub al-Masri -- is dead as a duck, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. He was apparently killed in what we in Southern California like to call a turf war, and hadn't even been the al-Qaida in Iraq leader for a year. Therefore, he leaves fewer HandyCam videos for us to remember him by.

I'd like to see this draw as much outrage...

... as the Abu Ghraib photos. Be warned the video is gruesome: It's of a girl being stoned by a crowd in Mosul, Iraq.

Response to Dems' Iraq bill

Yeah, the one with the absurd timetable that's likely making Ayman al-Zawahiri gleefully giggle like a teenage girl. This requires a dignified, succinct response that delicately weighs the pros and cons and extends the same degree of bipartisanship to the Dems that they've extended to the right side of the aisle.

Let me find some red and blue pom-poms here:

Gimme a "V"!

Gimme an "E"!

Gimme a "T"!

Gimme an "O"!

War Pork

Thirsty for defeat and hungry for pork, Democrats have pushed through a bill that not only declares preemptive defeat in Iraq, but also provides billions in new spending for pet projects at home. Democrats loaded the bill with money for everything from shrimp to peanuts as they took their principled stand to end the war. My dear old grand dad was a peanut farmer and I might have followed in his footsteps if I would have known the current bunch of goobers would hold the purse strings of this country.

Dennis Kucinich even had a chance to weigh in and show what kind of presidential timber we have on the far left. In the wisdom of Kucinich, "If you want peace, quit funding this war". Damn, why didn’t FDR think of that during WWII! All those lives lost and all we had to do for peace was quit fighting. Someone needs to pull Dennis the Menace aside and let him know that, as a complete idiot, he will never be the Democratic pick for President. Usually, complete idiots do not make it higher than the VP position in Democratic primaries.

In spite of today’s bombing in Tal Afar, the violence in Iraq has been decreasing dramatically. General Petraeus is getting high marks from all sides for finally making real progress in Iraq. Although we are seeing real improvements in Iraq, critics are saying that it is too soon to tell. Too soon to tell if we can win in Iraq, but apparently not too soon to declare defeat.

Belly up to the battlefield

I'm loving this -- Six Packs for Soldiers. "No politics -- just beer." As they say:

"Six Packs for Soldiers is a 'beer-partisan' campaign to thank our troops. We are grateful Republicans, Democrats, and Independents joined in a simple mission - we want to buy our soldiers a beer. And you can help:

Simply click here to upload a photo of yourself toasting the troops with a beer (or non-alcoholic alternative, if you prefer). For every 'virtual toast' we get, we will deliver one real beer to a soldier (thanks to our sponsors for springing for it).

Red state, blue state? Who cares! Liberal, conservative? Doesn't matter! We've got our differences...that's true. But for just a moment, we are putting them aside, joining together, and sending a frothy, refreshing 'thank you' to our fighting men and women. Please join us, make a toast, and make this just the first thing of many that you do to help these brave men and women."

This is so American! With a hearty dose of Irish, of course. (As you see, GOP VIXEN is in favor of sending troops more than a can, but a whole damn pitcher.)

The Deadliest Day

Imagine my horror to open up this morning’s paper to read that Saturday was the “….seventh-deadliest day since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched the security operation on Feb. 14”. This shocking news made me wonder how I missed the six previous “deadliest-days” since February 14. Then I wondered how many of the “bloodiest days” I might have missed. I know that January 22 was proclaimed “one of the bloodiest days” although I could not determine exactly how “bloodiest days” are measured. Then I looked at the last available FBI homicide statistics and found that there were almost 17,000 homicides her in the U.S. in 2005. The homicide number was up from 2004, which made 2005 the “deadliest” and perhaps the “bloodiest” year for which we have FBI statistics.

Here in Fort Worth we are mourning the loss of Mark Nix who was an Iraq veteran and Dallas police officer. He may have made it home from Iraq, but yesterday he was gunned down in Dallas.

With such shocking numbers of Americans killed in the U.S. I wonder how long it will be before Democrats demand a pullout. Knowing how reasonable the Democrats are I am sure they would request a timetable with benchmarks for reducing murders in the U.S. If those benchmarks are not met, they may want to pull out sooner. If they care so much about American lives, they do not have to look far to find Americans being killed. The same could be said about wasted tax dollars.

For some odd reason the press does not seem to keep the same running count of American civilians that are killed on our own soil. If the press kept a running total of Americans murdered the same way it trumpets the deaths of soldiers in Iraq, Americans would probably be shocked. Nevertheless, I do not suppose we will hear what the "deadliest" or "bloodiest" day in the U.S. was since February 14 and since that number affects me more, I have to wonder why.

Iran's Puppy Takes a Bath

Iran’s puppy, Muqtada al-Sadr, is taking a bath in Iraq, which is great news for U.S. forces and free Iraqis. Behind the scenes, and behind Sadr’s back, the U.S. has been talking with the commanders of the Madi army in an attempt to splinter the group. Some of the Madi army has broken off and gone to Iran, which some claim is an "ominous sign". Then again, many Bagdad reporters seem to think that only getting one olive in their martini is a sign that Iraqi society is about to fall apart. The few that have gone to Iran will rightly be seen as just more Iranian finger puppets who will only cause trouble. Other commanders in the Madi army are seeing the wisdom of joining the political system and falling into line. Either way, it’s bad news for Sadr’s hopes of becoming the master mullah of Iraq.

Sadr’s decline will no doubt upset Pavlov’s anti war dogs that salivate every time they hear another U.S. soldier has been killed. Those that want victory in Iraq know that the end of Sadr is a significant development and another recent sign the tide may be finally turning. It’s just too bad Muqtada has no neck, after his bath he could probably use a flea collar.