Vice President Cheney: Iraq Was Worth It

This will get our liberals to have conniption fits, always a worthwhile object:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: We now find ourselves in the situation where we’re five years later; we’ve achieved most of the objectives that you would have set out in the spring of ’03 when we launched into Iraq. We’ve got the violence level down to its lowest level since ’03. We’ve had three national elections, a constitution written, a new government stood up, new army recruited and trained, the Iraqis increasingly able to take on responsibility for themselves. And we’ve now entered into a strategic framework agreement with the new Iraqi government that will provide for the ultimate withdrawal of U.S. forces.

You could not have asked for much more than that in terms of the policies that we started on in ’03.

Q But Mr. Vice President, getting from there to here, 4,500 Americans have died, at least 100,000 Iraqis have died. Has it been worth that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think so.

Q Why?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Because I believed at the time what Saddam Hussein represented was, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, was a terror-sponsoring state so designated by the State Department. He was making payments to the families of suicide bombers. He provided a safe haven and sanctuary for Abu Nidal and other terrorist operations. He had produced and used weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological agents. He’d had a nuclear program in the past. He killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. And he did have a relationship with al Qaeda.

We’ve had this debate that keeps people trying to conflate those arguments. That’s not to say that Saddam was responsible for 9/11. It is to say as George Tenet, the CIA Director, testified in open session in the Senate, that there was a relationship there that went back 10 years. This was a terror-sponsoring state with access to weapons of mass destruction. And that’s the greatest threat we faced in the aftermath of 9/11, that the next time we found terrorists in the middle of one of our cities, it wouldn’t be 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters, it would be terrorists armed with a biological agent, or maybe even a nuclear device.

And so I think given the track record of Saddam Hussein, I think we did exactly the right thing. I think the country is better off for it today.

While I have my doubts about the incoming Obama Error, I am very relaxed and in a great humor these days. Of bitterness, I have none – I am entirely forgiving of all that has happened before, and I will pray regularly for the success of Obama (though, to be sure, the success I’m hoping he’ll wind up having won’t sit well with our liberal friends – I’m praying that he’ll accept the guidance of Our Lord: he does that, and I’ll be mighty pleased, even if there are higher taxes and a plethora of worthless, new spending). I’m ready for Obama – creeped out by the sycophancy I see in many Obama supporters; amused as the way the dinosaur media still covers for him; bemused that “change” apparently means “lots of corrupt and/or incompetent party hacks in Administration positions”; figuring out that the deal to get Hillary out of the primary race was an agreement to appoint said hacks; laughing up my sleeve about our prospects.

I have my regrets about the past 8 years – being human, this is natural – but as regards my support for the liberation of Iraq, that will always be something I’ll count to my credit. I believe that Vice President Cheney will, too. I wonder, though, how our liberals will view it – are they proud they nearly got us to cut and run? Proud that while our soldiers were covering themselves with glory liberating an oppressed people, they were covering our soldiers with verbal sh**? Proud that the enemy was able to use them in their propaganda?

Time will tell in all things – eventually we’ll all know who was right and who was wrong, and who acted from noble motives, who from base. I rest content – the past is now past, the future is not promised to anyone; each day I will get up, be grateful for what I have, and do what I believe is the right thing.

Keep Hate Alive, Part 2

Moving along briskly with this thread:

Colin Powell held a press conference in Washington, D.C., Friday, touting the launch of Barack Obama’s new Web site, USAService.org, which allows Americans to find — and to promote — local service opportunities that are searchable by zip code.

President Bush’s former secretary of state said he was on the site this morning and vouched for its usefulness.

But here’s betting that Powell didn’t have time to go through all of the events on it.

Wanting to see how the Web site works, I typed in my hometown zip code in Los Angeles to find events within a 10-mile radius.

It pointed me to several events, including a blood drive, a graffiti cleanup, and an “Obama Celebration and Bush Shoe Toss.”

The event, which was listed as a “Day of Service — January 19,” is taking place at the soon-to-open Carnivale Café on the corner of Vermont and Normal.

“Come celebrate with us,” wrote Gilbert Gazan, 46, in the event’s description. “Say goodbye to old Georgie … Throw a shoe at a poster of Bush and win a free drink.”

And then, from the reader comments:

Nice!

Bush deserves no less than feces to be thrown on him. If there is any justice in this world he will rot in prison.

Can you feel the love from our tolerant liberals? I’m all warm and fuzzy inside, let me tell you…

Squaring Off on Marriage in Maine

Once more, into the breech – or did anyone really think this issue was going away?

Supporters of homosexual “marriage” and groups committed to defending the true meaning of marriage, are set to square off for a fight in Maine this year. Senator Dennis S. Damon, D-Trenton, announced at a press conference this afternoon that he is submitting legislation that would redefine marriage in the state.

The senator said that his bill would codify civil marriage as the legally recognized union of two people, regardless of sex, and ensure that the state recognizes same-sex “marriages” from other states. He also said that the bill would protect the right of religious institutions to define their own religious doctrine and teachings about marriage, according to the Bangor Daily News. However, it is unclear if this means that religious institutions would be protected from discrimination lawsuits if they refuse to perform same-sex “weddings.”

Damon is supported by members of the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition, which is made up of various homosexualist groups.

The defense of true marriage is being spearheaded by the Maine Marriage Alliance and aided by the Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Maine Family Policy Council. These groups have announced that House Republican Josh Tardy will submit a bill to augment the state law, the Defense of Marriage Act, restricting marriage to one man and one woman, by making it a constitutional amendment.

A bit of kudos to Senator Damon – unlike most supporters of liberal causes, he’s willing to come out of the leftist closet (as it were) and engage in actual political debate. But we do have to fight this, and at the start of the Obama Error, nothing will prove more crucial than these opening skirmishes. Its not that any one of them will assure victory or defeat, but the side which can claim the most victories in 2009 will be the side going in to 2010 energized and spoiling for a fight, and that will mean a lot not just in Congress, but in the State legislators which will redraw the Congressional districts after the 2010 census.

Very much is at stake over the next two years – Obama and his Democrats will try to cement an enduring Democratic majority as FDR did in the 1930′s; our task is to first thwart this, and then start building our party and movement into a force which will govern America for the 50 years necessary to undo the damage liberalism has done to our society. So, get ready for the fight – and remember, no matter what, we win (its cool being a Believer, huh?).

An Interesting Thought

Some on the left have criticized my attacks on Obama, or my predictions of doom over the next four years, arguing that he hasn’t even taken office yet, and I should “give him a chance.”

Okay, there is something to be said about that. But, I’d like to suggest to the same liberals who claim Barack Obama will “unite this country” or “turn the economy” around to similarly recognize their lack of psychic abilities and stop arguing that he will do all these glorious things and “give him a chance” to actually do these things before declaring him a success.

"24" Can Teach Us A Lot About Liberalism

From Glenn Beck’s website:

GLENN: Right. But it’s interesting also that Janeane Garofalo and Jon Voight are in the same series this year.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: The right and the left actors. Okay. So she’s in that one scene, and I’m not going to give anything away but, you know — I’m not going to spoil the scene for you if you have it on TiVo. But there’s this one scene where you know character — I’m trying to be as vague as I can — this one character is with Janeane and they need to interrogate. It’s 24. You knew this was happening. So they interrogate and the one character says, “I’ve got to get the answers.” And Janeane Garofalo says, “You can’t do that. This is America. That’s against the law.” And the other character says, “They’ll kill a bunch of people and we’ve got to do it! A lot of people will die and it will be a horrible situation!” Janeane Garofalo’s character says, “This is against everything we stand for! This is against code, this is against all regulations, this is against the law! I won’t have anything to do with it!” And then the character turns with tears in their eyes, says, “This whole thing has been my fault. I’ve got to set this right. Please, I’ve got to get the answer. I’ve got to do this because it’s — I’ve got to set it right! Please, for me!” And the progressive says, “Okay, I’ll wait outside.” It wasn’t because people are going to die. It wasn’t because this guy knows and we need to get it. It wasn’t, “We’ve got to protect our country.” She was convinced by, “Please? It will make me feel better.” You didn’t even have to say, “But okay, let me make the case. I don’t think the law applies here or here or here.” All you had to do was look at her with puppy dog eyes and say, “Please, it will make my booboo go away.”

STU: If that’s not every liberal policy.

GLENN: It is.

STU: Feel good emotional.

GLENN: It is. It’s wrong. If you want to do it for any other reasons. But if it will make us all feel good, well, then maybe we should.

That about sums it up.

(h/t Gary Gross)

Keep Hate Alive, Part 1

(Ed. Note: As Obama is supposed to unite us and America will cease to be Red and Blue but red, white and blue, we here at Blogs for Victory have decided to keep a running catalog of attempts by members of the Democratic party and/or known supporters of Obama in any attempts they make to keep the hatred of the past 8 years going. We hope this will be one in a very short series, but we suspect we’ll be continuing this thread for a long, long time.)

Ah, nothing like looking to the future with bright hopes and dealing with the problems of today rather than rehashing the past, right? Well, not for our Democrats:

The incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation of Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security, a House Democratic report said Tuesday. President-elect Barack Obama has been more cautious on the issue and has not endorsed such a recommendation.

Along with the criminal probe, the report called for a Sept. 11-style commission with subpoena power, to gather facts and make recommendations on preventing misuse of power, according to the report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee.

Yep, that’ll bring Bush supporters over to Obama and make us all fall in to a love fest. Nothing like politically inspired witch hunts against your opponents to bring us all together!

Our Cracker Jack Media is On the Case

They just happen to be a couple months late:

A document has emerged suggesting that Obama had taken more public, liberal stands in the past than had been revealed in the digging of reporters and opposition researchers over two years of campaigning, the latest of several pointing to a rightward shift as he moved into national politics.

In a 1996 questionnaire filled out for a Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper, then called Outlines, Obama came out clearly in favor of same-sex marriage, which he has opposed on the public record throughout his short career in national politics.

“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” Obama wrote in the typed, signed, statement.

There was no use of “civil unions,” and “no compromise whatsoever,” the Windy City Times story today notes.

On another questionnaire the same year, Obama said he would support a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.

The editor of the Windy City Times, a successor of Outlines, Tracy Baim, said she hadn’t deliberately held onto the news until after Obama’s election. Baim, who had been the editor of Outlines at the time, said that just before the election, she ran across the old Outline story saying Obama backed same-sex marriage, but only dug his forgotten questionaire out of an old box this week, having assumed that she’d lost it.

We can find GW’s 25 year old DUI the weekend before the election in 2000, but we can’t find this from 1996? Yeah, I really believe this was just an oversight…

Policy-wise, there’s not much here – like most of Obama’s leftist radicalism, this has been firmly shoved down the memory hole to hang out with Wright, Ayers and Obama’s gun control record, but these are the sorts of things the voters needed to know prior to November 4th, not just prior to January 20th. We can expect more and more like this – the slow dribbling out of all the dirt and radicalism of Obama’s past in order to complete defuse it for the 2010 mid-terms and the 2012 general election. Democrats have learned the lesson of Clinton – if you leak the garbage slowly, people don’t catch on that you’re leading them in to a sewer.

Obama's Treasury Secretary Pick Evaded Taxes

Obama has totally botched his transition, with yet another one of his picks being under a dark ethical cloud. The latest is his pick for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001-2004. 

Most of the taxes were paid back shortly before he was “nominated,” after Obama’s transition team discovered it, but what really gets me is that they kept it quiet. For someone who claims be about openness and transparency, this proves that secrecy and lies will be common elements of Obama’s administration.

A Week Before the Obama Error Open Thread

As we enter this final week of America As We’ve Know Her, let us pause to consider what the Obama Error will bring…and try not to laugh, or cry, ok?

Balancing the Ticket

Obama got his gay supporters fuming by inviting a conservative evangelical to the inaugural, now he’s balancing it out:

Following the row that erupted after pro-marriage and pro-life Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was picked to preside over the main inauguration event, Obama has selected the Episcopal Church’s only openly homosexual bishop to give the main invocation at a Sunday event celebrating Obama’s inauguration, to be held two days later.

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a central figure in the homosexual clergy controversy that has rocked the worldwide Anglican communion, will deliver his invocation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

“I’m just overwhelmed and so humbled by this invitation,” said Robinson, who entered into a legal civil union with his long-time partner Mark Andrews in June.

And if that doesn’t satisfy the gay rights movement, I don’t know what will…on the other hand, to have a “bishop” who abandoned his wife to shack up with a guy might cause Christians to be doubtful of the fitness of the Obama event in question.