War & Restrepo (Updated)

Blackfive  "The movie Restrepo was stunning.The filmmakers managed to absent themselves from it so completely it was as if you were watching events unfold yourself as a silent observer. Humping up ridiculous mountains, blazing away at elusive enemies who always seemed to have the high ground, dealing with recalcitrant villagers, trying to sort the bad guys from the not quite so bad guys, wondering if you were actually making a difference, wondering if you were gonna make it home. We saw these guys experience all of that and I think almost everyone in the theater had a cold sweat and chills for most of the film."  Uncle Jimbo

Restropo Trailer

Review  "In 2008 Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington dug in with the men of Second Platoon for a year. Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban, has proven to be one of the U.S. Army's deadliest challenges. It is here that the platoon lost their comrade, PFC Juan Restrepo, and erected an outpost in his honor."

Contrast those men with others who wish to demonize them:
U.S. Government Needs to Prepare for Coming Leak of Damaging Video  "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims he has a video of an American "massacre" in Afghanistan and is threatening to release thousands of pages of documents that would be ruinous to national security."

Senator Brown Objects

Jennifer Rubin "Scott Brown, who was a critical vote in passing the financial-regulation bill in the Senate, proves he’s as smart as CONTENTIONS readers. He writes a letter to Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd:"

What Will Happen to Byrd’s Senate Seat?

The Caucus blog  "Democrats believe that the filing deadline for November has passed and an interim senator should remain in office through the remainder of Mr. Byrd’s term, which ends on Jan. 3, 2013. But some Republicans believe that West Virginia law provides for a special election to be held in November because more than two and a half years of Mr. Byrd’s Senate term remains."  JEFF ZELENY
Oh, no! Not another court-decided election!

Employment, Environment at Odds

WSJ   "For the second time in recent weeks, the Obama administration's environmental policies have clashed with its efforts to boost American jobs.
"The U.S. Export-Import Bank, a federal body charged with promoting U.S. exports with loan guarantees, decided against backing a sale of coal-mining equipment to an Indian company. The guarantees were denied amid the agency's concerns about the mine's environmental impact."

Disrupt the G-20 Summit With This Technology

Amity Shlaes in Bloomberg: "Consumers may even embrace the product they have famously rejected, the electric car. Better Place LLC, a car battery service start-up, begins with the wager that the old problem of recharging batteries is the big obstacle that stopped consumers from buying electric vehicles before. Using Israel as a test site, Better Place in the next year or so will open 75 stations where electric cars can simply swap an exhausted battery for a new one in the same time it takes to refuel."

Confessions of a smartass

Ethel C. Fenig "As that wise Frenchman, yes a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville observed over 150 years ago:  "The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."
"So Joe, I would wager the intelligence of my tush over your often not too wise brain; not to mention your rather dumb uh, glutes."

Kagan will be the Obama of the Supreme Court

American Thinker "The President is trapped in what Chris Stirewalt calls a hypocrisy trap, having claimed competence and qualifications but evidenced neither. We should have no desire to see this sad state repeated in either of the other two branches of government. Surely qualified judges exist. Senators, please do your job and interview the candidate." Keith Riler

Day 1 of Senate Hearings Offers Tale of Two Kagans  "...And then she planted herself, stone-faced, before the senators of the Judiciary Committee to hear a Republican rundown of everything that's wrong with her. Those GOP digs were interspersed with effusive praise from Democrats for whom she could do no wrong"

Media Routinely Used 'Conservative' Label on Bush Nominees to Supreme Court; Obama Picks Always 'Centrist' 

Chip Bok, Townhall

Welfare That Works

Townhall "It’s time for a change. Since taking office, President Obama has almost doubled spending on food stamps and added 8 million more people to the rolls. Our country’s budget is already in the red, and simply can’t afford to carry all those recipients for the better part of a decade. With the correct reforms, welfare can once again become a hand up, and we can finally make a popular liberal soundbite a reality."   Ed Feulner

Whatever Happened to "General Betray Us?" (updated)

Townhall "Senator Obama’s position on the Petraeus-Bush surge in Iraq was so badly misguided, so amateurishly uninformed, and so utterly blind, that even the New York Times—headquarters of the Bush opposition—pleaded with Obama to change his tune. Even the Times had to admit the surge was working."...."I could pretend I’m surprised by this, feigning shock, but I’m not. As I said, the left behaves completely differently in power compared to when it’s out of power. And certainly don’t expect any apologies to George W. Bush."
Obama Owes Bush an Apology "By turning to the architect of the Iraq surge, Gen. David Petraeus, to save the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is acknowledging, if only implicitly, that he was quite wrong about the Iraq surge and that Bush was right. But what remains of the rest of his critique about Bush's war in Iraq?"   Mona Charen

Dems Put Themselves in Awkward Spot After Calling Hero Petraeus a Liar in 2007  "With today’s confirmation hearing of General Petraeus, Americans will once again be reminded of the Democrat’s disgusting attempts to discredit General Petraeus and to surrender Iraq to the Al-Qaeda terrorists."  Awkward: Dems trying to recast Petraeus as a savior "When Republicans offered a resolution defending Petraeus “and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus,” 25 Democrats voted against the resolution, including Hillary Clinton, Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, and Carl Levin, chair of the Armed Forces Committee."
Articles highlighted because of my inner feelings.

Good motivational poster from Blackfive

If You Believe America Has Lousy Health Care, Here's Why

Dennis Prager "For those reading further, the claim of the headline and of the first two sentences is reinforced. The third sentence offers commentary on the study by the head of the group that conducted it: "'As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can get it,' Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told reporters ..."
Only later in the report does the discerning reader have a clue as to how agenda-driven this report and this study are. The otherwise unidentified Karen Davis, president of the never-identified Commonwealth Fund, is quoted as saying how important it was that America pass President Obama's health care bill. Could it be that Ms. Davis and the Commonwealth are leftwing?
"They sure are, though Reuters, which is also on the Left, never lets you know."

More on Oliver Stone’s latest Travesty, South of the Border

Ron Radosh "“What Mr. Stone and his writers have presented is a standard far-left narrative that is part of a long line of propaganda films, a modern American version of the old agitprop*. There are no dissenting voices in this film. Nor is there any mention of the fact that Mr. Chávez has closed down television and radio stations that disagree with him and arrested dissenting political figures.” The film is what you can expect from the likes of Oliver Stone, a virtual know-nothing who uses his celebrity and acclaim as a film director to spew out hatred for the country that has made him wealthy and influential."

*Agitprop "Political propaganda, especially favoring communism and disseminated through literature, drama, art, or music: "It also is a conspiracy movie, agitprop against today's targets, big government and big business" (George F. Will)."

Finding Democrats in News Stories

Bruce Walker "The common characteristic is that all the writers of the stories in the establishment leftist media were following some overarching, unwritten rule: creeps who are Republican are "REPUBLICAN!!!!" and those creeps who are Democrats are simply "Kwame" or "Rod." "    Bruce Walker is the author of two books: Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie and The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity.