Must we be boy scouts?

Powerline Blog "If rooting out corruption in places like Afghanistan is a prerequisite to successful counter-insurgency, we should rethink our willingness to undertake long-term military projects in places like Afghanistan. But I doubt that that it is a prerequisite. The Iraq surge succeeded in its primary objectives of turning the tide against al Qaeda and heading off a civil war without, as far as I can tell, substantially eliminating corruption in Iraq. As I understand it, we succeeded in part because we took the village and tribal elders as we found them, and proved that we were serious about fighting the enemy. We did not attempt to remake them in our image."

Must we be boy scouts? A colonel comments "In your post you ask if military commanders are just now coming to the conclusion that fighting the enemy is more important that fighting corruption. As an officer with multiple tours in Iraq (although none in Afghanistan), I can almost guarantee that is not the case."

Finding new weapons to kill bedbugs (more liberal fallout)

WaPo "A common household pest for centuries, bedbugs were virtually eradicated in the 1940s and '50s by the widespread use of DDT. That insecticide was banned in the 1970s, and the bugs developed resistance to chemicals that replaced it."

On a similar note: School Named After Al Gore and Rachel 'DDT' Carson Built on Toxic Soil  "A new school will be opening in Los Angeles next Monday that is named after Nobel Laureate Al Gore and Rachel Carson, the woman almost single-handedly responsible for DDT being banned in the '70s."

Ongoing issue: Did Obama WH use the wrong seal for Oval Office rug?

Hot Air "So no, Obama and his team didn’t use the wrong seal for the carpet, or get the seal wrong at all in any official sense. Some may not like the non-traditional representation of the seal in the new carpet, but it’s at least slightly more traditional than Bush 41 — and if tradition is what people like, then Bill Clinton’s Oval Office rug would be the hands-down winner."  Except for the DNA stains here and there.
Photo from Wikipedia

Interview: Steven Crowder Discusses His New Movie and Upcoming Book

Big Hollywood "“I didn’t expect them to so blatantly attack the message,” Steven Crowder recently told me over the phone. He was discussing how critics had reviewed his recent Christian-themed movie “To Save A Life.” Some negative feedback from critics was anticipated, but he expected that they would be a little more clever when it came to disguising their prejudice towards Christians and their message. In an interview I conducted with the young actor/writer/comedian, we discussed this criticism, as well as “edgy” comedians and the reason why so many young people are liberal."

Conservative Voter Guide Available through Heritage

Heritage Alliance PAC  FYI: "Voter Guide for state candidates is FREE. Voter Guide for federal candidates, by law, requires a donation of $1 or more. Every $5 you donate allows us to reach a new member, multiplying your influence."
Serious people will want to ask for this, not caring that it will get their contact info on a mailing list. You can always unsubscribe or say no.

Labor Day Has Become Government Day

Heritage "This Labor Day marks a milestone in the history of the U.S. union movement. It is the first Labor Day on which a majority of union members in United States work for the government. In January the Department of Labor reported that union membership in government has overtaken that in the private sector. Three times as many union members work in the Post Office as in the entire domestic auto industry. The face of the union movement is not a worker on the assembly line but a clerk at the DMV."

Useful Idiots: What Censorship?

DBKP-Death By 1000 Papercuts

Iraq Through the Looking Glass

Victor Davis Hanson "...a) Obama warns against “open-ended wars,” as if they are almost animate things. But wars end, not when they reach a rational, previously agreed-upon expiration date, but usually when tough, specific wartime choices are made that lead to victory or end in defeat. One party must decide — for good or bad reasons — that it doesn’t want to fight to win, or simply doesn’t believe it has the resources for victory. To say that “open-ended wars” are undesirable is a banality that offers no guidance for these real-life choices. A better truism is that America should not fight wars it does not intend to win."                                                                                                   

Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Supremacists Seek to Criminalize Free Speech

Atlas Shrugs "Did Muslim group ask DOJ to start enforcing sharia blasphemy law? Creeping Sharia .

"Hat tip to The Freedomist for picking up on this one. In a roundabout way, it sounds like a Muslim group that we’ve posted on before (teaching Muslims how to donate money without drawing attention of FBI) has essentially asked the DOJ to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws. via ABC News."
This article contains a number of links you can follow for more information.

Jay Leno Ribs Obama, the Clintons and the Economy

Newsbusters "Jay Leno on Friday ribbed Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the poor state of the economy.

"In his opening monologue on the "Tonight Show," the comedian began with a lot of politics first joking about the President's Middle East peace talks, then moving to the war in Afghanistan, and eventually a poke at airline security.

"On the day the Labor Department announced an uptick in the unemployment rate, Leno had a number of jokes about how bad the economy is."

More quotes from Leno.

When Will We Have Another Black President?

Pajamas Media "It’s entirely possible that President Obama has poisoned the well for at least a generation. It has nothing to do with the fact that he is black; it is because he is grossly ill-fitted for the job and may well be the worst U.S. president thus far. To enumerate even his most egregious blunders would make for a very long article and I won’t bother. There are not enough good things to fill a short paragraph, aside from the possibility that he has united enough conservatives and frustrated enough leftists to make possible some changes we can believe in.
"Some probably disagree, but I think President Obama’s race was the deciding factor in his election. Had he been Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic, he probably would not have got the Democratic Party nomination, much less been elected president. President Hillary Clinton would likely be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office."
Mr. Obama has made many of us forget how far left Hillary is.

What Obama Should Learn From Lenin

Townhall "The man who campaigned against laissez faire economics has repeatedly demonstrated laissez faire leadership. When inconvenient problems (and aren’t they all?) come along, the predictable pattern has been to make a speech or two, drop a few expert names, point a finger, and then move on. "