KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW NOW . . .

 

 Ann Coulter   . . . "Indeed, after Bush's State of the Union address laying out the case for war with Iraq, The New York Times complained that he had given too many reasons: "Even the rationale for war seems to change from day to day. Mr. Bush ticked off a litany of accusations against Iraq in his State of the Union address ..." (New York Times, Feb. 2, 2003)

"Among the reasons we invaded Iraq were:

(1) Saddam had given shelter to terrorists who killed Americans. After 9/11, it was time for him to pay the price:
-- The mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking, Abu Abbas, who murdered a wheelchair-bound American citizen, Leon Klinghoffer, then forced the passengers to throw his body overboard, was living happily in Iraq. (Captured by U.S. forces in Baghdad less than a month after our invasion.)

-- The terrorist who orchestrated the murder of American diplomat Laurence Foley in October 2002, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also took refuge in Saddam's Iraq. (Killed by U.S. forces in Iraq on June 7, 2006.)

-- The one terrorist behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who got away, Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled to Iraq, where he was given money and lived without fear of being extradited to the United States. (Whereabouts unknown. Possibly being groomed for a prime-time show on MSNBC.)

-- Czech intelligence reported that Mohammed Atta, 9/11 mastermind, met with Iraqi agents in Prague shortly before the attack.

(2) Saddam had attempted to assassinate a former president of the United States. Liberals complained that it was a family feud because that president happened to be Bush's father, but, again, he was also a FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (Does being a relative of the president make you fair game for assassination attempts? Bill Clinton, please pick up the white courtesy phone.)

(3) Saddam not only had WMDs, he had used them -- far more prodigiously than Syria's Bashar al-Assad did when Obama masterfully backed down from his "red line" threat if Assad ever used chemical weapons. (Assad's WMDs killed about a thousand civilians -- 350 according to French intelligence, which is a lot better than ours. Saddam's WMDs killed an estimated 100,000 civilians. That's according to everyone -- the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Clinton-era ambassador Peter Galbraith.)

(4) We needed to smash some Muslim strongman after the 9/11 attack, and Saddam was as good as any other -- at least as good as the Taliban primitives who had allowed Osama bin Laden to pitch his tent in their godforsaken country.

It worked: Moammar Gadhafi, terrified that Bush would attack Libya next, invited U.N. inspectors in, gave up his WMDs, and paid the families of his Lockerbie bombing victims $8 million apiece.

(5) Saddam had committed atrocities on a far greater scale than our current bogeyman, ISIS. He tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis -- removing their teeth with pliers, applying electric shocks to men's genitals, drilling holes in their ankles and forcing them to watch as their wives were raped -- as reported by USA Today, among others. There was no risk that we were accidentally taking out the Arab George Washington.

(6) Saddam was a dangerous and disruptive force in a crucial oil-producing region of the world. We need oil. Why not go to war for oil?

(7) The Iraqi people were a relatively sane, civilized and educated populace with a monstrous ruler. Removing that leader would provide a golden opportunity for an actual functioning Arab democracy -- an Arab Israel.
. . .

 

"Kelly asked Bush: "Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?"

"The correct answer is:

Now that we know that a half-century of Teddy Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act would result in a country where a man like Barack Obama could be elected president, and then, purely out of antipathy to America, would withdraw every last troop from Iraq, nullifying America's victory and plunging the entire region into chaos, no, I would not bother removing dangerous despots in order to make America safer.

Instead, I would dedicate myself to overturning our immigration laws, ending the anchor-baby scam and building a triple-layer fence on the border, so that some future Republican president could invade Iraq without worrying about a foreign-elected president like Obama coming in and giving it away.

 Coulter's full article here. 
  All emphases added by TD

British Novelist to American Grads: There’s Nothing Virtuous about Being Offended

NRO ..."A rather uneventful college commencement season full of the usual platitudes and bromides was shaken up by British novelist Ian McEwan’s refreshingly challenging the zeitgeist of trigger warnings, free-speech zones, and campus censorship at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania this week. McEwan did not shy away from addressing the current temper on campus, choosing to focus on the creeping group-think in faculty lounges and discussion sections instead of the all too easy targets of Russian crackdowns on free speech or the “industrial scale” state-sponsored censorship in China. 

McEwan directly confronted the problem of a country rooted in the tradition of free expression under the First Amendment meekly submitting to what he called “bi-polar thinking” — the eagerness of some to “not side with Charlie Hebdo because it might seem as if we’re endorsing George Bush’s War on Terror.” . . .   Full article

Could he mean something like this?

PETA Demands Bar Change Its Name Because ‘Ye Olde Fighting Cocks’ Is Offensive to Chickens
 "Carr added that the name change would “encourage people to rethink the way that we treat chickens and grant these birds the respect and kindness that they deserve.”'

UK Mirror

In the US, these people are called Democrats.

Monty Python to the rescue against Islamic scholars

 

American Thinker. . . "Instead, he offered the idea of pairing intellectuals with moderate Muslims and media bigwigs to debate the questions about Muhammad’s historicity in seminars and panel discussions.  Jim Lehrer could even be called in to moderate, he suggested.  Calling into question the foundations of Islam by questioning if Muhammad ever existed would somehow pull the rug out from under the extremists.  As rebels without a cause, they would have to lay down their arms. Islam would settle down into respectable, peaceful patterns like all other religions, and we would live from then on free of terrorists because they would no longer be able to justify their terrorism.  How could they if Muhammad never existed?

"This is where Monty Python comes in.  This team knew how to cut to the quick with skits that could say it better than an avalanche of books and articles." . . .

. . . 

"A word of caution for such intellectuals.  Resist yielding to the temptation to bang coconut shells together and prance up to the enemy with offers to debate if Muhammad ever existed with them.  It may be the last temptation you will ever yield to."

In Texas, black race hustlers throw white liberal under the bus

 

American Thinker.."She voted twice for Obama.

"Inspired by “hope and change” in a post-racial and more egalitarian America, she worked three months as an unpaid college intern in Michele Obama's office -- though she never actually got to meet the First Lady. She says she now supports the Clinton Global Initiative, a non-profit seeking to strengthen global interdependence.

"A pretty and athletic woman with strawberry blond hair and blue eyes, she for the moment works as a nanny, though she has a self-designed bachelor's degree from the University of Texas in Austin focusing on conflict resolution and the human rights of children. Her course work included a large dollop of African-American studies; so not surprisingly she firmly believes America needs a national discussion about race -- and the unjust profiling of black men.

"Yes, her progressive credentials are impressive.

"And so, she fumed, it was all the more outrageous that a fellow progressive -- a black law student no less! -- would write a newspaper column that “defamed” her as a “blue-eyed” and “blond” racist.
It was exactly the opposite of what happened, she said: She never profiled him. He profiled her!" . . .

It was supposed to be post-racial America. But the Obama years have instead been filled with racially charged mayhem: inner-city riots; myriad black-on-white attacks like the “knock-out” game; and racially charged police shootings and arrests. And no doubt there also have been untold numbers of testy non-violent encounters with racial overtones: nasty spats and hurt feelings between ordinary blacks and whites who increasingly walk on eggshells around each other while navigating the lower-frequencies of American life.

 

"Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees!"

Watcher of Weasels 

 

"It’s time once again for the Watcher’s Council’s ‘Weasel Of The Week’ nominations, where we pick our choices to compete for the award of the famed Golden Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations!"

The Clintons’ Own Media Meat Puppet George ‘What Donations?’ Stephanopoulos!!
 "The Noisy Room :My nomination this week goes to George Stephanopoulos for failing to disclose that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation and was obviously biased in his coverage and defense of Hillary Clinton. As the New York Post so astutely put it the bigger they are, the dumber they think we are:"

 

Rev Al’s Understudy, Dominique Sharpton!
 . . . "Her father, another weasel, said she “still suffers and will continue to suffer for some time physical pain and bodily injuries.”

“ 'I sprained my ankle real bad lol,” she wrote to Instagram." . . .

 

Nice Deb’s Favorite Troll, jensenempire2551!! 
 "Nice Deb :Can the nominee be a commenter on my blog? If so, I’d like to nominate jensenempire2551 who in the course of slamming Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, professed his desire for Obama to be “the first President to run Three Terms…' ”

 

End quote. Check back Wednesday to see who the lucky winner is,TD

Lets see what we can learn about Hillary today

Ron Fournier: I Don't Believe Hillary Clinton. . . "I don't believe her because a person's actions are more revealing than words: She kept her government email on a secret server and, only under pressure from Congress, returned less than half of them to the State Department. She deleted the rest. She considered them hers.
"I don't believe her when she says, "I want those emails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in those being released than I do." . . .

Hillary Clinton says her Iraq war vote was a 'mistake'    “The United States is doing what it can but ultimately this has to be a struggle that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people are determined to win for themselves,” said Clinton. “And we can provide support, but they’re going to have to do it.”

 During her 2008 campaign, Clinton defended her vote as a way to give President Bush authority to deal with Iraq.

'Hillary Unhinged: In Her Own Words'; "Tom Kuiper's devastating exposé of the would-be first female president"

"This is a completely updated paperback version of “I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan,” the classic quote book on Hillary that, in Dick Morris’s words, provides “all the ammunition you need” to “make sure that Hillary’s quotes and lies are not forgotten, but come back to haunt her.” Even better, “Hillary Unhinged” is chock full of QR codes you can use to go directly to the most outrageous videos and audios of Hillary:

A partial “Hillary Unhinged” chapter list includes: “Saint Hillary, “Hillary’s Potty Mouth,” “Hillary on Money,” “Revisionist Hillary History,” “Hillary vs. Barack,” “The War on Women,” “Dodging Sniper Fire,” “Vast Conspiracies,” “The Smartest Woman in the World?” and “Blaming Republicans.”

Clinton Breaks Her Silence   “ 'After weeks of determinedly avoiding the media altogether, Hillary Clinton was finally drawn into an exchange with journalists Tuesday, briefly answering questions about donations to her family foundation, her emails while secretary of State, the millions she earned giving speeches and the Iraq war,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“ 'It was a rare unscripted five minutes for a campaign that leaves little to chance. It was not clear if the candidate intended to talk to reporters at all, but once drawn in, she sought to turn uncomfortable questions about her record and the controversies that continue to swirl around her and Bill Clinton to her advantage.”

"The Des Moines Register has a list of the six questions she answered.

Here’s a clock that counts the minutes since Hillary Clinton answered a press question

 

Michael Barone: On the Campaign Trail, Hillary’s Press Silence Speaks Volumes
 . . . "It’s easy to say today that Franklin Roosevelt should have sent special ops to assassinate Hitler in the 1930s. But Roosevelt, who understood Hitler’s evil earlier than most, never considered it. In 2003, given what the U.S. and other intelligence services reported about Saddam Hussein, no responsible leader then could have assumed that he did not possess or seek weapons of mass destruction. The hard question, on which reasonable people differed and differ, was what — if anything — to do about it."

Obama’s Police Task Force Snuck This One by Us – Illegal Alien Felons/ Democrat Voters Get to Stay

 "They Are An Important Voting Block For Democrats!"

Independent Sentinel   "The Obama administration’s Police Task Force has a new “recommendation” that law enforcement better follow. Local police are no longer to report illegal alien felons to any agency that could deport them.

"Local, State and County law enforcement will no longer have any jurisdiction over this class of criminal when it comes to deportation – Homeland Security will have sole responsibility. They’ve been silenced.

"Sheriff Paul Babeau discussed this latest abomination out of the White House on Neil Cavuto’s show this afternoon.

"The Arizona Sheriff said we now have the finishing touches to President Obama’s “no enforcement of the law when it comes to illegal immigration because the majority of law enforcement are us – local, state, county law enforcement.' ” . . .

Alan Dershowitz: Obama is a “Foreign Policy Disaster”

Nice Deb"During an interview with Newsmax’s JD Hayworth, liberal Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz had some harsh words for Barack Obama.

"Dersh was on Newsmax TV to talk about the coming nuclear arms race in the Middle East as other Arab nations declare their resolve to match Iran in nuclear bombs – a charming development for which we can thank President “Smart Power” Obama.

"Dershowitz said Obama would go down in history as a “foreign policy disaster,” saying his terrible negotiations with Iran put the US in an impossible situation.

“ 'It is the worst negotiation I have ever seen,” the professor fumed. “I wouldn’t hire this guy to negotiate a one-month lease for me on an apartment.  He basically played poker with all of his cards showing, and the Iranians were playing chess by hiding their part of the board. It was just a dumb, dumb negotiation.”
Via Freedom’s Lighthouse:

Speaking of disasters, Professor Dershowitz voted for Obama twice. Not just once – which I could almost excuse – even the smartest among us can get fooled by a slick charlatan once. But he voted for the gut-wrenchingly corrupt, lying weasel TWICE. #SMH. #SadTrombone.

The Worst Day of Hillary Clinton's Campaign....so far

 

Stephen F. Hayes  "In fact, she’s had a series of bad days since she announced her presidential bid April 12. But Monday was the worst of them.

In a bombshell report, the New York Times reported that Clinton, as secretary of state, used her private email to share private intelligence reports from noted conspiracy theorist and political hitman Sidney Blumenthal, at a time when Blumenthal was being paid by the Clinton Foundation and liberal political organizations that helped lay the groundwork for Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The emails included reports on Libya at a time when Blumenthal was seeking business in the country and included dubious information. The Times reported that Clinton nonetheless “took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously” and “continued to pass around his emails even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable.”

"A second story about Clinton and Libya broke the same day, this one casting further doubt on the Obama administration’s narrative about the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, and specifically on claims Clinton made about nature of those attacks and motivations of the attackers. An intelligence report prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and sent to Clinton and other senior administration officials on September 12, 2012, just one day after the attacks, concluded that the attack “was planned ten or more days” in advance and was meant to “kill as many Americans as possible.” The report identifies al Qaeda-linked terrorists believed to have been involved in the assault.

"Despite this, the Obama administration crafted a public narrative that the attack had evolved from a “spontaneous” protest over a YouTube video and included a wide range of individuals. Clinton cited the video in remarks at a memorial service on September 14, 2012, for those killed in the attacks. She told members of the victims’ families that the administration would bring to justice those responsible for the video. The DIA report and several other Benghazi-related documents were released to Judicial Watch pursuant to a court order in response to a FOIA request.

"The DIA report further undermines the administration’s already-tattered claims that its public case was based on intelligence assessments. Emails released in response to a previous Judicial Watch request showed that the White House had drafted a set of political talking points that sought to blame the video and not administration policy. " . . .

Read the full article here...

 Comfortably Mum

 

"Hillary Clinton continues to say absolutely nothing about absolutely anything on the campaign trail, which is starting to make Hope n' Change wonder if she realizes that political candidates, unlike Trappist monks and Lois Lerner, are not required to take a vow of silence.

"Although if we were in Hillary's sensible shoes, we'd be keeping our yap shut too. After all, what can she possibly say to look good after the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morell, states as a certainty that every document which was ever on her private email server was downloaded by one or more foreign intelligence agencies."  . . .

This painting just sold for $46.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York

Jews News

 

"A Mark Rothko painting sold for $46.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, an evening in which several records were set including one for a work by German artist Sigmar Polke.

"The Rothko work “Untitled, (Yellow and Blue),” measuring 2.42 meters by 1.86 meters (about 8 feet by 6.1 feet) and completed in 1954, had been estimated at between $40 million and $60 million.

"The painting was once owned by American socialite Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, according to Bloomberg.

"Rothko was one of the most successful and famous artists in America before he killed himself in 1970, The Guardian notes.

"Sotheby’s notes on its website that “few 20th-century masters have inspired greater awe and reverence in their followers than” Rothko." . . .
Emphasis mine, TD

The flag of Ukraine:

Democrats before Iraq War started....

The shifty liberals...

Hat tip to John Steele: Miami, Florida

More on the despised media and ABC's Steph infection

ABC’s ‘secret’ $105M gamble on Stephanopoulos  "ABC has plenty of reasons to be freaking out over the George Stephanopoulos scandal — 105 million, to be exact.
"The “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor renewed his contract last year for $105 million, TV industry sources told The Post Monday.
"The seven-year deal — which dwarfs the five-year, $50 million contract scored by since-suspended NBC rival Brian Williams — was supposed to keep Stephanopoulos in front of ABC’s cameras through 2021." . . .

Lucianne  gives us some resource material for journalism students:
Scandal Rap Sheet: 48 Excellent Reasons to Distrust & Despise the Media   "The American mainstream media is filled to the brim with liars, frauds, partisans, cheats, plagiarists, and those who tolerate, defend and enable all of them. There is no American institution — not the NFL, not the tobacco companies, not any corporation or enterprise regularly targeted by the media — that engages in anywhere near the amount of fraud and dishonesty that serially oozes from Our Media Overlords.

"Forget bias for a moment. Forget mistakes and misstatements and stupid or nasty things said during live telecasts. There isn’t enough Internet to begin to list the countless instances of left-wing bias and politicking and idiocy the media engage in. What I’ve accumulated below is the scripted, planned and intentional." . . .Keep reading...

 George Stephanopoulos, Brian Williams and the media’s sinking reputation