Three decades of Hell

Vietnam Marks 30 Years Since War's End

Congrats to all who helped sentence millions to death, or, worse, enslavement.

The war in Vietnam, though waged by incompetents, was always a noble cause.

Great line from the latest VDH

On Being Disliked

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Personally, I'd rather live in a country that goes into an anguished national debate over pulling the plug on a lone woman than one that blissfully vacations on the beach oblivious to 15,000 elderly cooked to well done back in Paris.

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Great stuff from one of our finest minds.

Lessee ...

As regards Social Security reform ... Voluntary "private" accounts, including T-Bond accounts for the faint of heart, "reduced" (ie, pegged to the CPI) benefits for the nasty wealthy ... What exactly is so damned controversial about the president's plan? Ah, yes, it might allow some people to become self-sufficient vis-a-vis their golden years, and we can't have that. Better to keep folks poor and dependent.

Minutemen spread north

Arizona Border Patrol Looks to Canada

WASHINGTON - A controversial civilian patrol group that has been monitoring the Mexican border for illegal immigrants is looking to expand its mission to the Canadian border, organizers said Tuesday.

Minuteman Project leaders said their volunteers this month alerted federal authorities to more than 330 cases of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States over a 23-mile stretch of Arizona's southern border. Now they plan to extend their patrol along the rest of the border with Mexico and are helping to organize similar efforts in four states that neighbor Canada.

"In the absence of the federal government doing its mandated duty to secure our borders, we will pick up the slack. Reluctantly," said Chris Simcox, a Minuteman co-organizer who also operates Civil Homeland Defense, another Arizona group that monitors illegal immigrants.

"We shouldn't have to be doing this," Simcox told reporters in Washington, where he was to meet with lawmakers Wednesday. "But at this point, we will continue to grow this operation — also to the northern border."

Simcox offered no timeline on when the Canadian border patrol — to be organized in Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota and Vermont — might begin. But he said he hoped to start patrols near San Diego, Calif., by June and along the rest of the Mexico border by October.

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Why no NY patrols? The Ponderosa's northern boundary sits a scant mile from Lake Ontario, across which who knows who (whom?) could paddle undetected from Canada. Looks like we will have to contact the Minutemen regarding the need for a NY chapter, of which we will gladly be charter members!

Officers exonerated in Abu Ghraib abuses

WASHINGTON - Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, faulted by some for leadership failures in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has been cleared by the Army of all allegations of wrongdoing and will not be punished, officials said.

Three officers who were among Sanchez's top deputies during the period of the prisoner abuse in the fall of 2003 also have been cleared. An Army Reserve one-star general has been reprimanded, and the outcome of seven other senior Army officer cases could not be learned Friday.

Sanchez, who became the senior U.S. commander in Iraq in June 2003, two months after the fall of Baghdad, has not been accused of criminal violations. It is unclear, however, whether the controversy surrounding his role in Iraq will stand in the way of his earning a fourth star. He is nearing the end of his tenure as commander of the Army's 5th Corps, based in Germany.

After assessing the allegations against Sanchez and taking sworn statements from 37 people, the Army's inspector general, Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green, concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated, according to officials familiar with the details of Green's probe.

Green reached the same conclusion in the cases of two generals and a colonel who worked on Sanchez's staff.

The officials who disclosed the findings spoke only on condition of anonymity because the results on Sanchez and 11 other officers who were the subject of Green's scrutiny have not yet been publicly released and Congress has not been fully briefed.

The question of accountability among senior Army and Defense Department officials who were in positions of responsibility on Iraq detention and interrogation policy has been hotly debated in Congress. Some Democrats accuse the Pentagon of foisting all the blame onto low-ranking soldiers.

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Another shibboleth of the Loony Left dies with a wimper. It now appears that not only were the Abu Ghraib abuses not condoned by higher-ups in the Pentagon, but that the blame may indeed lie with those who actually committed them.

Special thanks goes out to the NY Times for keeping the issue alive and providing their buddies at Al Jazeera with gasoline to toss on the anti-American fires.

Bolton: Clarence Thomas redux

Based on the emails I get from those who disagree with the worldview of The Pondersa (why can't these people POST so the whole Blogosphere can enjoy their dementia?) many of you are too young to remember when, nearly 15 years ago, the Democrat Party unleashed a pre-emptive attack on Clarence Thomas, a highly qualified, BLACK CONSERVATIVE (that was his crime) judge nominated for the Supreme Court by G.H.W. Bush. The assault was highlighted by unsubstantiated charges from a flaky female subordinate, Anita Hill. The charges, even if accurate, hardly amounted to "sexual harassment". "There is a pubic hair on my Coke can" is a far cry from "Kiss it, kiss it" (as Paula Jones alleges Gov. Clinton urged her).

Such is the case again with John Bolton, the President's nominee to babysit the UN. Were all the charges leveled against him true, he would be guilty only of demanding competence from incompetents, including the anti-Bush activist Melody Townsel (see Rich Lowry's pieces below).

What is really at stake here is what was decided in the 2004 election -- the direction and focus of American foreign policy. Bolton will act as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN rather than vice versa. The "loyal" oppositon prefers the latter.

It is our hope that the effete GOP leadership in the Senate will find some testosterone before another quality public servant falls victim to the predations of the likes of the loathesome, bloated Chris Dodd, who hilariously referred to the charges as "indictable". Wonder what charges he thinks his fellow bulbous partner in slime Ted Kennedy should face ...

The UN is a corrupt, inept cabal in need of adult supervision. Bolton is more than up to the task, even if it means putting his hands on his hips and tossing a folder at Kofi "He's my son but I had no idea" Annan.

Thomas has gone on to become one of the two top justices -- along with Scalia-- on the Court. He has failed to "grow" in the job, as so many do once they discover allure of the Georgetown cocktail party crowd. We are confident Bolton will be able to do the same when forced to choose between the best interests of his nation and invitations to swanky Manhattan saturnalias.


Rich Lowry over at National Review Online has blogged extensivenly on this ...

Here ...
Here ...
Here ...
Here ...
And here ...

The Face of the Democrats

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Between a speech he delivered without notes and a question-answer session, Dean regaled an appreciative audience for nearly 90 minutes without once raising his voice, as he did after last year's Iowa primary election. But he did draw howls of laughter by mimicking a drug-snorting Rush Limbaugh.

"I'm not very dignified," he said. "But I'm not running for president anymore." In fact, as part of his commitment to lead the party for the next four years, he has sworn not to seek any office until after 2008.

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This guy is A DOCTOR?! Odd he can't discern between a patient in pain that becomes addicted to painkillers and recreational drug users -- who, after all, make up much of his Hollywood/Porn Belt constituency.

Recall that this fellow was the Dem's standard bearer as late as January 2004 before the media sabotaged his campaign and saved their -- er, his party from a McGovern/Mondale-esque blowout.

We can only imagine the media caterwauling were this callousness to spew forth from a non-member of the "party of compassion".

Cardinals enrage, befuddle media, choose Catholic Pope

... Sin to remain forbidden.

Cardinal Ratzinger's Homily in Mass Before Conclave
(all emphasis ours)

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How many winds of doctrine we have known in these last decades, how many ideological currents, how many fashions of thought? The small boat of thought of many Christians has often remained agitated by the waves, tossed from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, etc.

Every day new sects are born and we see realized what St. Paul says on the deception of men, on the cunning that tends to lead into error (cf. Ephesians 4:14). To have a clear faith, according to the creed of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism. While relativism, that is, allowing oneself to be carried about with every wind of "doctrine," seems to be the only attitude that is fashionable. A dictatorship of relativism is being constituted that recognizes nothing as absolute and which only leaves the "I" and its whims as the ultimate measure.

We have another measure: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. "Adult" is not a faith that follows the waves in fashion and the latest novelty. Adult and mature is a faith profoundly rooted in friendship with Christ. This friendship opens us to all that is good and gives us the measure to discern between what is true and what is false, between deceit and truth.

We must mature in this adult faith; we must lead the flock of Christ to this faith. And this faith, the only faith, creates unity and takes place in charity. St. Paul offers us a beautiful phrase, in opposition to the continual ups and downs of those who are like children tossed by the waves, to bring about truth in charity, as fundamental formula of Christian existence. Truth and charity coincide in Christ. In the measure that we come close to Christ, also in our life, truth and charity are fused. Charity without truth would be blind; truth without charity would be like "a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1).

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Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post trashes the "panzer cardinal" canard:

Ratzinger a Nazi? Don't believe it

... Ratzinger's membership in the Hitler Youth was not voluntary but compulsory; also admitted are the facts that the cardinal – only a teenager during the period in question – was the son of an anti-Nazi policeman, that he was given a dispensation from Hitler Youth activities because of his religious studies, and that he deserted the German army.

Ratzinger has several times gone on record on his supposedly "problematic" past. In the 1997 book Salt of the Earth, Ratzinger is asked whether he was ever in the Hitler Youth.

"At first we weren't," he says, speaking of himself and his older brother, "but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later as a seminarian, I was registered in the Hitler Youth. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult because the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the Hitler Youth.

"Thank goodness there was a very understanding mathematics professor. He himself was a Nazi, but an honest man, and said to me, 'Just go once to get the document so we have it...' When he saw that I simply didn't want to, he said, 'I understand, I'll take care of it' and so I was able to stay free of it."

Ratzinger says this again in his own memoirs, printed in 1998. In his 2002 biography of the cardinal, John Allen, Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter wrote in detail about those events.

The only significant complaint that the Times makes against Ratzinger's wartime conduct is that he resisted quietly and passively, rather than having done something drastic enough to earn him a trip to a concentration camp. Of course, whenever it is said that a German failed the exceptional-resistance-to-the-Nazis test, it would behoove us all to recognize that too many Jews failed it, as well.

If he were truly a Nazi sympathizer, then it would undoubtedly have become evident during the past 60 years. Yet throughout his service in the church, Ratzinger has distinguished himself in the field of Jewish-Catholic relations.

As prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger played an instrumental role in the Vatican's revolutionary reconciliation with the Jews under John Paul II. He personally prepared Memory and Reconciliation, the 2000 document outlining the church's historical "errors" in its treatment of Jews. And as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Ratzinger oversaw the preparation of The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, a milestone theological explanation for the Jews' rejection of Jesus.

If that's theological anti-Semitism, then we should only be so lucky to "suffer" more of the same.

As for the Hitler Youth issue, not even Yad Vashem has considered it worthy of further investigation. Why should we?

Pope Benedict XVI seems a perfect choice to carry on the work of his predecessor and friend. That his selection has elicited the predictable wails and character assassinations from those with the worst interests of the Church at heart -- those who desire a "living, breathing" catechism -- only serves to legitimize the choice in our minds and hearts.

The message sent is clear: The Church will not buckle to those who would dilute its teachings. Sin will remain Sin and the long trek to Heaven will continue to require faith, sacrifice and self-discipline.

Hillary? You gotta be kidding

Lessee if we got this straight: Marxist Wellesley (sp.?) grad marries amorous draft dodger ... is willing to overlook a steady stream of goomads in order to cherry pick a Senate seat in The People's Socialist Republic of NY State ... Can't deliver a speech without sounding like a blathering ("you know") magpie ... Dozens of hairstyles and several facelifts ... The time might be near for a female president, but it should be someone truly accomplished like Secretary Rice, not "Mrs." Clinton, who shatters that ceiling.

Congress to American consumers: Grow up!

Congress Passes Bankruptcy Reform Bill

Tens of thousands of people who want to wipe out their debts in bankruptcy court would have to work out repayment plans instead under legislation Congress approved Thursday.

A 302-126 vote by the House sent the legislation to President Bush, who said he was eager to sign the measure, the biggest rewrite of the bankruptcy code in a quarter-century. It marks the second major change in law to benefit business since Republicans increased their House and Senate majorities in last fall's elections.

Debate in the House was acrimonious as Democratic opponents warned that the measure would hurt the economically vulnerable while failing to restrain aggressive marketing and high rates charged by credit card issuers.

After eight years of strenuous efforts by congressional backers, banks and credit card companies, the legislation was catapulted toward enactment starting earlier this year. The legislation, which garnered some Democratic votes, cleared the Senate last month on a 74-25 vote.

The measure would require people with incomes above a certain level to pay credit-card charges, medical bills and other obligations under a court-ordered bankruptcy plan.


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Repayment plans?! That does it: Bush is Hitler and we're living in a theocracy!

We've long believed it was far too simple for Americans to walk away from their financial -- their MORAL -- commitments to their creditors. Bankruptcy is essentially a way of telling someone who's provided you with a good or service to go screw himself.

The usual "Blame Corporate America" demagogues offered their typical class warfarist bromides but found themselves easily outvoted by the advocates of personal responsibility. An economy is only as sound as the contracts that underpin it.

Our advice: If you can't afford it, DON'T BUY IT!

Gratuitous mockery ...

Caption time!

Three nabbed in terror plot targeting financial sites

3 Britons charged
in plot against finance buildings

WASHINGTON - Three suspected terrorists on Tuesday were indicted on charges that they targeted financial buildings in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., in a four-year plot that prompted federal authorities to raise the terrorism threat assessment level in those areas last summer.

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A four-count indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Dhiran Barot, Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffi, all British citizens, of scouting the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia.

The three men, already in custody in England, were charged with three conspiracy counts and providing material support to terrorists. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if they are tried and convicted of the charges against them, Deputy Attorney General James Comey said at a news conference announcing the indictments.

Comey said the trio engaged in surveillance of the financial buildings as part of a plot that envisioned using "weapons of mass destruction" against them. He said the plot ran from August 2000 until August 2004, when the men were arrested in the United Kingdom on terrorism-related charges.

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Call us cynical if you must, but we're certain this announcement means a late night at the ACLU as they scramble to free these "political prisoners".

New York State to citizens: Drop dead ... but your killer won't!

It was nice while it lasted ...

Powerful committee in New York state Assembly kills death penalty bill

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A powerful committee of the state Assembly voted Tuesday not to send legislation aimed at reinstating New York's death penalty to the full house, a move that may effectively kill the effort for this year.

Such legislation has been pushed hard by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the state Senate's Republican majority leader, Joseph Bruno. In March, the GOP-led Senate voted 37-22 in favor of a bill almost identical to the one rejected Tuesday.

Pataki harshly criticized the 11-7 vote by the Democrat-controlled Codes Committee, saying the "Assembly leadership's `so what' attitude toward criminals ... is simply shameful."

New York's death penalty was reinstated in 1995 by the Legislature and Pataki, who had vowed to bring capital punishment back during the 1994 campaign when he ousted incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo. Cuomo, in 12 years as governor, had routinely vetoed death penalty legislation.

No one was ever executed under the 1995 death penalty law, and it was effectively declared invalid by a ruling from the state's highest court last year.

Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol, who had supported the death penalty, said advances in DNA technology have shown innocent people are too often convicted of murder.(emphasis ours).
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"advances in DNA technology have shown innocent people are too often convicted of murder"

Err, isn't the existence of DNA technologies a point in favor of the death penalty, making it far less likely that the innocent will be convicted? Odd.

Funny how the advance of prenatal technologies hasn't made the unborn of NYS any safer.

Indeed, we'd be happy to make this swap: A million plus innocent babies a year (nationally) for the lives of a few dozen pondscum -- provided the latter are confined to dark cells and forced to watch "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica" for the remainder of their natural lives.

Zogby poll: Leave the tube in

Zogby Poll: Americans Not in Favor of Starving Terri Schiavo

Remember that deceptively worded ABC News poll designed to favor the "pull the tube" crowd?

A new Zogby poll poses "fairer questions", with drastically different results.

[All emphasis ours]

Polls leading up to the death of Terri Schiavo made it appear Americans had formed a consensus in favor of ending her life. However, a new Zogby poll with fairer questions shows the nation clearly supporting Terri and her parents and wanting to protect the lives of other disabled patients.

The Zogby poll found that, if a person becomes incapacitated and has not expressed their preference for medical treatment, as in Terri's case, 43 percent say "the law presume that the person wants to live, even if the person is receiving food and water through a tube" while just 30 percent disagree.
Another Zogby question his directly on Terri's circumstances.

"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.

A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away while just 9 percent said yes.

"From the very start of this debate, Americans have sat on one of two sides," Concerned Women for America's Lanier Swann said in response to the poll. One side "believes Terri's life has worth and purpose, and the side who saw Michael Schiavo's actions as merciful, and appropriate."

More than three-fourths of Americans agreed, Swann said, "because a person is disabled, that patient should never be denied food and water."

The poll also lent support to members of Congress to who passed legislation seeking to prevent Terri's starvation death and help her parents take their lawsuit to federal courts.

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Too little, too late for Ms. Schiavo. Hopefully, these results will keep her defenders from going wobbly as debate over the issue continues.

Tolerance, "liberal" style

Pat Buchanan doused with salad dressing

KALAMAZOO, Michigan (AP) -- Commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cut short an appearance after an opponent of his conservative views doused him with salad dressing.

"Stop the bigotry!" the demonstrator shouted as he hurled the liquid Thursday night during the program at Western Michigan University. The incident came just two days after another noted conservative, William Kristol, was struck by a pie during an appearance at a college in Indiana.

After he was hit, Buchanan cut short his question-and-answer session with the audience, saying, "Thank you all for coming, but I'm going to have to get my hair washed."

The demonstrator, identified by authorities as a 24-year-old student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, was arrested and faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. He was released on a $100 cash bond, pending his April 14 arraignment.

"He could have faced a felony assault charge, but Pat Buchanan decided to not press that charge," university spokesman Matt Kurz said.

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So, in recent weeks, we've had Ann Coulter heckled, Bill Kristol pelted with a pie (Coulter deftly dodged a similar attack last year) and Buchanan doused with what appears to be creamy Italian. We say appears as you can never be certain with this bunch -- we hope Pat went home and swam in bleach.

Yup -- the vaunted tolerance of The Left! Buggery, oui! Opposing opinions, non!

Old hippie, burnout, lame ass musicians never die

... they just blather away ...

60's Peace Activist Apologizes to Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - It's been 30 years since the last bombs fell during the Vietnam War, and longtime peace activist Peter Yarrow says it's about time that America apologizes.

The singer-songwriter from the 1960s folk group Peter, Paul and Mary has grown gray, but his passion to fight for those affected by the war remains fervent.

During his first trip to Vietnam this week, he told The Associated Press that the war wounds of the United States won't heal until the nation makes amends — a process he believes should involve helping Vietnamese suffering from the ill health effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed by U.S. planes during the war.

"All I know is that there's something that's really hurting the process of engagement, normalization and mutual respect in this equation," he said of U.S.-Vietnam relations. "And a real flash point is the issue of Agent Orange."

Yarrow, 66, performed a benefit concert[The Ponderosa: haven't these people suffered enough?!] before a packed crowd in Hanoi's Opera House to raise money for the cause and visited a village where U.S. veterans volunteer their time to help children suffering from diseases and birth defects believed to be caused by exposure to the chemical.

Yarrow, famous for the song "Puff, The Magic Dragon" and his rendition of Bob Dylan's classic "Blowin' In The Wind", decided to devote himself to the cause after years of activism ranging from marching with slain U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., to organizing concerts in Madison Square Garden to protest the unpopular war.

"Now, I'm here with that history and came to Vietnam ready to get down on my knees as one American and say, 'Please forgive us. We who are a good country — and a great country in many ways — also have made some terrible mistakes,'" he said.

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We agree with Peter. He and his fellow pot puffing travellers should apologize to the prisoners -- er, citizens of Vietnam for selling them out to the Commies.

This dude's 66 and still has the brain of a child. Who says drugs are harmless?