Passing Thoughts In Life's Rearview Mirror

The Month That Was - May

Editor's Note: Thomas's commentary is in blue and Marcie's is in purple.

And we thought last month was busy. This month certainly seemed a bit busier, and far more important based on the stories that broke. George Tenet's book was exposed as a pretty decent work of fiction; a Chinese-American was found guilty of spying for the Chinese government; Ayman al-Zawahiri released a new tape calling for more US troops to kill; and Fred Thompson sent a letter to Pajamas Media acknowledging the role of the alternative media in this upcoming election. But these stories were small potatoes compared to the other news of the month ...

Surrender On The War

It is not a common thing to see one party in this nation so vehemently opposed to America winning a war. Likewise, they are fairly obtuse when it comes to trying to kill our efforts. First, they promised to fund the mission this year, on the condition that we begin pulling the troops out of Iraq by years' end. The President nixed that with a veto -- one they could not overcome, though they tried. Then they offered up a bill that would give funds to the troops for sixty days, but a withdrawal timetable was still within it. When will they learn that the president makes such calls, not them? When all was said and done though, before May ended, the Democrats retreated. Faced with opposition amongst their own caucus, and overwhelming criticism from the nation, they capitulated on retreat from Iraq, and gave the president what he had asked for months before -- a spending bill for the mission at hand with no timetables for withdrawal.

John McCain -- DOA In 2008

McCain/Feingold; being against the tax cuts in 2001 and 2003; the Gang of Fourteen deal in 2005; the redundant torture amendment to the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill; his attachment, initially to the Kennedy immigration bill -- one would think that's all that is there is to finish John McCain off in 2008. Not so. He still had an "inside Hell of a chance" to take the nomination. That is now all over. While the backdoor meeting over the immigration bill draft was going on, McCain arrived late, was very anxious about maintaining his busy campaign schedule, and blew up on Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Not only did he drop the "F" bomb on him, but he told him to leave the room. Two days later, he took an underhanded swipe at Mitt Romney over his immigration stance; one that has yet to change at all. These outbursts, and his past legislative record, has finished this bitter, old senator's last chance at the White House. As the old adage goes -- all Senators look in the mirror and see a President. I suggest John McCain look in a mirror for some soul-searching because his is obviously absent today. At the very least, decency has taken a vacation with this man.

Bad Job Security -- Being A Senior Jihadi

In Afghanistan this month, Mullah Dadullah, one of the most senior Taliban commanders, was sent to his eternal reward. Known as the "Taliban Zarqawi," he was just as ruthless as the man his nickname was derived from. The raid, involving US and Afghan forces, cornered and killed him quickly. At first, the Taliban refused to admit he was dead. Later the admission came after Al-Jazeera confirmed it. In Iraq, Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri was killed while US and Iraqi forces were conducting raids in the beefed-up surge in and around Baghdad. While he was identified as being responsible for many kidnappings in Iraq by al-Qaeda, US commanders stated that they knew of him only as al-Qaeda's senior information minister dealing with insurgent and jihadi propaganda. This simply proves the point that we can and will find them, and we will kill them if we have to. Yes, we would rather take them alive to obtain operational intelligence, but if they resist our troops will have no qualms about sending them to meet Allah, personally.

Dodging "Bullets"

Yeah, we dodged one this past month when federal authorities executed a number of raids in New Jersey to round up the men that have been dubbed the "Fort Dix Six." These men -- four of them here illegally -- were planning on carrying out an attack on the base in an attempt to kill as many soldiers as possible. Originally, they planned to use tanker trucks, and intended to ram those trucks into base buildings. Their immigration status made such an attack impossible, so they began training for the raid. What killed their mission was the fact that they made a jihadi video showing them training in the Pocono Mountains. The video showed them training with assault rifles, repeating jihadist language, and yelling "Allah Ackbar," as suicide boimbers do. They sent this video to a neighborhood Circuit City store to have it turned into a DVD, and the store employee in charge of those operations saw this, and tipped off authorities. The Circuit City employee has been praised for his/her efforts in being vigilant. (That person has still yet to be identified.) The FBI announced this "cell" was nearly ready for this attack, so avoiding this was nothing short than a stroke of luck.

Senators Reach A Raw Deal For America

Near the end of May, a group of Senators finished their closed-door negotiations on a new immigration reform bill. And if you were hoping they would reach a safe and sane consensus, think again. After reading through the draft, we have serious problems. Granted, the spin from the White House and the Senators involved is that none of the regularization efforts in the bill would go into effect unless certain benchmarks were reached, such as the construction of 360 miles of border fence, and the hiring of an additional 18,000 border guards. The problem with the spin is that we, as Americans, have heard this before when the 1986 amnesty was passed. In short the bill will give the illegal aliens here now a limited form of amnesty. The bill talks about a new visa -- the "Z-Visa" -- and explains how those here illegally would have to go about getting one. Unfortunately, they have eight years to comply to get the new visa, and many illegal aliens claim they are being forced to jump through too many hoops; there is no desire to follow the new law. Additionally, Robert Rector from the Heritage Foundation has stated that the new reforms will hurt this nation financially, and at a time when Social Security is nearing its crisis stage. At the time of this column's publishing, the Senate is still debating this bill.

No Confidence In Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert is in the middle of a firestorm. The Winograd Commission in Israel has released its preliminary report on the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict from last year, and they find a great deal of fault in Olmert and Defense Minister Peretz. Roughly 100,000 Israelis took to the streets after the report was released and demanded Olmert's resignation. They shouted for new elections, and have been applying pressure to those in the Knesset to move quickly to deal with Olmert. He hasn't stepped down yet, but I'm not too sure how long he's going to be able to hold out. Olmert, to his credit, doesn't believe the report backs the calls for his resignation, but rather provides points that have to be improved. The people of Israel were let down by their government during the conflict by not having all the bomb shelters open and stocked, and the military's ill-prepared advance into Lebanon. The Winograd Commission is expected to release its final report sometime this summer, and those on the commission have confided to Israeli news sources that the final report will be even more damning than the preliminary one was.

Sarkozy Defeats Royal

Jacques Chirac is out of a job, and not happy with the results of the election in France. Nicholas Sarkozy defeated his socialist rival Segolene Royal in the election for France's new President. Sarkozy was the man we wanted to win. He is, by comparison, far more America-friendly than his predecessor, and has a vision to fix France from the years of socialism heaped on the people by previous Presidents. He has an economic plan that follows the American and British examples as opposed to the nanny state system that France has employed, and has failed the nation. He appointed a moderate conservative, Francois Fillon, to serve as France's new Prime Minister, ousting Dominique de Villepin. He has been critical of the Muslim immigrants, and their behavior in France, and he has decreed that they will either assimilate, or be relegated to a lesser status. Many consider him a hardliner while his supporters tout that he is the change that is necessary for France right now.

Another Example Of Why The MSM Is Failing

We don't like to stand up on soapboxes about our place in the alternative media. It's just a simple fact. But one thing we will brag about is that, unlike the MSM, we haven't blown any covert operations conducted by this nation while at war. The New York Times can't say that. Neither can the Los Angeles Times. Now both ABC and CBS News has joined their ranks. ABC News reported on operations being conducted by the CIA to "destabilize" the Iranian government. Not to be outdone, CBS News reported on efforts we've undertaken to hinder the Iranians efforts to build a nuclear weapon. That includes altering key, essential machine parts and altering -- slightly -- blueprints and schematics. Both operations are now in jeopardy, as well as the lives of the CIA officers operating with dissidents to undermine the Iranian regime. This is irresponsible. Worse, it's illegal. The press doesn't have unlimited freedom under the First Amendment, and when it comes to revealing national security secrets, they are prosecutable. During World War II, the press understood that they had a job to do for the nation in reporting the news. But they also had a conscience not to endanger the war effort.

This month was a busy one for us as the news continued to flow in. There is never an end to the news cycle; there are only brief moments of reflection. This month I did not participate as much as I usually do on our site because I finally graduated, so it was up to Thomas to handle the bulk of the work early this month. But regardless of who is in charge, we are always there, and watching life go by in the rearview mirror ...

He is a scholar of history, especially American history, and the United States Constitution. She has finished her undergrad studies, graduating with a BA in English and history, and will move onto law school this fall where she will specialize in Constitutional Law. Together, Thomas and Marcie form the vanguard of conservative opinion at The Asylum--a blogging site devoted to advancing the conservative cause by challenging the liberal lies and deceit spread by the media, and espoused by the Left in general. Both are expert debaters, and have beaten many liberals into submission with their collective wit, and unmatched knowledge. The pair is married, and resides in Arizona.

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