Senator Elect Jim Webb of Virginia has shown one of the clearer examples that a “new tone” and civility in Washington only applies to Republicans when it comes to actual interaction with others. In matters of civil discourse it takes two to tango as our President discovered as early as the Spring of 2001. No amount of civility can be effective when only exhibited by one side of the interaction. At a reception for freshman lawmakers, Webb rebuffed the President in rude fashion when responding to a well intentioned question. When a polite response would have sufficed, Webb took the low road as we so often see these days.

The office of the President demands respect and while one may not agree with the policies of a politician it is something best dealt with in a civil manner and in the proper forum. Webb could have politely answered the question posed by the President who inquired as to the welfare of Webb’s son who is currently a Marine stationed in Iraq, instead he chose confrontation in an inappropriate forum. Webb may well have concerns about the way the war is being prosecuted and have some better ideas but they are best brought up on the Senate floor and not in an orientation session.

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I have cut and pasted several paragraphs from previous posts in an effort to emphasize the ongoing debate about Iraq. Much is being made in the debate about Iraq being in a state of Civil War.

From INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

NBC Has Its Own ‘Cronkite Moment’
WWIII: NBC calls Iraq a “civil war,” acknowledging that its decision could “erode” support for our effort there. Isn’t that the point? As in Vietnam, the media blame America first and become the enemy’s mouthpiece.

If Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2 terrorist and aide to Osama bin Laden, gets tired of his current post, he might try seeking the position of managing editor at NBC News. As al-Zawahiri wrote in a 6,000-word letter dated July 8, 2005: “(W)e are in a battle, and more than half this battle is in the media.”

On Monday, NBC officially defected to the other side.

From the Wall Street Journal

That task has clearly been complicated by recent events–including more blood in Baghdad and the Republican wipeout in Congress caused in part by frustration with the Iraq war. There’s also this week’s spectacle of the wannabe Walter Cronkites at outlets like NBC News and the Los Angeles Times patting themselves on the back for declaring that the Iraq conflict is a “civil war.” Mr. Cronkite is often credited with helping turn public opinion against the war in Vietnam, and today’s media point seems to be to declare the war unwinnable, as if this were actually desirable.

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Snoop Dogg, the 35 year old rap artist, has been arrested yet again on drug and gun possession charges. Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, is a convicted felon and as such he is not allowed to carry a gun and carrying drugs is illegal regardless of who you happen to be.

Broadus was arrested after taping an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He had drugs and a gun in his possession. This arrest stems from an earlier incident where he was arrested for having a gun and marijuana in his car at the Bob Hope Airport. Broadus has a court date of 12 December for that offense. He also has a court date on 4 December for carrying a deadly weapon (a baton the rapper claims was a prop) at the John Wayne Airport.

What is it with this idiot and airports? He was arrested in the UK when he and his posse got mad and broke a bunch of stuff at the airport. I am unsure about that case but he is probably not allowed in the UK any more. This guy is the embodiment of a gangster rapper. He was one of the people who begged for the life of Tookie Williams to be spared because the gangster, who murdered at least four people, had been a big influence in Snoop’s life. I guess exactly what kind of influence is now showing up in the acts and deeds of Snoop Dogg.

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The old joke goes, “How do you know when a politician is lying?” Answer: “His lips are moving.” This is true of most politicians and I am sure that in the future some Thesaurus will have liar as a synonym for the word politician. During the last campaign the Democrats told everyone how tough they were on National Security and that Republicans were the ones who were really weak. The Democrats promised to implement every recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. I do not necessarily think that all the recommendations of that commission need to be implemented but, then again, I did not promise to do so. The 9/11 Commission was stacked with people whose sole purpose was to exonerate Bill Clinton and to protect his legacy. Sure they came up with some good ideas but not all of them were necessarily so. The Democrats used the fact that not all had been implemented to bash Republicans as weak and promised to implement all of the recommendations if they were placed back in control.

[Nancy Pelosi 6/13/06] “Republicans’ misplaced priorities mean America is not as safe it should be. Democrats have a new direction for the American people — one that will fully implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and make the security of the American people a top priority.” U.S. Newswire

[Harry Reid 10/9/06]Reid said if Democrats take power, they would work to redeploy troops off the battlefields. Renew efforts to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Fully implement the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations.Las Vegas Sun (all emphasis mine)

Now it would appear as if implementing all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission is not so pressing and they can be studied, or looked at a bit longer, or ignored. You see, the Democrats are now in power so they really do not need to follow through on what they promised because the mindless drones who voted for them will forget this, ignore this, or believe the Democrat’s excuses when they run the next time. I believe that Pelosi said that Republicans had misplaced priorities because they had not implemented all the recommendations and she promised that Democrats were focused on keeping Americans would make this a priority. Since they are not implementing ALL of the recommendations, is it now safe to say the Democrats have misplaced priorities and America is not as safe as it should be (her words)?

One of the recommendations of the Commission is to reorganize Congress to improve oversight and funding for intelligence. Now that they are in charge, the Democrats do not want to reorganize Congress. It would seem that this was only a good 9/11 recommendation when they could use it against Republicans in the campaign. When it actually comes to acting on their beliefs about making America secure, the Democrats fail miserably.

Because plans for implementing the commission’s recommendations are still fluid, Democratic officials would not speak for the record. But aides on the House and Senate appropriations, armed services and intelligence committees confirmed this week that a reorganization of Congress would not be part of the package of homeland-security changes up for passage in the “first 100 hours” of the Democratic Congress.

“I don’t think that suggestion is going anywhere,” said Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), the chairman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee and a close ally of the incoming subcommittee chairman, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). “That is not going to be their party position.”

It may seem like a minor matter, but members of the commission say Congress’s failure to change itself is anything but inconsequential. In 2004, the commission urged Congress to grant the House and Senate intelligence committees the power not only to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies but also to fund them and shape intelligence policy. The intelligence committees’ gains would come at the expense of the armed services committees and the appropriations panels’ defense subcommittees. Powerful lawmakers on those panels would have to give up prized legislative turf. Washington Post

In addition to not reorganizing Congress, Pelosi has ignored the recommendations of the Commission in order to avoid giving Jane Harman the lead on the Intelligence Committee. In 2003, the House put into place one of the Commission’s recommendations to do away with term limits for people serving on the Intelligence Committee in order to provider better continuity. Pelosi used the excuse of term limits to pass over Harman even though those limits do not apply because of 9/11 Commission recommendations that were already implemented by the Republicans.

I have written many times that Democrats can not be trusted and that they are weak on National Security. Despite the bravado during the campaign, they have proven to be just what I said all along. This will be a fun two years. I will enjoy the role as a blogger of the minority. Now it is my turn to find inconsistencies from the majority and watch the liberals try to explain why these people who they slobber over, have done something wrong. It will be fun to listen to all the excuses and drivel that will be spewed about these wonderful Democrats. That is of course, if we are not attacked and killed in the next two years. In that event we can change the title to “The Democrats Lied and People Died.” The leftys will like the protest sound of that.

Those of you who voted for these idiots are not allowed to complain. You know what they are like and you still put them in power. A shameful act to be sure but you may not complain. You caused the problem and now we all have to live with it.

[Discuss this article with Big Dog]

Others Discussing News of the Democrats This Morning: Michelle Malkin, Captain’s Quarters, Texas Rainmaker

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Ah, now this is my kind of thing. Here we have a genre that is understood to be G rated and oggling at the coquettish star material is decidedly inappropriate…or expected to be inappropriate, anyway. Nevertheless, time after time the message has been concocted, passed to the parents on a covert channel squarely over the kids’ heads, and someone has taken the effort to pick up on the signals and compare them from one movie to the next. Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s really got it going on?

It’s even original. And, where it is called-for, tasteful; due consideration is given as to whether Ariel might be underage. And Jessica Rabbit wins the top spot, as one would expect.

One of the readers posts an interesting question: “Do Pixar babes count now that Disney owns Pixar?” You know, I don’t see how they couldn’t. Pixar has indulged in the “toss this joke at the parents and go over the kids’ head” thing far more than the parent company has, and some of the Pixar babes are just…wow. Elastigirl, of course, stands alone as the only female cartoon character who distracted me from what was going on in the rest of the movie.

And it goes without saying: Once we branch out into the world beyond Disney movies, nobody is on par with “Alice,” Dennis Mitchell’s mom. Yummy. But that almost gets into a different subject.

[Discuss Over At House of Eratosthenes]

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There’s an article in today’s New York Times exposing (again) one of the problems with affirmative action — it elevates nice, ordinary people to situations where they’re bound to fail. This time the focus is on the nation’s top law firms, where African-Americans consistently fail to last:

Thanks to vigorous recruiting and pressure from corporate clients, black lawyers are well represented now among new associates at the nation’s most prestigious law firms. But they remain far less likely to stay at the firms or to make partner than their white counterparts.

A recent study says grades help explain the gap. To ensure diversity among new associates, the study found, elite law firms hire minority lawyers with, on average, much lower grades than white ones. That may, the study says, set them up to fail.

The study, of course, is being vigorously challenged. You can read about the whole debate here.

I’m actually inclined to agree with the study’s conclusion based upon my own years at big law firms. So many of these firms hired minorities solely so that they could boast about their progressive ethnic balance. This meant that they weren’t always so picky about their new hires’ qualifications. These kids were window dressing, and the firms never really committed to having them for the long haul.

However, based on my twenty-years out-of-date information, let me throw out one more reason that minorities aren’t lasting at the big firms — their sense of entitlement prevents them from working as hard as they ought to. In this regard, I speak from personal experience. I was one of a big crew of women and minorities that a large urban law firm hired so that it could boast about its diversity, something that was becoming very important in the legal marketplace. All of us were academically qualified and could have been hired without regard to our sex or race, but we still felt very special — we were the vanguard of the new lawyer. Away with the “white boys,” and in with the women, the Hispanics and the African Americans.

Of course, because we were so special, we felt pretty sure we were entitled to special treatment. It just wasn’t fair to make us work so hard, and why in the world weren’t they holding our hands constantly?

[Read More and Discuss With BookWorm]

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I couldn’t help myself on the title. (or the image)

The Journal of Experimental Medicine is reporting that Viagra may help in the fight against cancer by slowing tumor growth and boosting the immune system. Ultimately the drug worked to shrink the size of tumors in a recent study.

In cancer patients, though the body generates tumor-specific antibodies, their efficacy is neutralized by the tumor itself. Tumors recruit cells such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and regulatory T cells, which suppress the body’s immune system, thus allowing the tumors to escape immune recognition. Borrello’s team has been investigating ways to overcome this immunosuppression.

Suppression of T cells by MDSCs requires, among other things, nitric oxide production. The team reasoned, therefore, that reducing nitric oxide levels might boost immunity in cancer patients. They thus turned to Viagra. Besides its well-known vasodilatory effect, Viagra also reduces nitric oxide production through a separate but linked pathway.

The team gave Viagra to mice with colon carcinoma and found that the immune systems of the mice were indeed boosted. The mice had an increased number of cytotoxic T cells, and tumor outgrowth was reduced by 50–70%. Viagra also provided a boost to T cells transferred to the mice using adoptive cell therapy, with tumor growth being reduced still further.

This is more proof that pharmaceutical companies truly do care about more than the bottom line!

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Here’s a quick chronology, followed by my comments.

First, during this summer’s Israeli/Hezbollah War, AP, along with several other news outlets, was shown to have relied upon doctored and staged photographs, and false and/or misleading stories fed to them by local stringers sympathetic to Hezbollah. (You can read all about it here, at LGF.)

Second, for some time in the Iraq War, major news outlets have been caught relying on information, some true and some false, that they received from local “reporters” whose manifest sympathies lie with the insurgents. Many of these stories and photos have been nothing more than propaganda for the insurgents. I don’t know offhand whether AP has been caught in this propaganda net, but I suspect a little research would show that it has.

Third, this weekend, AP reported that Shiia militia burned six Sunni men alive.

Fourth, Curt, at Flopping Aces, dug into the story and discovered (a) that the source the AP cites is probably an imposter and (b) that the US Army has no knowledge of the alleged event — which is pretty surprising, because it was reported as a huge deal. Curt found a whole bunch of other stuff, which you should read at the source, but all of which points to problems, big problems with the AP story.

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Others Blogging on this Subject:

Michelle Malkin, The Jawa Report, Bill’s Bites, Wizbang, Hot Air

Mahdi Army militia MSM

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I read with a heavy heart that Kim Priestap and her husband Steve learned of their cousin’s death in Iraq on Thanksgiving evening. Army Sgt.1st Class James Priestap was killed instantly by a terrorist sniper’s bullet at a checkpoint near Baghdad.

Please pay condolences to Kim and her family over at Wizbang where Kim is an author.

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Terrorist organizations are celebrating another victory in the War on Terror courtesy California District Judge Audry Collins.

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge struck down President Bush’s authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush’s order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as “specially designated global terrorists” after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists,” said David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group. “It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era.”

The case centered on two groups, the Liberation Tigers, which seeks a separate homeland for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan, a political organization representing the interests of Kurds in Turkey.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins enjoined the government from blocking the assets of the two groups.

Both groups consider the Nov. 21 ruling a victory; both had been designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations.

Judge Collins, a Clinton appointee, ruled in favor of claims made by lawyers for the radical far left Center for Constitutional Rights. This is the same group that released a book in 2006 titled Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush.

The Center for Constitutional Rights new book, Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, makes the case for impeaching President Bush for illegally spying on U.S. citizens, lying to the American people about the Iraq war, seizing undue executive power, and sending people to be tortured overseas. We need your help to grow this movement.

CCR also supports the efforts of many left wing organizations and agenda items including support for convicted terrorist sympathizer Lynne Stewart and the belief that Nuremberg war crime laws should have been applied to the American military in Vietnam.

The ruling wasn’t an overall loss for the government because Collins only invalidated portions of the law. The ruling let stand part of the Presidential order that would penalize those providing services to groups on the list. CCR plans to appeal those portions of the ruling that didn’t swing their way.

Judge Collins is the same judge that struck down portions of the Patriot Act in 2004.

Others:

Michelle Malkin, Stop The ACLU, Captains Quarters

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