The Opinionator

Sit Down and Have a Nice Tall Glass of Shut the Hell Up! Updated

The bodies have not even been located, let alone buried, yet the Left has intensified their "Blame the Bushitler for Hurricane Katrina" attacks. I for one, have had just about enough. Here are a few of the people that need to sit down and have a nice tall glass of shut the hell up!

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: He has the nerve to lay the blame for the hurricane at the feet of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour because he opposed the Kyoto Protocol. The fact that the science does not support his nonsense; even the New York Times points out that it is bogus, means nothing to Kennedy. However, even if RFK is correct, which he is not, does his rubbing this in the face of Gov. Barbour who is dealing with the destruction of part of his state, the rescue efforts to help those in need and the deaths of hundreds of his fellow Mississippians seem particularly without class. Damn right it does. By the way, if Kyoto was such great idea, Bill the Boy Wonder should have fought for its passage. Perhaps we should blame him for the hurricane.

Jurgen Tritten; Germany's Environmental Minister and Ross Gelbspan: Both of these Mensa wannabe's attempt to lay the blame at the feet of President Bush. Again, because of his refusal to push for Senate ratification of the Kyoto Treaty. Is anyone else amazed that the effects of "Global Warming" only seem to have manifested themselves in the last few years? Was "Global Warming" responsible for hurricanes during the Clinton years or does it only cause them during Republican Administrations? By the way Jurgen, a simple "thank you" for all we have done and are doing for your country will suffice. And if a disaster ever hits Germany, feel free to call France!

Cindy Sheehan: Is her fifteen minutes up YET? She joins the chorus in blaming Katrina on Bush's environmental policies and repeats the canard about there not being enough National Guard troops in the affected areas due to Bush sending them to Iraq to die (she also complained their equipment was in Iraq as well. As if an M-1 would be very helpful right now). Sheehan has long since stopped letting facts get in the way of her story, as NPR host Neil Conan found out today. But Jamie McIntyre of CNN completely exposed the "lack of troops" myth last night. Mississipi has 60% of their Guard troops available, Louisiana 64%, Alabama and Florida in the 70% plus range. Of course, as much as I want to see her go away, the more she speaks, the better for those that support our troops and the War in Iraq as she is exposed as a mentally unstable idiot. Here is your steaming hot cup of shut...never mind, keep talking.

Sidney Blumenthal: Dear Sid accuses the President of taking money earmarked for making New Orleans impregnable to flooding and spending it on the War in Iraq. Sid, you had your eight years. You and Bill could have spent the money as well. There was no need to wait on a major sytudy to tell you the obvious; New Orleans is below sea level and a major storm could flood it. Time for you to go now. Here is your tall class of shut the hell up in a travel cup to go.

It is time for some to get past the need to assign blame. It is a hurricane. They happen every year. Instead of spending time trying to make political points, how about doing something useful, such as raising money or sending supplies. You can be part of the problem or part of the solution. If you chose the former, I have a cup of shut the hell up waiting for you!

P.S. Go to Moxie to read about even more people that need to shut the hell up!

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Update: Redstate.org has an excellent post addressing the lack of National guard troops myth in detail. I would also add that many of the Guard member in LA are themselves dealing with the effects of the storm. Let's keep that in mind.

The Tiger Brigade Experiences the Cruelest Twist of Fate; Wish Them Well.

The 256th Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard has been in Iraq for the better part of a year. The families of the Tiger Brigade soldiers have been anxiously waiting the return of their loved ones and hoping and praying that all would make it home safely. Now, in a cruel twist of fate, the soldiers of the 256th must hope and pray for the safety of their loved ones back home in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. The Opinionator and family extend our prayers and best wishes to the members of the Tiger Brigade, their families as well as all of those affected by this tragedy.

Lead, Follow or Get the Hell Out of the Way!

On a day where we have witnessed an unbelievable amount of carnage in New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi and the entire Gulf region, we have idiots that have been quick to try to lay the blame somewhere; usually at the feet of President Bush. The first assertion was that the President had crippled the emergency response by sending the 256th Brigade of the LA Army National Guard to Iraq, notwithstanding the fact that most of the Guard members in LA did not deploy and notwithstanding the fact that the Fox News reporter was just pointing out a convoy of Army Guard trucks and mentioned he had seen convoys all over the place, all day. Yet this nonsense was repeated by every talking head last night that does not work for Fox News. You can almost see Howard Dean's hand moving their lips. Then, some moron to whom I will not link, asserts that this is all the fault of the United States because we are causing "Global Warming." A newspaper in Germany is saying essentially the same thing. Thanks Germany. How about we send you a bill for rebuilding and defending your ungrateful asses? And of course, it is all George W. Bush's fault because he would not sign on to the Kyoto Treaty. Yes, the omnipotent Bushitler can control Mother Nature. In fact, Cindy Sheehan probably thinks he planned it to take the spotlight off of her.

Well people that focus on making political points while there is a crisis piss me off! People are suffering and dying and some on the Left seem to want to win a few votes rather than being part of the solution. We are becoming a nation in which too few people are willing to pass the fire bucket to the next person in line but we have no shortage of those that will bitch about how the bucket brigade is performing.

To those people I say, lead, follow or get the hell out of the way!

Update: As I said, there are plenty of National Guard troops to repond to the crisis. And the come from all over.

Rush Busts 'em

Rush Limbaugh has been all over the liberal's attempts to blame Preident Bush for the "lack" of National Guard troops available to respond to Hurricane Katrina. He played a montage of MSM members repeating the liberal meme, exposing it as a coordinated effort to assign blame. This despite the fact that the Guard has plenty of troops to respond. Without Fox News, talk radio and blogs, the Left might just succeed in this slander.

Moblogged from my Treo 650.

Major Terrorist Enabler Takes the Eternal Dirt Nap

CENTCOM has announced the timely departure from this planet of a major terrorist enabler. Abu Khallad had been a facilitator of the movement of terrorists from Saudi Arabia into Iraq. After being tipped to his whereabouts by "Multiple intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens," Coalition Forces confronted, then made a martyr of this pile of excrement. And we are told that no prgress is being made, ha! Now imagine this, any announcement of this major development was largely ignored by the press here at home. I know, you are shocked, just shocked! Well thanks to Confederate Yankee we have the story. Great  job by our troops. Good luck and continued good hunting!

Hat Tip: Captain's Quarters.

When the News from Iraq is Not Bad Enough, Make it Up!

Michelle Malkin and Mudville Gazette both guide us to the story of a hoax that involved the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University. The story involved a fake war orphan and letters she supposedly wrote to her fictional father serving with the 101st Airborne in Iraq (before he purportedly died). And imagine this, the letters had an anti-war slant. The "journalist" involved, whom, I shall not name is close to being ready to take up a post at the Associated Press or joining Matt Lauer at the Today Show. Grewhawk is right on when he says,

There are two types of Iraq war veterans that have a tremendous appeal to the anti-war crowd - the fictional and the dead. Both types have a common, irresistible trait - others can claim to speak on their behalf.

Be sure to visit one or both of those blogs for more on this story.

A Liberal Who Gets It

Christopher Hitchens writes a terrific piece for The Weekly Standard that is well worth reading. While Hitchens is an unabashed liberal and I would likely disagree with him on much politically, he has been out front in confronting opponents of the War in Iraq with logic, common sense and their own blather. Here is the opening paragraphs,

LET ME BEGIN WITH A simple sentence that, even as I write it, appears less than Swiftian in the modesty of its proposal: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad."

I could undertake to defend that statement against any member of Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, and I know in advance that none of them could challenge it, let alone negate it. Before March 2003, Abu Ghraib was an abattoir, a torture chamber, and a concentration camp. Now, and not without reason, it is an international byword for Yankee imperialism and sadism. Yet the improvement is still, unarguably, the difference between night and day. How is it possible that the advocates of a post-Saddam Iraq have been placed on the defensive in this manner? And where should one begin?

Be sure to read it all.

 

If Only Iraq Had a Dalai Lama

This past week I found myself traveling behind a car with one of those trendy "Free Tibet" bumper stickers. Not surprisingly, it also had a "US out of Iraq" bumper sticker as well. I could not help but wonder at the person behind the wheel and why they felt that it was important to free Tibet but not Iraq. Don't the people of Iraq deserve freedom as much as those in Tibet? And then it occurred to me that if only Iraq had a Dalai Lama of their own, then many on the Left could see their way to demanding freedom for Iraqi's. The same goes for Afghanistan as those on the hard Left, like Ted Rall and Cindy Sheehan, want us out of that country as well. All this strife in Crawford and at Walter Reed could be avoided if only we could find a Dalai Iraq and a Dalai Afghanistan. Anybody have any ideas on where we can find one? Perhaps we should have a "Survivor" type show in Iraq and the winner could be the Dalai. Or open casting calls. We need ideas folks, ideas! Unfortunately, the Left sees Saddam as their Dalai Lama figure in Iraq. But we can do better than that, can't we?

By the way, whenever we who support the war say that we needed to liberate Iraq because Saddam was a despot that oppressed his people, we hear the same old refrain, "What about North Korea, Iran, Sudan, fill-in-the-blank. If we are not going to do anything about them then we should not be in Iraq."  Therefore, they should be held to the same standard. "Free Tibet" also means, "Free Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, North Korea, Syria, Iran, fill-in-the-blank." Just a thought.

Lastly, thanks to Greyhawk and Mrs Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette for their generous Open Post. MG readers feel free to stay awhile, take a look around and come by whenever you like.

The Company You Keep...

...Says a lot about you and your cause. In the case of the Cindy Sheehan Circus in Crawford, TX, the impending arrival of Neo-Nazis and Al Sharpton, tells us a lot about the anti-war "movement" and where their support is coming from. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Left has made the USA the next battlefield in the War in Iraq and the Global War on Terror (Sheehan and her motley band want us out  of Afghanistan as well). Which side are you on and what are you willing to do to ensure victory here at home? If we want to win, we need to begin considering what we supporters of the War can do to ensure that the rug is not pulled out from under our troops and the Iraqi people.

Hat Tip: Mudville Gazette.

Froggy Nails It!

I have been struggling to come up with a coherent way to articulate my outrage at the Code Pink protests outside of Walter Reed Hospital. Fortunately, Froggy at Froggy Ruminations nails it so I do not have to. In sum, they are cowards! As other have pointed out, at least the cloak that this vermin hide behind has been removed and we can put aside the nonsense about supporting the troops just not the war. When it comes to where and how to protest, just because you have the Right, does not make it right.

Be sure to check out Pundits My *SS and Mudville Gazette as well.