MATT DRUDGE // DRUDGE REPORT 2004�: "Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL): 'Could you imagine what the Republicans would be doing to a Democratic president who was a CEO of a company that now has gotten billions of dollars worth of contracts - no-bid contracts - without competition? There would be hearings day after day. And my prediction to you is that you will see in this session of Congress that begins on Tuesday, there will not only be hearings but I think there ought to be impeachment hearings.'"

But of course, Halliburton got huge contracts of the same sort under the libs and Bill Clinton, so there will be lots of chattering, but there are no acorns in that tree.

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Muslims Worldwide Protest French Head Scarf Ban: "Waving the French flag or wearing it as a head scarf, thousands of Muslim women marched Saturday through Paris, the center of a worldwide protest against France's plan to ban head coverings from public schools."

So, our French allies can show a little manliness after all. They may not want to take on Saddam in the trenches, but they will get tough on the schoolgirls. Well, ever bit helps, I guess, and if the French ever discover the true nature of the Muslim minority in their midst, it will not be a good day for Islam in France.

U.S. May End Ban On Iraq Contracts (washingtonpost.com): "Bush administration officials are leaning toward reversing a ban on bidding by French, German and Russian companies for U.S.-financed contracts in postwar Iraq, administration aides said yesterday. "

My emotions say stick it to them; but my head says, let them bid.

My Way News: "Bush installed Pickering by a recess appointment, which avoids the confirmation process. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005."

Hurrah for Dubya!! Now maybe we won't hear so much about the "kindler-gentler" nonsense and get some political statesmanship. Not one enemy of George Bush has been won over by his stroking of Ted Kennedy and the other nasties in Washington. Play hardball, that's what I say.

"AMERICA, IRAQ, AND PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP"

[Speech Delivered by Senator Edward M. Kennedy To the Center for American Progress At The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C.]

"Nowhere is the danger to our country and to our founding ideals more evident than in the decision to go to war in Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has now revealed what many of us have long suspected. Despite protestations to the contrary, the President and his senior aides began the march to war in Iraq in the earliest days of the Administration, long before the terrorists struck this nation on 9/11. "

Am I appalled if I learn that Bush etal entered the White House aware that something had to be done about Iraq? Of course not. That would just confirm that America had made a right a proper choice in the man lawfully elected as President in 2000. Clinton claimed that he knew about the danger from Osama and Hussein, but did nothing. I would expect Bush to have some knowledge about what to do.

The libs can't have it both ways. They can't accuse Bush of not having a plan, and then condemn him for having one. But the buzzards flock to where the carcass is. Liberalism has been dying for decades, and it is time to have a funeral.

Kennedy and his liberal pals have no plan. All they can do is carp, carp, gripe, gripe, about those who do, and those who have the manhood to carry it out. Manhood doesn't mean how many girls you can bed and how well you hold your booze.

"AMERICA, IRAQ, AND PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP"

"I believe that this Administration is indeed leading this country to a perilous place. It has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a Congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth. On issue after issue, they have moved brazenly to impose their agenda on America and on the world. They have pursued their goals at the expense of urgent national and human needs and at the expense of the truth. America deserves better. " [Speech Delivered by Senator Edward M. Kennedy To the Center for American Progress At The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C.]

Ted Kennedy is a master demagogue. The demagogue masters the tactic of blaming his enemies for what he, himself does. Kennedy knows about those who "have moved brazenly to impose their agenda on America and on the world" and "have pursued their goals at the expense of urgent national and human needs and at the expense of the truth," because that is a description of his whole life, personal and public. Shame, shame, shame!!!

Dean Says Faith Swayed Decision on Gay Unions (washingtonpost.com): "

'The overwhelming evidence is that there is very significant, substantial genetic component to it,' Dean said in an interview Wednesday. 'From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.' "

Let's see, now. He's wrong on religion, on God, on homosexuality, on sin, on creation, and on gay people. Not much left in the sentence to be right on. And he wants to be President?

I have put a couple of links on my Theological Figs website concerning the "Law of Non-Contradiction" or "Law of Contradiction"[to use Van Til's term.] It is commonly believed that Van Til thought that Christians should use this law; rather, he thought that only a Christian could legitimately use it. Van Til was no Hegelian.

Anti-War Candidate? Wesley Clark: What Must Be Done to Complete a Great Victory: "Germany has already swung round from opposition to the war to approval. France will look for a way to bridge the chasm of understanding that has ripped at the EU. Russia will have to craft a new way forward, detouring away, at least temporarily, from the reflexive anti-Americanism which infects the power ministries. And North Korea will shudder, for it has seen on display an even more awesome display of power than it anticipated, and yet it will remain resolute in seeking leverage to assure its own regime's survival. And what it produces, it sells. "

In less than one year, Wesley Clark stands condemned, either as a fawning liar in 2003 or as an opportunistic liar in 2004. Either way, the man does not deserve to be President. The present situation in the world, vis a vis terror, is partly due to another opportunistic liar. We do not need a surrogate for him.

Is Clark now trying to stiffen the opposition of Germany, France, Russia, and North Korea against US policy against terror for his own political ambitions, or the ambitions of Hilary? What web of deceit is this? But it shan't work.

The American Flag and the Devil flag [?] are morally equivilent in politically correct and New Age America. Hence, both are banned. This is called integration into the void, where there are no values, no discernment, no values, and no ability to make decisions. If all religions are of equal value, then none is of equal value, for there will always be someone who will worship a can of peas, if for no other reason than to mock genuine faith.

local6.com - News - Fla. Couple Told To Remove Flag From Window: "Susan Hudson and her boyfriend, A.J. Hemsey, who have been flying the flag in a bedroom window for more than a year, consider themselves 'ultra' patriots.
'I'm an American, and I will not be bullied in my own country,' Hemsey said.
But property manager Mary Jane Fullam said the flag violates community rules encouraging uniformity. The complex insists that the flag must be removed or hidden behind the white window blinds so passers-by don't see it when they enter the property.
'That's why we give them the blinds,' Fullam said. 'If we let them hang their flag, then someone else could say, 'Hey, the people at 6107 have a flag. I worship the devil, so I should be able to fly my devil flag.''"

Commentary: The Trouble with Islam - (United Press International): "'Who is the real colonizer of Muslims -- America or Arabia?' Manji asks. It's clearly Arabia in her mind. 'Why are we all being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis?' Her questions are a steady cascade that flow from her key inquiry -- what's wrong with Islam? Manji doesn't spare the rod. 'What's our excuse for reading the Koran literally when it's so contradictory and ambiguous?'"

This book is must reading for those who want to know more about Islam. By a girl expelled from Muslim school for asking questions.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004�: "'President Bush and Tony Blair should be proud of their resolve in the face of so much doubt,' Clark wrote on April 10, 2003. 'Can anything be more moving than the joyous throngs swarming the streets of Baghdad? Memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the defeat of Milosevic in Belgrade flood back. Statues and images of Saddam are smashed and defiled.'"

Clark: liar, liar, pants on fire! See the blog below on Cohen's fantasy concerning Clark.

From the start, O'Neill rowed against the Bush team: "Cheney realized immediately that O'Neill at the Treasury was no team player but a disruptive influence opposing the president's plans while poisoning morale in his own department. O'Neill, as protagonist in The Price of Loyalty by journalist Ron Suskind, repays the vice president by describing him as a sinister force."

"O'Neill choosing as his amanuensis Suskind, who embarked years ago on a deconstruction of the Bush White House, suggests vindictiveness after being sacked late in 2002. The book has attracted the most attention by asserting the Bush team was preparing to attack Iraq even before 9/11, but O'Neill, by his own admission, offered little input to foreign policy. Suskind is inadvertently most valuable in exposing O'Neill's role as the president's hair shirt, not his advocate, on economic policy."

Novak, as usual, nails this issue.

Oh, well. Anybody can be wrong once or twice. Somebody asked Ike once if he had made any mistakes as President. He was supposed to have said, "Yes, and they are all on the Supreme Court."

Karl Rove's Nightmare (washingtonpost.com): "Karl Rove had a bad moment here the other night. It came as Wesley Clark was speaking to a packed hotel ballroom, when the retired general derided the president of the United States for what was supposed to be his supreme, cinematic moment: landing on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. 'I don't think it's patriotic to dress up in a flight suit and prance around,' Clark bellowed. The men had been separated from the boys. "

Wishful thinking, Cohen. Clark has been all over the place and has the credibility of a lying schoolboy. He isn't the MAN to take on Bush, nor does he have credibility with the military. Besides, he is Bill and Hilary's puppet, hardly a credential for a man's man in the military. I think its panic time for liberals, or we wouldn't see these kinds of articles.

The Hindu Business Line : WTO verdict on Byrd Amendment � Not a triumph of sorts: "The general feeling among the people concerned is that it has become 'highly fashionable' in the WTO in Geneva to establish a linkage between world trade and any kind of activity in any part of the world; however remotely it may be connected or not, it has become a kind of 'magnificent obsession' in the WTO to interfere with sovereign rights of the governments, to question their legislative competence to look after their industry particularly in the wake of developments that are adverse to them with the coming into force of the plethora of WTO Agreements. "

IMO, the Bush Administration should not give way on the Byrd Amendment. The US has the right to do whatever it can to alleviate the damage caused by nations who engage in unfair dumping of goods on the market. The WTO is not a supergovernment, and the US should not surrender its sovereignty to it.

Let the European Union engage in a trade war and embargo if they wish. These things never succeed in damage to anyone but the people engaging in them.

Besides, it would put liberal Democrats who who respond with spasms of ecstacy whenever the European Union is mentioned. This is the BYRD Amendment after all. See link to the proposed Euro sanctions

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004�: "'The extreme conditions are actually the end result of the planet warming,' Gore has told advisers, sources say, in explaining his motivations [to speak on global warming on the coldest day in 50 years]. 'The Bush policies are leading to weather extremes.' "

This is weird, indeed. Now Bush is even responsible for the weather. I guess if you have moved God out of your universe, you have to have someone to blame. In three years in the presidency, Bush has endangered the planet by his policies and changed the weather.

Does this sound like Alice in Wonderland to you? Bush can do more, I guess, than even the biblical Devil can do.

OpinionJournal - Extra: "Politics can be a rough sport. Paul O'Neill's departure after two years as Treasury secretary was not handled well. His bitterness, some would say, is quite understandable. But bitterness is a bad basis for objectivity, and any of Mr. O'Neill's reported views regarding President Bush and the conduct of economic policy do not comport with my recollection or with the public record. In fact, the president is what he claims to be--a compassionate conservative--and one with a grasp of how the world really works."

FYI

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Editorials: The rules according to Rev. Al: "Aristide's reign has been a disaster for Haiti. Elected in 1990, ousted in a coup and restored to power in 1994 with U.S. military backing, Aristide embodied the hope that Haitians would inch toward prosperity as they left tyranny behind."

Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute!! I thought that Billy Bob Clinton and the Marines saved Haiti for democracy and the rule of law. Didn't they? Where is 60 Minutes and the expose of liberal failures. C'mon now.

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Editorials: The rules according to Rev. Al: "Aristide's reign has been a disaster for Haiti. Elected in 1990, ousted in a coup and restored to power in 1994 with U.S. military backing, Aristide embodied the hope that Haitians would inch toward prosperity as they left tyranny behind."

Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute!! I thought that Billy Bob Clinton and the Marines saved Haiti for democracy and the rule of law. Didn't they? Where is 60 Minutes and the expose of liberal failures. C'mon now.

Telegraph | Opinion | We are falling under the imam's spell: "Let me see if I understand the BBC Rules of Engagement correctly: if you're Robert Kilroy-Silk and you make some robust statements about the Arab penchant for suicide bombing, amputations, repression of women and a generally celebratory attitude to September 11 � none of which is factually in dispute � the BBC will yank you off the air and the Commission for Racial Equality will file a complaint to the police which could result in your serving seven years in gaol. Message: this behaviour is unacceptable in multicultural Britain.
But, if you're Tom Paulin and you incite murder, in a part of the world where folks need little incitement to murder, as part of a non-factual emotive rant about how 'Brooklyn-born' Jewish settlers on the West Bank 'should be shot dead' because 'they are Nazis' and 'I feel nothing but hatred for them', the BBC will keep you on the air, kibitzing (as the Zionists would say) with the cr�me de la cr�me of London's cultural arbiters each week. Message: this behaviour is completely acceptable."

See the next article. Thankfully, England still has Tony Blair, but how long before they become as wimpish as the French and Germans, terrified of the Islamists among them?

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Opportunity knocks: "One party challenges the next generation to create an America respected for its opportunity and freedom and leading an interconnected world; the other heralds an America unequalled in its power and challenges the next generation to join America's quest to liberate individuals, wherever they are. "

America has always opted for power and the liberation of the individual. Greenberg is whistling in the dark. This writer cannot conceive of an America which would settle for the wimpish collectivism and moral relativism of the Europe of Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The best of those nations has already immigrated to America. Those nations do not have the moral fiber to resist the Dark Forces of terrorism and unassimilated Islamists in their own midst.

NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story: "Clinton, Congress Ratified 'Secret Bush Plan' to Depose Saddam
It turns out that former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's so-called bombshell revelation that the Bush administration had a 'secret plan' to depose Saddam Hussein before 9/11 wasn't such a secret after all."

It is amazing that Paul O'Neill was not asked about this in the famous interview, or is it? When have the talking heads every really done their homework? They see their job as discrediting republicans and conservatives, not as informing the public.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Soros Devotes Millions to Defeat Bush: "

'I'm ready to put my money where my mouth is. 2004 is not an ordinary election. It's a referendum on the Bush doctrine. The future of the world hangs in the balance,' Soros said. "

Talk about arrogance. Men don't believe in predestination, but are willing to spend billions to form it into their own image. They will try to do what they claim would be arrogance for God to do, for they imagine that God loves people too much to predestine the future. They evidently don't love men enough not to do it, though. At least we know that some are arrogant enough to try.

Oh, well. It is good that Soros money is going down a rat hole of impossibility, as if he could change the mind of God. It might be put to an evil purpose, not just a futile one.

Following up on the last story, the lawyers of the very wealthy and powerful Kobe Bryant are now attacking Colorado's rape shield law so they can destroy Kobe's accuser, with whom he commited adultery at least, and is now desiring to escape the consequences of his actions. Poor Kobe. Why can't sports idols go and do as they please? Why shouldn't they be able to do what they please with what ever girls or boys happen to come into their way? These adult babies have been petted and praised and put on the fast track since they were small because their physical ability is a gold mine, not only for them but for professional sports, sportscasters, advertizers, sportswear, book deals, etc. Why should a poor girl get in their way, especially one with a history of mental illness? Shouldn't Kobe be able to satisfy his lust on her without consequences? Why, should the state of Colorado get in the way of him and the parasites that feed on him? Why should a small podunky Colorado town and prosecutor get in their way? Brush it all aside and get on with life and its corrupt pleasures.

Corrupt the law or whatever it takes, so that spoiled rich babies can do what they please. This the American way, isn't it? The rich in France before the French Revolution were not any more corrupt or more serious about having their own way and exploiting the weak for their advantage.

Where are the Fem Libs who descend like vultures upon rich men who exploit poor girls. [Oh, yes. I forgot. They have no credibility after their cave-in on Bill Clinton. But then, when DID they have credibility? I guess it's money and power, after all, and no clear sense of purpose or morality that drives them. Have you noticed how quiet they have been since Bill Clinton affirmed the Kennedy lifestyle and show that it was ok for powerful liberal males to do what they please with young, starry-eyed liberal girls. But you conservatives, don't try it at home.]

The advantage that the US has is our laws and constitution, but we must be ever vigilant. If we are not careful and strong, constitutional liberties will mean that the rich can do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want. Don't think it cannot happen. Everybody talkin' about heaven ain't a-goin' there.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Fox411 - Jacko: Bailed Out of Financial Mess by Friends: "I am told that a $70 million payment that was due on Jackson's $350 million Bank of America loan was recently paid -- not by Jackson, but by a group of friends and advisers who saved him from financial disaster. The payment was due on Feb. 17 and has already been made by Jackson stalwarts Al Malnik, a Miami lawyer, and Charles Koppleman, a long-time respected figure in the record business. Both of them attended the Monday summit of the Jackson inner circle at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "

Chesterson wrote that the greatest threat to Christian morality would come from the very wealthy who are determined to do whatsoever they want whenever and however.

They will support each other, go to bat for each other, corrupt laws, courts, and political processes in order to get their own way and be free from any consequences of their actions.

The Associated Press: "An American soldier returning from a patrol became the 100th fatality in the U.S. military's two-year Afghan campaign when his vehicle collided with a truck, highlighting the dangers facing U.S. forces in a nation roiled by a stubborn Taliban insurgency."

It is probably safer to be an American soldier in Afghanistan than a citizen of a major American city.

Ministries ignore no smoking - (United Press International): "'There are no-smoking signs everywhere, but nobody respects them, and above all, nobody enforces them,' Codacons said in a statement. "

I guess that Italians observe the no-smoking signs in the same way they observe traffic laws.

Op-Ed Columnist: 'Spinning Into Control': "Is our pre-emptive policy working? Was the message sent by ousting the Baathists as well as the Taliban worth the cost?"

Seven positive results of the Iraqi War. Good things that will ripple for many years.

9NEWS.com - Newsroom: "A 15-year-old girl who started a group called Youth Opposed to Animal Acts collected enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot this year."

Whoopee!! Government by adolescents!

usnews.com: Opinion: Michael Barone on: An end to evil; New black candidate; and Texas redistricting (1/8/04): "Anyone who has ever listened to Richard Perle speak in a panel discussion will remember the elegance of his framing of issues and the strength of his argumentation. And anyone who has listened to David Frum in such a setting will remember his cheerful demolition of opposing arguments and forthright statements of the facts. All those qualities are apparent in their new book, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror. This is an eloquent and persuasive look ahead at the next imperatives in the war against Islamist terrorism and defense of George W. Bush�s military action in Iraq as integral to that struggle. "

Read the whole article. A great book review.

Excite - News: "'Examples from the most recent Vatican document show all too clearly the demonization of these children of God, referring to homosexuality as a 'troubling moral and social phenomenon,' 'a serious depravity,'' said the letter dated Dec. 19.
'The language was so awful and so disrespectful and insulting to people,' Rev. Richard Prendergast, one of two priests who drafted the letter, told Reuters of the Vatican doctrine."

The goal is not legalization but acceptance. There will be penalties, civil and religious, against anyone who indicates in the slightest way that sodomy is sinful behavior. The true children of God are those who are born of the Spirit, not those who are born of the flesh. Creation does not make you a child of God anymore than it makes a mole or a chigger a child of God. Sodomy is war against the image of God. Gay Pride parades do not consitute moral regeneration.