Best wishes in 2010!

This pretty much sums it up for me.

The war categorized as “the good war” to wipe out al Qaeda’s safe haven after the 9/11 attacks is certainly doomed to failure, and no soldier should be asked to risk his life for an effort that America’s leaders have no desire to win. In Afghanistan, the Karzai government will likely collapse within three years of America’s withdrawal, just as the Soviet-backed government of Mohammed Najibullah did. And it will come as no shock when Hamid Karzai’s mutilated body will be paraded around on CNN by the Taliban after they retake Afghanistan. A terrorist attack on American soil with the magnitude of 9/11 attacks won’t be much of a shock either; al Qaeda will have no deterrent towards rebuilding in Afghanistan or attacking America after witnessing our lack of resolve in Afghanistan.

Any president that can’t be bothered to use the word “Victory” when talking about a war he is claiming to be committed to isn’t serious about fighting that war.

I can only hope that the political climate in this country is such that when the time rolls around in 2012 for the next election to get into full swing, Obama is far enough behind in the polls, Afghanistan is somewhat better off and improving because this “surge” has had some positive effect, and Republicans are loud enough in their opposition to withdrawl just when we seem to be winning it that this abandonment of our men and women in uniform can be stopped.

And, hopefully, Obama will be the last dithering Democrat to hold the office for a long, long time.

Ed is right, the only way California recovers from the nightmare of 13 years of Democrats controlling the state legislature is to end the Democrats’ control of the state legislature – while there is still some semblance of a state left to recover.

However, even if Bill Lockyer can’t see any way out, I see one: stop electing Democrats to the Legislature. If the state GOP doesn’t have this clip in ads by the end of next week, maybe California needs better GOP leadership, too.

I don’t have high hopes for the GOP leadership in this state either. “Baffoons” is the word that comes to mind.

Hosting the Olympics in Chicago: 3.3 Billion dollars
Flying the US President and his entourage to Denmark to lobby for it: 1 million dollars.
Finding out Obama is not Jesus Christ: Priceless

Just trying out the new Flipping Book Gallery plug-in with the Pups.

A people struggling against their government for their right to a free and fair election. (via Hugh Hewitt)

I was going through the archives here today and came across this post. At the time I had my fingers crossed that Californians would actually exhibit some common sense. Alas no.

What I said then (2005):

I have to say I am heartened by the results of this survey regarding the upcoming special election here in California next month. To hear the local media tell it, Arnold is in a ditch and isn’t getting out and the negative ads being run by the teachers’ unions are getting down-right nasty. From GOPBloggers:

Prop. 73 (parental notification prior to abortion for minors): 59% Yes 39% NoProp. 74 (extend teacher probationary period from 2 to 5 years): 55% Yes 44% No

Prop. 75 (”paycheck protection” – require written consent from union members to use dues for political activity): 60% Yes 37% No

Prop. 76 (limit state spending growth): 58% Yes 36% No

Prop. 77 (eliminate gerrymandering by having retired judges to draw districts instead of Legislature): 59% Yes 36% No

I am voting YES on all of these.

Arnold is doing exactly what I expected him to do when I cast my vote for him and I can tell it is working – the liberals are howling something fierce.

This, sadly, is how reality played out:

   Propositions                    Yes Votes  Pct.   No Votes  Pct.

73    Minor's Pregnancy          3,676,592  47.2   4,109,430  52.8

75    Public Union Dues          3,644,006  46.5   4,190,412  53.5

76    Spending/Funding           2,948,243  37.6   4,877,735  62.4

77    Redistricting              3,130,541  40.2   4,641,633  59.8

Are you kicking yourself in the ass yet California, particularly on Prop. 76? Here you had an opportunity to vote for some real change in the way things run in this state and you allowed your vote to be swayed against all because of the rhetoric coming from the special interest groups in this state.

You could have broken the hold labor unions had over politicians in Sacramento. You didn’t.

You could have broken the gerrymandered hold a single party has over the state government. A party who, I would remind you has been in charge of this state’s legislature for the last 13 years. You didn’t.

You could have taken a stand against Planned Parenthood helping your 13 year old daughter get an abortion without your knowledge. You didn’t

You could have finally given the governor the ability to cut spending in emergencies just like this one and undo one of the worst ballot measures in the state’s history, providing constitutional funding guarantees to education – something that has produced absolutely abysmal results. You didn’t.

You could have given school administrators the ability to actually get rid of bad teachers. You didn’t.

But you sure showed Arnold, huh?

Someone ask Michelle where she stashed his balls.

“President Barack Obama says he believes supreme leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei has deep concerns about the civil unrest that has followed the hotly contested presidential election there.”

HE’S THE ONE THAT RIGGED THE ELECTION, YOU STUPID FOOL.

Here’s an example of how you should be reacting in a situation like this.

**UPDATE**

Point taken. I still think Obama is a fool for making such a statement though. Saying that you believe the guy that rigged the election has deep concerns about civil unrest, as if his concern is that the election results may have been tainted INSTEAD of being about the worry his ass might get overthrown, is just beyond comprehension to me.

He finally apologized in a sincere way (mostly). I still don’t think he gets it, but he gave an unqualified apology this time and everyone just needs to move on now.

**Update**

And Sarah Palin accepts. It’s over – any attempts to get Letterman fired now just makes people look petty and childish and diminishes the point that this kind of joke involving children (14 OR 18) is over the line. Now the story will be about those evil Rethuglicans trying to get Letterman fired.

Please excuse the dust while I break every single rule of good coding and IT professionalism and work on the new template live in production!!