Free kibbles

Iraq interior minister says Al Qaeda in Iraq has been reduced by 75%. That's phenomenal. Democrats have all claimed they wanted to leave enough troops in Iraq to go after Al Qaeda. That's a big part of what the surge was all about. Democrats are shown to by full of crap on Iraq once again. Suicide attacks are inching back up. This shows Al Qaeda is desperate and unable to mount the kind of destructive attacks it had in the past. But they will attempt to coordinate a massive attack for a propaganda coup, knowing that the US media and Democrats will help their cause. Bin Laden's message highlights the importance of Iraq to Al Qaeda, reminding us why we must win.

Because of corruption funded by our misguided, anti-American war on drugs, the Mexican army disarms the entire police force of a border town. We complain about illegal immigration and the drug trade, and we always pay lip service to "root causes", but we're never will to address the root cause of our problems with Mexico - the war on drugs. If we legalized drugs, the money powering Mexican corruption would dry up, and we could re-take control of our border. Mexicans could develop their own country instead do fleeing to the US by the millions to be safer and get decent jobs.

Bhutto's son, who's 19, and husband, who is under investigation for massive corruption, to lead party. This is what passes for Democracy in Pakistan. Of course, the US has degenerated nearly as far with the Bush/Clinton dynasties. The US is looking more and more like a banana republic.

France will cut off ties with Syria because of its interference in Lebanese politics.

Iran's first nuclear power plant to be operational next year. This is fine. It's the weapons program we have a problem with.

Group plans to challenge presidential candidates to bipartisan leadership, or it threatens to run a third party candidate. I've never quite understood this. It seems to me it's the responsibility of the losers to work with the winners, not vice-versa. Otherwise, the losers would get their agenda passed against the will of the voters. Obviously the leader needs to invite them to join, but nobody can force them to.

Another article discussing Romney's ads and Huckabee's response, but the article doesn't say who is correct. Isn't that journalism 101? Report the facts? From what I've read, Romney's ads are accurate. This illustrates a big part of the problem in American politics - the press doesn't fulfill its commitment to complete and accurate reporting of the issues and the facts illustrating where the politicians stand.

Hillary Clinton says Bill won't sit in on NSC meetings. She says he'll have the traditional spouse roll. So that means Hillary didn't sit in on NSC meetings. How is she experienced again? How is she more suited to be president than Laura Bush?

The more we know, the less innovative we are. It's harder to think outside the box.

Congratulations to the Patriots for 16-0. But that won't mean anything unless they win the Superbowl. The hard part starts in 2 weeks.

William F. Buckley speaks of Musharraf, Bhutto, and Pakistani violence.

Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, expresses her frustration at the Republican candidates for constantly invoking her father's name.

Ron Paul may have a lot more support in New Hampshire than the polls show.

Liberal columnist says what our politicians refuse to admit - we may be better off with a dictatorship in Pakistan than a democracy. I think the deeper issue is that democracy (I prefer the term self-government) is more than an election. You don't create democracies in totalitarian states by simply having an election. Precursors necessary like security, economic freedom, an educated populace, and they have to be in place for some time before the elections occur. Security insures that the population isn't voting out of fear or intimidation. Economic freedom insures that the voting population understands their personal stake in their own welfare. Education insures that the votes are informed.

One of the problems in America is that our population has declining economic freedom and education, which skews our votes and leads to worse government.

Challenges to spreading freedom. But the way to spread freedom is by example. If we reduce the size and scope of government, adopt the FairTax, and expand free trade, the US will almost immediately return to the status of the world's greatest and growing economy, and it will be untouchable. The world will again see that no economic or political system compares with freedom, and nations will follow our lead. Understanding the solution is easy. But the government of the 2 parties and the statist voters has created such a huge burden on the American people that China is surpassing us, and everybody in the world knows it. So right now, they have no model for increasing freedom. We can change that.

There's small consolation in the corrected calculation showing that China's economy will surpass us in the 2020s (which is what I always heard anyway) instead of 2012. Unless we change course and re-adopt freedom as our guiding principle, Communist China will surpass the US and dominate the world.

Apparently the president can somehow cancel at least some earmarks after he has signed a bill into law. How can that happen? What are non-legislative earmarks? If it's in a bill, how can it be non-legislative? The 2 parties have jumped through hoops to complicate government so that normal Americans can't understand what's going on, and it's bull. All this complication, confusion and misdirection is unnecessary. It's designed to undermine the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We have to kick both these loser parties out of government.