General Petraeus is delivering his second report on progress in Iraq to Congress this week, and once again those in Washington opposed to the war are pre-empting his report with defeatist agendas.

Democratic Senators Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Jack Reed, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have decried the lack of political progress and called it a sign of "failure." Apparently they're unaware of the Iraqi government's passage of key legislation, including a vital de-baathification law, oil revenue sharing provisions, a national budget, and granting limited amnesty to thousands of detainees.

Now, a new group of activists wants to get in on the act, setting up a new coalition called "The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" - but their plan is anything but responsible.

It calls for an end to all military action in Iraq, and instead encourages the U.S. to end the conflict using "diplomatic, political, and economic power." There's a word for this strategy: surrender.

Call your member of Congress today. Tell them the only responsible plan to ending the War in Iraq is through victory. A good first step toward that goal is for Congress to listen to the advice of the military commanders on the ground - qualified and capable men like General David Petraeus.

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General Petraeus’ Report Is About Far More Than Election Year Politics

...the burgeoning Iraqi government is making important strides of its own: its Ministry of Defense has assembled 134 army combat, infrastructure, and special operations battalions, the national government is sharing vital oil revenues with Iraqi provinces, and the Iraqi parliament has passed pension, de-Baathification reform, amnesty, and budget laws in just the last few months alone. In fact, the much-maligned Iraqi government has met 12 out of the original 18 benchmarks set for it and made substantial progress toward meeting five more. I often jokingly say that this gives the Iraqi parliament a better track record than the U.S. Congress, but as it turns out, it’s really not a joke. There is genuine validity to that assertion...

As a result of these indisputable steps forward, more than 20,000 of our troops are coming home. But more importantly, they are returning home after success – not defeat.

That is, after all, where the difference lies between those who have stood behind the Petraeus plan and those who have sought to undermine it every step of the way. Indeed, congressional Democrats and their allies in the anti-war Left have devised strategy after strategy to derail our efforts in Iraq, but they have failed each time, allowing our troops to achieve the gains over the past year that have made victory in Iraq much more attainable. This week, they’re bound to try once again, however, with all signs indicating that they will take direct aim at General Petraeus, even as his strategy is yielding success in Iraq, and make the convoluted argument that Iraq is to blame for our recent economic downturn...

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[last time around all we heard was political-benchmarks-political-benchmarks-political-benchmarks... Yesterday? No mention of political benchmarks by any Democrat. Now it's all about the cost.

about that cost:
defense spending -- even with war costs factored in -- is well below the historical average -- Today we’re spending less than 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. That’s only 1 percentage point higher than we were spending at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. And it’s still below the 6.2 percent of GDP we were shelling out for defense during the waning years of the Cold War in the 1980s -- and significantly less than the 9.5 percent we spent in the late 1960s, duringthe Vietnam War. READ MORE

Media is Absent on Medal of Honor Awardees

Google News [search] shows that no one, other than local news in San Diego, is covering the awarding of the Medal of Honor to US Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor.

I checked because I hoped that they might print something today about the Navy SEAL who sacrificed himself to save his teammates. I thought, maybe, it would make for a nice front page story this morning. "The Paper of Record" did not print one word.

You can email the Public Editor, Mr. Clark Hoyt, and ask why the Times chose not to run a story about Michael Monsoor on the day of his award.

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[UPDATE: Special Report with Brit Hume had a piece.]

Iran installs 6,000 more centrifuges in nuke facility

It has been two years since the United Nations demanded that Iran suspend it's enrichment of uranium so that a thorough review of its nuclear program could take place under the auspices of the IAEA.

Since then, Iran has installed more than 3,000 centrifuges at its facility in Nantanz to convert uranium to either nuclear fuel to power a reactor or highly enriched uranium to build a bomb. This despite 3 different sets of sanctions given out by the Security Council.

Now the Iranians are making a giant leap in capability by doubling the number of operational centrifuges at Nantanz:

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[but the UN's 3 declarations against such developments were so sternly worded...]

Palestinian Hate-Education Continues

"The Palestinian education and propaganda are more dangerous to Israel than Palestinian weapons."
Ariel Sharon, November 18, 2004

Acknowledging that without a population educated to accept peace, no other negotiations or concessions were meaningful, the U.S. President set forth, "A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." (April 30, 2003) Before discussions on the status of land, borders, Jerusalem, or "settlements," the Road Map called for Palestinian leadership to issue an "unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

In a few weeks, it will be five years since the Palestinian Authority was to prepare its citizens for a two-state solution and end incitement in its educational system. Yet from pre-school through highschool, Palestinian children are indoctrinated to deny Israel's legitimacy, demonize Israelis and Jews, and glorify violent struggle as a religious goal. The Palestinian government-produced [Saudi Arabia paid for, manufactured in Lebanon] textbooks and government-controlled media work in tandem to assure that Palestinian children will be no more disposed to living peacefully with Israel tomorrow than their parents are today.

[the US keeps pressuring Israel to make concessions toward a peace in which they have no partner]

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Pentagon staffer guilty of handing secrets to China agent

A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, faces up to 10 years in jail after admitting to one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, the department said in a statement.

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China Seen As Top 3 U.S. Enemy In Poll

Washington - China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans. Iran topped the list, with 25 percent naming it when asked which country is the greatest U.S. enemy, according to the Gallup Poll. Iraq came next at 22 percent, then China with 14 percent. (Snip) Iraq has remained one of the most frequently named ever since, even though Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the current Baghdad government is backed by the U.S.

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Global Warming Activist Pressures BBC to Significantly Alter Article

[UPDATE to prior piece]

NewsBusters has just learned that a British "climate activist" was responsible for getting the BBC to radically alter its "Global Temperatures 'To Decrease'" article last Friday.

As reported Sunday, the third paragraph of what previously had been a very balanced piece about how global temperatures have been declining since 1998 was totally reworded in order to make the report just another hysterical climate change pronouncement. [snip]

[before]:

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

Yet, some time on Saturday after NewsBusters posted its piece at 12:22 PM, the third paragraph was mysteriously changed to this (emphasis added):

[after]:

But this year's temperatures would still be way above the average - and we would soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of global warming induced by greenhouse gases.

On Monday, Jennifer Marohasy, the director of the Environment Unit at Australia's Institute of Public Affairs, received and published an e-mail exchange between the article's author, Roger Harrabin, and a climate activist affiliated with the British Campaign Against Climate Change:

[she condescends and he stands his ground - for the first two rounds, but after she threatens him with [my bold]:

"I would ask : please reserve the main BBC Online channel for emerging truth.

Otherwise, I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated. And that would make you an unreliable reporter.

I am about to send your comments to others for their contribution, unless you request I do not. They are likely to want to post your comments on forums/fora, so please indicate if you do not want this to happen. You may appear in an unfavourable light because it could be said that you have had your head turned by the sceptics."

[his reply 16 minutes later]:

"Have a look in 10 minutes and tell me you are happier

We have changed headline and more"

[read the whole thread, and compare the full before v after versions of the article > ]

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THE CHILL IS ON

[btw: the basis for the above BBC's original article]:

The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that global temperatures have not risen since 1998. That would be the same temperatures that models from the U.N.'s Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said would be scorching the earth by now.

Of course the IPCC spins the news, saying we should look at trends over a pretty long period, and that the cool spell is the effect of the Pacific Ocean's La Nina current, part of what he calls "variability." If that's the case, then why can't the Pacific's El Nino current, which played a large part in the warm reading for 1998, simply been seen as a "variability" and not part of a greater warming trend?

Were the IPCC not dedicated to spreading fear, it would admit its climate models, on which much of the global warming alarmism is based, are flawed. While pandering politicians, media sycophants and Hollywood dupes desperately seeking significance have lectured us about our carbon monoxide emissions, real temperature changes measured over the past 30 years have not matched with increases predicted by the IPCC's models.

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Devastating demolition of the case for mass immigration

[UK]

Today's report on immigration from the House of Lords Economic Committee strikes a devastating blow against years of blatant government propaganda. It rejects outright the Government's argument that a high level of immigration is of economic benefit to the UK.

The committee's findings are devastating. The report takes each of the arguments that the Government has been putting forward for years, and tears them to shreds one by one. It is a watershed in the debate on immigration...

[yeah they drive on the wrong side of the road but most points apply... Recommended > ]

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Bill would hide police salaries

California

An amendment to a bill Monday seeks to push police salary and other basic information about officers back out of public view. The bill comes on the heels of two state Supreme Court rulings last year finding that salaries and other basic information about police officers are indeed public records. AB 1855, authored by Assemblyman Anthony J. Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, would declare that the salaries of police officers as well as their badge numbers and individual identities are private...

[this is not transparent government, is insulting to taxpayers, and potentially dangerous otherwise given the considerable power we invest police with (guns come to mind)]

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Big dog.

.