Well, let’s have some coffee and then take a swim. ~ Johnny Weissmuller

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) Big Government Republicans Are Part Of The Problem, Not The Solution — “The hot issues of the day? They come and go. But, getting control over spending is a conservative principle and eventually, if a Republican ignores that principle, there is going to be hell to pay — which is something that George Bush and the GOP in Washington are going to see later on this year. They’ve spent 6 years dancing with the devil on spending and in November, the check is coming due. All we can do at this point is hope that the tab isn’t so big that it costs them control of Congress.”

Blue Crab Boulevard Spending Spree — “The Washington Post has a report on what McCain-Feingold has brought about by limiting “soft money”. A virtual forest of 527 groups has sprung up all over the political landscape and is wreaking havoc with local races. Enormous amount of money are being pumped into local races at a record pace. Many of the groups doing this are quite shadowy on both sides of the political aisle.”

Blogs for Bush (Mark Noonan) Fatwa to Kill the Pope Issued — “There is a horrific monotony in this – our enemies are impervious to reason and so they must be killed or taken, but we’ve a divided country and a divided non-Moslem world. Too many people don’t seem to want to understand what is happening here and I hope that it doesn’t take the murder of the Pope or some equally horrific crime to wake people up to their peril.”

Happy 3rd Blogiversary and Congratulations to:

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Three Years Of CQ — “When I first started this blog, I expected it to serve two purposes: an archive of my thoughts and important stories on current events, and a way to hone my writing skills and discipline. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the success I have experienced. In fact, had I known it would get anywhere near this kind of attention, I would have used a different nom de plume. “Captain Ed” was a nickname well known to my friends and family, who were the only people I thought would ever read this.” [Captain's Quarters was one of the first blogs that I read on a regular basis, and is still one I read every day. Congratulations Ed! - Jim]

Sister Toldjah Happy 3rd blogiversary to the ST blog — “I don’t get the hundreds of thousands of hits that Instapundit or Malkin get daily, but I’m happy with the traffic I get everyday, and hope it grows. But if it doesn’t, I’ll still be here regardless, blogging about what I’m passionate about. I love doing this, and can see myself doing this for a very long time to come. Maybe one day, I can do something like this from home full time, so I can make the blog even better.” [Another stop on my daily blog travels, and always worth the trip. - Jim]

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Iowa Voice (Brian) The On-Again, Off-Again Message Of The Senate — “First, they pass that bill that calls for the guest worker program, a bill that was the direct opposite of the one passed in the House and in direct conflict with the desires of the American people. Then they seemed to get the message that Americans wouldn’t support that. Then, they go back to the guest worker debate. Now they’re talking about securing the border again. If their goal is to confuse us to the point that we don’t know exactly where they stand on the issue, it’s working.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Border Fence Vote Upcoming — “It will force the Senate to vote on an issue that many people see as critical to our national security , and the bill provides a common-sense solution to the chronically porous border in the American Southwest. Those who vote against it, and especially those who attempt to filibuster it, will have to answer why they insisted on linking national security to normalization for illegal immigrants.”

The Strata-Sphere (A.J. Strata) Now It’s About Nothing? — “John McCain ran into a buzzsaw of common sense over the Geneva Coventions’ General Article 3 and its vague langauge which leaves interrogators with “please” and “pretty” please so we do not hurt someone’s dignity when trying to find out where they planned to kill thousands of innocent people. The media is playing this up as Bush against McCain in a lame attempt to save McCain from himself. But McCain and Graham screwed themselves by being more concerned about terrorists’ feelings than American lives.”

Blue Crab Boulevard Enough Already — “Nothing the Pope said has remotely approached the level of hate that is spewed daily from the Islamist “clerics”. The West needs to stop apologizing to thuggish people like this. We really do need to stand united against this behavior and denounce it.”

Right Truth (Debbie) Ahmadinejad’s view of the future — “Iran’s President Mahmoud Amadinejad has looked into his crystal ball and seen his ideal future for the world. What is it? I thought you might ask:”

In spite of the facts; that the quotation used by the Pope was taken completely out of the larger context of the talk he was giving, he has issued two apologies regretting that Muslims were offended, and the reactions that have given truth to the words he spoke, Islamic leaders are calling for further apologies. What is clear, however, is that there is only one apology that will fully satisfy their crazed, warped view of how things should be.

Al-Qaida in
Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran’s supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff’s remarks on Islam.

[...]

“You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God’s rule is established governing all people and nations,” said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged “sleeping Muslims” to prove their manhood by doing something other than “issuing statements or holding demonstrations.”

“If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house,” the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, “then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome.”

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an “excuse for suppressing Muslims” by depicting them as terrorists.

“Those who benefit from the pope’s comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests,” he said, referring to the United States.

There is one line in the article in which I am complete agreement:

Extremists said the pope’s comments proved that the West was in a war against Islam.

It’s about time we realized that fact. There is only one apology that these Islamofacists will accept. That is for the Pope, the U.S., the West, and the world to apologize for not becoming Muslims.

Remember, Islam means submission.

Rightroots Update
Amount Raised (as of 12:10 EDT)
$86,425.18

Four days ago (9/12/2006) Pope Benedict quoted Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.

Muslims, repeating the actions over the Dutch cartoons, instead of arguing the point or even understanding the context have instead insisted on proving the current relevance of the quote.

Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis – a good hot cup of coffee. ~ Alexander King

Rightroots Update
Amount Raised (as of 08:00 EDT)
$85,033.18

The Strata-Sphere (A.J. Strata) Bringing Order To Baghdad — “The reason Americans are losing hope with Iraq is not because of Bush’s decisions (they have brought the country to the brink of a bright future), but more because the Iraqis and Muslims tend to run to violence to solve their issues and frustrations.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) The Pope’s Real Threat — “All this has shown is that Muslims missed the point of the speech, and in fact have endeavored to fulfill Benedict’s warnings rather than prove him wrong. If one reads the speech at Regensburg, the entire speech, one understands that the entire point was to reject violence in pursuing religion in any form, be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Bahai.”

Right Truth (Debbie) Chavez and Ahmadinejad, sitting in a tree … with laser technology? — “Chairmanship of the G-15 changed from Algeria to Iran this year giving yet another podium for Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

ScrappleFace (Scott Ott) Senate Mulls Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell Detainee Policy — “The new approach, dubbed ‘Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell’ by supporters, would sidestep thorny questions about compliance with Geneva Convention Common Article III, and “get the Central Intelligence Agency out of the intrusive business of prying into people’s personal lives,” according to the text of the proposed measure.” [Heh. Jim]

WHOOPS: Wrong Date Headline Corrected