...
This week, Secretary
of State-designate Condoleezza Rice was the subject of two
days worth of confirmation hearings before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On Wednesday, she was
approved by the committee by a vote of 16-2, with Democratic
Senators Boxer and Kerry as the two "no" votes.
The plan was for her nomination to then be presented to and
voted on by the full Senate on Thursday. But two Democratic senators
held up that plan. Boxer was one of the two. The other senator
holding up the nomination of the first black woman to head up
the State Department was former Ku Klux Klan member Sen. Robert
Byrd.
...
A vast majority of our elected officials, on the Left and
the Right, believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
President Bush and Congress received the same intelligence information
gathered from around the world and based their opinions of Saddam
as a threat to the U.S. on that information. Now, the Bill-Clinton-Democrats
who both excused Bubba's lies and voted in favor of invading
Iraq are calling Bush a liar.
...
In the morning
session of the January 6 nomination hearings for Attorney General-designate
Alberto Gonzales in the Judiciary
Committee, Sen. Ted Kennedy, of Chappaquiddick fame, said the
following regarding forms of "torture":
"Now, the Post article states you chaired several meetings at which various
interrogation techniques were discussed. These
techniques included the threat of live burial and water boarding,
whereby the detainee is strapped to a board, forcibly pushed
under water, wrapped in a wet towel and made to believe he might
drown."
Then Sen. Kennedy said the following during the afternoon session:
"Well, just as
a -- as an attorney, as a human being, I would have thought
that where -- if there were recommendations
that were so blatantly and flagrantly over the line in terms
of torture, that you might have recognized them. I mean, it certainly
to me that water boarding, with all its descriptions about drowning
someone to that kind of a point, would come awfully to getting
over the border, and that you'd be able to at least say today
there were some that were recommended or suggested on that. But
I certainly wouldn't have had a part of that, as a human being."
...
For weeks, liberals were harping about the $40-million price
tag for Inauguration festivities, claiming that it was way too
expensive -- in spite of the fact that most of that money came
from private donors. The Washington Times reported yesterday:
"But a review
of the cost for past inaugurations shows Mr. Bush's will cost
less than President Clinton's second inauguration
in 1997, which cost about $42 million. When the cost is adjusted
for inflation, Mr. Clinton's second-term celebration exceeds
Mr. Bush's by about 25 percent.
"According to
the Consumer Price Index, $42 million in 1997 is the equivalent
of $49.5 in 2004.
"The significant
majority of funding for this year's festivities, including
nine officials balls, are from private donations and
tickets for events held by the Presidential Inaugural Committee,
a similar setup to fund raising Mr. Clinton used to underwrite
his inauguration. Mr. Clinton had a record 12 balls in 1997."
...
Liberal "documentary"-maker Michael Moore received
a 2003 Oscar for his film "Bowling for Columbine" in
which he criticized our nation's obsession with guns. Fox News
briefly noted yesterday that "Moore's bodyguard was arrested
for carrying an unlicensed weapon in New York's JFK airport Wednesday
night."
...
