More absurdity from the compassionate, all-accepting, tolerant liberals who inhabit - where else, but the bastion of modern liberalism - Berkeley, California.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women's peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

You'll remember, those are the same Code Pinko lunatics that openly defaced the recruiting station in October of 2007.

I marvel daily in the rabid Left's admiration of the United States Armed Forces.

From last night's GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.



Bryan over at Hot Air put it this way:

I think it’s do or die time for conservatives. Either we rally to Romney or we reconcile ourselves to McCain and all that that means. It’s one or the other. We have a few more days to make up our minds.

Shell has announced what anti-capitalists are calling an "obscene" £13.4 billion profit, a largest-ever British record.

Good for them!

American rival Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest non-government controlled oil company, is also tipped to break the previous U.S. earnings record when it reveals its results this week.

It is expected to announce profits of £20billion in the past year.

Good for Exxon!

The absurd and seemingly intrinsic compulsion on the left is to hiss at such news. I rejoice in such news! This is the free market at work folks. The oil companies produce a publicly-traded commodity that each and every one of of you reading this (including myself) have decided to make an integral part of your life.

Supply and demand is a beautiful thing.

That top Democrats (like Hillary) and their supporters have suggested our government should confiscate the profits and/or regulate the prices of a private company, only serves as proof of the quasi-socialist ways of the modern Democratic party.

I look forward to Exxon's announcement (and the Left's subsequent moaning).

Field trip: Travel back in time almost a year: Defending Big Oil

In case you found yourself in a hole last night, a quick recap:

John McCain won Florida.

Giuliani is set to exit and endorse McCain.

Mitt Romney has vowed to carry on the fight.

It's essentially a two-man race, folks. Now, more than ever, I believe it's time for dedicated conservatives to rally around the viable conservative candidacy of Mitt Romney.

Super Tuesday is just around the corner...

I found an interesting video over at KARE11.com. For those of you who know me, you will undoubtedly understand why I found this video (and its associated article) particularly interesting.

Those of you who don't know me personally... can probably figure it out.

=)

That's the latest from Rasmussen Reports.

The Arizona Senator finds himself in a Sunshine State toss-up with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. (Today's Daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows Romney at 28% nationally and McCain at 26%)

...

Nationally, Romney leads McCain 36% to 21% among conservatives likely to vote in a Republican Primary. McCain leads Romney 41% to 12% among moderate voters. The good news for Romney is that there are more conservatives than moderates.

That's according to Saddam's interrogator.

Saddam Hussein initially didn't think the U.S. would invade Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction, so he kept the fact that he had none a secret to prevent an Iranian invasion he believed could happen. The Iraqi dictator revealed this thinking to George Piro, the FBI agent assigned to interrogate him after his capture.

...

Piro spent almost seven months debriefing Saddam in a plan based on winning his confidence by convincing him that Piro was an important envoy who answered to President Bush. This and being Saddam's sole provider of items like writing materials and toiletries made the toppled Iraqi president open up to Piro, a Lebanese-American and one of the few FBI agents who spoke Arabic.

"He told me he initially miscalculated... President Bush’s intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998...a four-day aerial attack," says Piro. "He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack." "He didn't believe the U.S. would invade?" asks Pelley, "No, not initially," answers Piro.

Everyone say "Thank you President Clinton."

Saddam still wouldn't admit he had no weapons of mass destruction, even when it was obvious there would be military action against him because of the perception he did. Because, says Piro, "For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that [faking having the weapons] would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq," he tells Pelley.

He also intended and had the wherewithal to restart the weapons program. "Saddam still had the engineers. The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there," says Piro. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD...to reconstitute his entire WMD program." This included chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Piro says. (all emphasis mine)

Thanks to President Bush, Saddam didn't have the chance.

Remember when global "warming" hysterics were content in their warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of climate change?

Well, now it's being reported that global warming may actually decrease hurricanes.

Global warming could reduce how many hurricanes hit the United States, according to a new federal study that clashes with other research. The new study is the latest in a contentious scientific debate over how manmade global warming may affect the intensity and number of hurricanes.

In it, researchers link warming waters, especially in the Indian and Pacific oceans, to increased vertical wind shear in the Atlantic Ocean near the United States. Wind shear — a change in wind speed or direction — makes it hard for hurricanes to form, strengthen and stay alive.

So that means "global warming may decrease the likelihood of hurricanes making landfall in the United States," according to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami Lab and the University of Miami.

Global warming increases hurricanes, global warming decreases hurricanes. Global warming is responsible for unusually hot summer spells, global warming is responsible for unusually cold winter spells.

These people have got to get their story hysteria straight.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Field trip: Be sure to check out Crush Liberalism's categorical documentation of the absurdity surrounding global "warming" hysteria.

Despite his early successes, GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appears to be running short on cash.

Republican Mike Huckabee said Tuesday his presidential campaign is facing financial difficulties with top advisers working without pay and some aides quitting.

...

In an interview earlier Tuesday in Atlanta, adviser Ed Rollins said top advisers are working without pay and some have left.

"Most people are staying on," but a few have departed, Rollins said. "A number of people, including myself," have agreed to forgo their pay to spend as much as possible on television ads in vital states.

Campaign contributions continue to come in, he said. But he acknowledged that Huckabee is stretched thin as he tries to compete in Florida's primary and many of the two dozen states holding contests Feb. 5.

As you've most likely heard by now, Fred Thompson has dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Here's Mitt Romney on Thompson's exit:

Haha!

Forgive me, but I couldn't resist posting on this video of "America's first black president" nodding off during a Martin Luther King service.



I mean... it's one thing to be tired from sleepless nights wondering if you're going to be America's first "first husband"... but come on! You're on camera, on stage, RIGHT BEHIND THE SPEAKER!

How about a little discipline, sir.

Yes, improvements.

Even the almighty UN is forced by reality to acknowledge the progress taking place in Iraq.

"We cannot ignore the recent improvements both in the security and political situation in Iraq," Staffan de Mistura, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said in a speech to the Security Council.

He said the reduced level of violence could be attributed to a number of factors including the increased presence of U.S. and other troops, a ceasefire declared by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, and increased cooperation with Iraq’s neighbors.

I wonder how long it will be until just one top Democrat - or just one of the liberal Democrats running for president - has the courage to do the same. After all, isn't progress in Iraq good for Democrats?

Of course not.

Victory in Iraq is counter productive to political gain for Democrats and the Left's intrinsic refusal to acknowledge modern progress in this war is indicative of just that.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Michael Yon - whom you will notice is a part of The Conservative Manifesto Blogroll - has a well-deserved write up in today's New York Times.

Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home.

Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Rarely do I feel the need to repost someone else's original work in its entirety. But when I do, you know it's good.

From Texas Rainmaker:

It’s just sad.

Half of the roughly 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year are 25 or older. Only about 17 percent are teens. About 60 percent have given birth to least one child prior to getting an abortion.

A disproportionately high number are black or Hispanic. And regardless of race, high abortion rates are linked to hard times.

"It doesn’t just happen to young people, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with irresponsibility," said Miriam Inocencio, president of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island. "Women face years and years of reproductive life after they’ve completed their families, and they’re at risk of an unintended pregnancy that can create an economic strain."

As a matter of fact, it does have to do with irresponsibility. If you’re not financially capable of supporting a child, don’t engage in activities that could lead to having one. Killing a baby after the fact is irresponsible.

It would be different if women could become pregnant from riding the bus, swimming in a pool, brushing their teeth, etc. But it’s common knowledge that there’s one activity, and one activity alone, that can lead to pregnancy. If you’re not ready to support the life of a child, then you shouldn’t engage in that activity. Period.

But often the women getting the abortions say they act in the interests of children they already have.

"It wasn’t a hard decision for me to make, because I knew where I wanted to go in my life — I’ve never regretted it,” said Kimberly Mathias, 28, an African-American single mother from Missouri.

It’s pretty sad when someone admits that killing a baby “wasn’t a hard decision to make".

"It wasn’t hard to realize I didn’t want another child at that time," Mathias said. "I was trying to take care of the one I had, and going to college and working at the same time."

If it wasn’t that hard to realize, then why the hell did you engage in the one activity that could result in a child? It’s not like you ate some bad mexcian food and wound up pregnant. You knew sex could lead to pregnancy and you knew you didn’t want to become pregnant. It’s not hard to figure out the responsible path in that equation.

…[Planned Parenthood’s national vice president for medical affairs Dr. Vanessa] Cullins views the right to abortion as an important component in the ability of all American women to determine the right size for their family.

Then why not support Andrea Yates’ right to drown her five children in the bathtub? Maybe she had just determined five fewer kids was the "right size for her family".

"I don’t think most people understand that these are women who have families, who are making a very serious decision about their reproductive health,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “The stereotype is that the decision is made lightly. It is not."

I’m sorry, I guess I just misunderstood the "it wasn’t a hard decision to make" line.

Bottom line, if it’s such a financial burden to have and raise a child, don’t practice the act that could lead to one.

[Cue standing ovation]

I just don't know how may more times I can pull the "I like Mike Huckabee, but..." card.

In a recent interview, the former Arkansas governor said the Constitution is a "living, breathing document." Sounds like a liberal, does it not?

The irony in all this? Apparently Huckabee doesn't read his own web site.



So which is it?

Look, I'm not saying Mike Huckabee is a liberal. Surely he has a largely conservative record. However, he does worry me on certain key principles of conservatism, and this is just one more example of just that.