Anti-Life Barbara Boxer

Barbara Boxer is a pro-abortion radical.

She's so extreme that she finds a benign resolution to honor the Pope and welcome him to America to be a threat to her staunch supporters, the pro-abortion contingent.

From The Crypt:

While Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to Washington received wall to wall coverage, Sen. Barbara Boxer briefly held up a Senate resolution welcoming the pontiff because she objected to language about how the pope values "each and every human life."

The measure later cleared the Senate Thursday afternoon after the sponsor of the resolution, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), dropped the reference to "human life" because some Democrats saw it as a reference to abortion. According to Republican aides, Brownback, a devout Catholic, did not want a high profile fight over the resolution, which was adopted on a voice vote. In fact, Brownback blackberried his staff from the Pope's mass at Nationals Park to direct them to drop the references to human life.

A copy of the original resolution can be found here.

...Three Senate Republican aides involved in the issue say that Boxer objected to the "life" language, which Democrats see as an implicit reference to the Catholic church's opposition to abortion. Senate Democratic leadership offices declined to comment but referred questions to Boxer's office, which has not responded to Politico's inquiries this morning.

UPDATE: Boxer's spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz has written The Crypt to say "we are very pleased we were able to reach an agreement with Senator Brownback to remove the political language and pass this resolution welcoming Pope Benedict."

"Senator Brownback also agreed to remove the political language referencing religious expression on public buildings," Ravitz said in an email.

That last clause that Brownback stripped can be found on the top of page two of the resolution linked above.

From FOX News:

The offending language: "Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and vulnerable, witnessing to the value of each and every human life."

A Boxer aide pointed specifically to the last 10 words of that sentence, saying it points directly to "pro-life" language. Boxer, with the support of a number of her Democratic and Republican colleagues, held up the bill for three days, trying to find a compromise.

One senior Republican leadership aide told FOX News, "What's the problem with this? Does Sen. Boxer not value life? It speaks directly to the message the Pope delivered when he arrived here."

From the Papal mass this morning, FOX News has learned, Brownback e-mailed his staff to strike the offending language.

Now, the resolution, which was just approved by unanimous consent, reads: "Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and vulnerable."

This was so stupid of Boxer on a number of counts.

I don't think valuing life is political or partisan. Are Dems afraid to admit to the value of each and every life? They sure are.

I see nothing wrong with "Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and vulnerable, witnessing to the value of each and every human life."

Brownback didn't specify the unborn or embryos. He didn't define life. All he said was "each and every human life." Big deal.

I don't know why Boxer is satisfied with striking "each and every human life" but leaving in "the weak and vulnerable."

The unborn certainly are weak and vulnerable.

In sum, Boxer comes off like a nut.

Cornyn Amdt. No. 2934

The U.S. Senate voted to condemn MoveOn.org for its despicable ad attacking General David Petraeus.

The ad appeared in the New York Times, on Monday September 10. That Lefty rag even printed the Lefty group's shameful smear at a bargain rate.

The Senate amendment's statement of purpose:

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

How hard can it be to vote to express support for the U.S. Armed Forces?

For politicians indebted to the hard Left MoveOn, it's too hard to do.

View the Roll Call Vote.

Wisconsin senators split on the amendment. Russ Feingold voted against it. Obviously, he's not maverick enough to bite the hand that feeds him. Herb Kohl voted for it. He can afford to upset MoveOn.org. He's nobody's senator. Unlike Feingold, he doesn't need MoveOn, so he could show some decency.

Those voting in support of MoveOn's despicable ad slamming Petraeus were the usual suspects:

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Biden (D-DE), Cantwell (D-WA), and Obama (D-IL) didn't vote.

The spin being put on the resolution really is laughable.

According to the lib media, it was a stunt meant to turn the screws on Democrat presidential candidates.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on Thursday tried to turn a controversial anti-war newspaper ad against Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama after neither voted to condemn it.

The Senate voted 72-25 to pass a resolution condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, as "Gen. Betray Us." The liberal group's full-page ad appeared last week in The New York Times.

Clinton voted against the measure; Obama did not vote.

Among the presidential hopefuls, Republicans Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas voted for the resolution sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut voted against it.

Obama, Clinton and Dodd voted for an alternative resolution offered minutes earlier by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. That resolution condemned political attack ads, including those that questioned the patriotism of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., both Vietnam veterans. It failed 50-47.

McCain and Brownback did not support Boxer's measure. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., also a presidential candidate, did not vote on either resolution.

I think it was a legitimate resolution. I don't think it was game.

It gave senators the opportunity to clarify where they stand on the matter and go on the record.

Obama thought it was best to evade the issue rather than condemn the attack.

Obama, who appeared in Atlanta with R&B artist Usher and former NBA forward Dominique Wilkins, defended his decision not to vote, calling the resolution the "kind of game-playing that the American people are tired of."

He said it was wrong to waste time "debating about a newspaper ad" when young men and women are dying in Iraq and veterans are not receiving needed services.

I disagree.

It's not a waste of time to show support for the military.

Obama's refusal to vote reflected the "kind of game-playing that the American people are tired of."

Biden, too, took the easy way out and didn't vote.

Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd, on the other hand, determined that it would be a mistake to anger the fringe Left group.

Clinton is definitely in MoveOn's pocket. With Norman Hsu out of the picture, I guess she needs to make up some slack and can't afford to alienate the far Left loons.

Before the vote, during his press conference, I think President Bush spoke for many, many Americans when he gave his reaction to the ad and the Democrats' failure to condemn it.

Q What is your reaction to the MoveOn.org ad that mocked General Petraeus as General "Betrayus," and said that he cooked the books on Iraq? And secondly, would you like to see Democrats, including presidential candidates, repudiate that ad?

THE PRESIDENT: I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org -- or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military. That was a sorry deal. It's one thing to attack me; it's another thing to attack somebody like General Petraeus.

Very well said.

The 25 cowardly Democrats who voted in support of MoveOn.org may have scored points with the Left-wing group and its radical followers, but I think they lost far more than they gained.

Batty Barbara Boxer

Barbara Boxer doesn't seem able to control herself at hearings.

The woman flips out, says irresponsible things, and verges on being downright abusive.

She's the female version of Russ Feingold.

Two gems from Boxer yesterday:

BOXER: Please, General, I ask you, please, don't do what you did in '04 when you painted a rosy scenario in an op-ed piece, turned out to be wrong, like you did in '05 when you told us, and we believed you, that the Iraqis were just about there, they were going to take over their own defense. And please consider that others could be right. The Brits, General Casey, controller general, Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean, who just wrote in an op-ed piece that our presence in Iraq is recruiting terrorists for Al-Qaeda. Listen to the Iraqi people; the American people; the majority of the Congress.

BOXER: I get letter after letter asking me how long we'll be in Iraq. I tell them it depends on who the president is and how many votes there are in the Congress to change course -- and as for my own views, I tell them this war is the biggest foreign policy mistake ever. It took our eye off defeating the terrorists led by Osama Bin Laden who killed our people six years ago today; the greatest mistake because it strained our military, our National Guard. In California, gentlemen, we are short 50% in our equipment to respond to an earthquake, and the secretary of the army said we'd be in trouble if there was a major earthquake. The greatest mistake because we've lost so many of our own and so many are wounded who we will be dealing with for years and years. It breaks our hearts, all of our hearts. The biggest mistake, because we've lost the support of the world -- when we had the whole world in our hand after 9/11.

First, "the whole world" was NOT "in our hand after 9/11."

Second, the Islamic extremist world is reveling in her words and those of her Democrat colleagues.

Barbara Boxer's Impeachment Fever

Barbara Boxer is a disgrace.

She's unhinged.

Drudge posted a link to audio of her talking on the Ed Schultz Show.

The woman is wacky.

She's yapping about impeachment and John Dean. It's just weird.

"I've always said that you need to keep [impeachment] on the table and you need to look at these things because now people are dying because of this administration. And, you know, that's the truth…

"This is as close as we’ve ever come to a dictatorship."

That's right. Bush is a dictator.

Boxer is not the only loon talking like that.

Months ago, Eleanor Clift said, "What we have in this country is a dictator who's ineffective."

Boxer's comments, of course, belong on the Wall of Shame, but she's so over the top here I felt Boxer's extremism deserved to be highlighted in a post as well.

She's gone off the deep end. Truly.

Conservative Talk Radio: The Legislative Fix

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer are scheming to muzzle free speech by targeting conservative talk radio.

At least that's what Sen. James Inhofe is charging.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer say they never talked about a "legislative fix" to the "far right-wing extremists" that make up conservative talk radio.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said Thursday on John Ziegler's evening radio show on KFI in L.A. that he overheard Clinton, D-N.Y., and Boxer, D-Calif., saying they want legislation to control conservative radio talk shows.

"I was going over to vote the other day and I was walking with two very liberal gals that didn’t pay any attention to me being with them. They were outraged by something you said or Rush Limbaugh or somebody said that upset them," Inhofe told Ziegler. "They said, ‘we have got to do something about this, these are nothing but far-right wing extremists. We’ve got to have a balance, there’s got to be a legislative fix to this.’"

He added: "As we got off the elevator, I said, ‘you gals don’t understand. This is market-driven and there’s no market for your liberal trite.’"

This has become a "he said, she said, she said."

Both Boxer and Clinton claim that Inhofe is delusional.

Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz told FOXNews.com that conversation "never happened."

"Senator Boxer told me that either her friend Senator Inhofe needs new glasses or he needs to have his hearing checked, because that conversation never happened," Ravitz said in an e-mail.

"Jim Inhofe is wrong," added Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. "This supposed conversation never happened, not in his presence or anywhere else."

Could Inhofe be that screwed up?

Does he take Ambien and it affected his perception of reality?

I think it's far more likely that Clinton and Boxer are lying.

Is it a stretch to believe that these two libs spoke about talk radio as a thorn in the Democrat Party's side?

I think it's easy to imagine Clinton and Boxer babbling about castrating conservatives.

The Islamic State of Iraq

How many times have you heard Democrats say that Iraq is a distraction from the War on Terror?

That's been their mantra -- We're bogged down in a civil war in Iraq. We don't belong there. We should be going after al Qaeda terrorists.

Russ Feingold says it all the time.

In December 2005, Feingold blogged:

I opposed the Iraq war from the start because it was a distraction from what should be our top priority - fighting the terrorist networks that threaten us.

Speaking to Lindsay Graham on CNN, Barbara Boxer said:

“Lindsey, just be careful what you say. The bottom line here is that the losers are the ones who have engineered this war, made a huge mistake — Dick Cheney we’re in the last throes, the war will last six months — and all of you who have supported this escalation and have turned us away from fighting al Qaeda into putting us in the middle of a civil war.”

And it's not just Dems. Republicans say it, too.

Many of the Republican presidential candidates are quick to blame President Bush and his administration for missteps in Iraq and their impact on the War on Terror.

They say that we shouldn't be fighting in Iraq because the enemy isn't there.

If that's the case, I'd like them to explain al Qaeda's claim that they captured American troops in Iraq and are holding them hostage.

BAGHDAD -- An al-Qaida front group announced Sunday it had captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

The statement came on one of the deadliest days in the country in recent weeks, with at least 124 people killed or found dead. A suicide truck bomb tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq, killing 50 people, and a car bombing in a crowded Baghdad market killed another 17.

Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.

Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.

The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim that it was behind the attack Saturday in Mahmoudiya that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. But the Sunni area known as the "triangle of death" is a longtime al-Qaida stronghold.

If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the umbrella Sunni insurgent group against U.S. forces here.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the U.S. military, said 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made "every effort available to find our missing soldiers."

Read more about the "Islamic State of Iraq" here.

The New York Times reports:

The Islamic State of Iraq posted its claims of responsibility on jihadist Web sites on Sunday. “Clashes between your brothers in the Islamic State of Iraq and a Crusaders’ patrol in Mahmudiya, southern Baghdad province, has led to the killing and arresting of several of them,” the message said.

If history is any measure, the chances of the Americans surviving capture would be slim. The organization has claimed responsibility for numerous killings of prisoners.

Last June, insurgents captured two American soldiers during a surprise attack near Yusufiya. After a four-day search by 8,000 American and Iraqi troops, the soldiers’ bodies were found about three miles from the site of their kidnapping. They had been tortured, and insurgents had booby-trapped the road leading to the bodies.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella insurgent group that was a precursor to the Islamic State of Iraq and included Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for those killings.

Al Qaeda is in Iraq, and actively seeking to harm our military personnel.

If this incident proves anything, it's that the War on Terror is being fought in Iraq.

While we face a number of difficult challenges in Iraq, it's flat out false to say that al Qaeda isn't among them.

It's idiotic to say that Iraq is nothing more than a distraction and not part of the War on Terror.

Gore's Personal Energy Ethics Pledge Lapse

(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Yesterday when Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill and pontificated about global warming, he balked at taking a Personal Energy Ethics Pledge.

Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma merely asked Gore to personally commit to the sort of lifestyle that he's pushing on others. Gore refused and Barbara Boxer flipped out.



Read how the lib media are covering Gore's stunning hypocrisy.

From The New York Times:

In the House, there was little debate about the underlying science; the atmosphere was more that of a college lecture hall than a legislative give-and-take. But in the Senate, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, set a pugilistic tone, challenging Mr. Gore’s analysis of the dangers of climate change from hurricanes and melting ice in Antarctica.

“It is my perspective that your global warming alarmist pronouncements are now and have always been filled with inaccuracies and misleading statements,” Mr. Inhofe said.

Beneath the carefully groomed surface of the House and Senate committees’ scripted production, a rift was evident. Republican committee leaders, including Mr. Barton in the House, and Mr. Inhofe in the Senate, seemed somewhat isolated from their rank-and-file colleagues, who appeared more receptive to Mr. Gore’s message and the scientific consensus on climate change. Even J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the former House speaker, seemed to accept the scientific consensus.

So Inhofe took a "pugilistic tone."

He's "isolated" because he wouldn't buy into the hysterics of the alleged consensus on the environmental doomsday scenario.

And what was Gore's tone? His usual dull, boring, monotonous drone?

...Waving his finger at some 40 House members, [Gore] said, “A day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they’ll ask one of two questions.”

Either, he said, “they will ask: what in God’s name were they doing?” or “they may look back and say: how did they find the uncommon moral courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise of American democracy?”

Yeah, our children and grandchildren should ask: what in God's name was Gore doing by devouring massive amounts of energy, flying all over the world, living in an enormous mansion?

They may look back and say: how did Gore find the uncommon moral weakness to sink so low and be so selfish and disingenuous?

On the Senate side, Mr. Inhofe quickly hit an issue that some of Mr. Gore’s critics have sounded in recent weeks — the size and energy-consuming properties of his new home in Tennessee. Mr. Inhofe sought to exact a pledge from Mr. Gore to cut electricity use so that his home outside Nashville used no more than the average American home in a year.

This triggered a jousting match with both Mr. Gore and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the committee chairwoman, which ended when Ms. Boxer made a tart reference to the change in power in the Senate. “You’re not making the rules,” she told Mr. Inhofe.

Mr. Gore then said he pays extra to use wind-generated electricity at the home; Mr. Inhofe took that response as a rejection of the pledge.

Boxer is such a joke with her "tart reference."

When faced with Gore's obvious hypocrisy, Boxer deflected Inhofe's challenge by yapping about Dem power.

She's as heavy-handed as Gore is heavy.

The fact is Gore is all talk -- hysterical, misleading, inaccurate talk.

And he most definitely does not walk the walk.

Why should he? There's no controlling legal authority.

Let's face it. Emperor Gore has no clothes.

(Yuck!)

Feingold Sets Three Hour Deadline for Withdrawal

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold likes deadlines and timetables.

He has been a very vocal advocate for a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

First, he set December 31, 2006 as the magic date. Then, he joined with John Kerry in proposing a July 1, 2007 deadline. Senate proposals for troop withdrawal deadlines change from day to day. I'm not sure which deadline Feingold supports now.

Yesterday, Feingold released a statement announcing his support of a bill for a three hour deadline for withdrawal.

This bill isn't about troops or Iraq or war. It's about passengers on planes.

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is standing up for the rights of airline passengers by cosponsoring the bipartisan Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act, introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill would allow passengers to safely deplane if a plane sits on a runway for more than three hours. The bill also would mandate that food, water, and adequate restroom facilities are provided to passengers during a delay. The legislation was introduced following storms in February that left some airline passengers across the country stranded for up to 11 hours in some instances.

“Many of us have had air travel experiences we’d like to forget, but nobody should have to be stranded on a runway for hours on end,” Feingold said. “While we can’t do anything about the weather, we can make sure that airline passengers are not subjected to the terrible conditions we witnessed last month.”

Yes, Feingold believes that legislation is necessary to protect passengers from torture at the hands of the airline industry.

He and Boxer and Snowe (Oooh! Bipartisan!) are proposing three hours as the deadline.

Why three hours?

I think that's too long. That's too many hours to be held captive on a plane going nowhere.

These sort of arbitrary deadlines are always a problem.

Deplane, deploy, whatever.