Carter overthrew the Shaw of Iran and gave us the mullahs of the modern Islamic terrorist state.  Clinton sat there and did nothing during the first bombing of the trade towers, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the Islamic slaughter of black Christians in the Sudan and the humiliation of Mogadishu.  Kofi Annan sat atop the U.N., claiming ignorance, while his son participated in the greatest financial scam (U.N./Iraq Oil for Food program) in the history of Earth. 

Dan Rather's election year attempt to hang Bush with fraudulent military records brought down Rather, not the president.  John Kerry did his best to hide his real military record, but this time the votes of the soldiers were counted.  Every flaming liberal partisan from Ted Kennedy to Nancy Pelosi filled the air -- then and since -- with malconceived statistics, baseless indictments and cheap insults, yet the polls the establishment media won't show you have the Democrats rated below both the president and the Republicans in Congress -- and picture these same media outlets as being in serious trouble themselves!  (Declining market share, and in some cases a loss of raw reader numbers.)

If Paul Linnman had taken the morning shift at Portland's affiliate of  the Hot Air America network (the liberal answer to Rush and the Radio Conservatives), even in the socialist heartland of America, his ratings would be so far down the toilet that they would have passed Astoria last Wednesday.  But Linnman took the job at KEX, which is the Christmas star in the Portland radio firmament because of (gasp!  Oh, no!  Horrors!) the anti-Christ, Limbaugh, himself!

November 21, 2005 -- As part of his longstanding and ongoing attempt to maintain his fictional portrait of the world, widely admired Oregonian, Paul "Exploding Whale" Linnman, presented widely admired Oregon 3rd District Congressman, Earl Blumenauer, this morning on KEX (1190 AM).  Earl did an op-ed for the Oregonian.  He isn't very happy with President Bush.  During his segment with Linnman, he described the war in Iraq as an ongoing disaster incorrectly portrayed as a victory during the famous Bush visit to an aircraft carrier whose conning tower bore a banner that said "Mission Accomplished." 

(11/30/05 update: Senator Joe Lieberman [D-CT] today said politicians like our Earl the Pearl, who bash the Bush Iraqi program are full of crap.  He just got back from Iraq and gives the Bush approach high marks across the board.  82% of Iraqis, says Lieberman, are optimistic about the future.  This is because they don't read the New York Times, watch our old line networks or listen to Paul Linnman and his flaming-left guests.)

Linnman said nothing in response to Blumenauer's reference to "Mission Accomplished," which proves that on that station at that time, two leftwing boobs were present.  It also clearly indicated that neither man -- the "journalist" or the politician -- is qualified to have a respected opinion on any military subject.  The mission to which the banner referred was that which the aircraft carrier had just finished -- that is, a specific journey to a specific battle location to perform a specific task or set of tasks during a given period of time. An aircraft carrier goes on many missions during its military lifetime.  This was just one of those missions..  The battle of the Coral Sea was part of a WWII naval "mission."  D-Day, the allied invasion of Europe was a "mission," and was accomplished. 

The banner on the aircraft carrier to which Earl the Pearl is making reference here wasn't a statement about the whole war, folks. Just a small part of it. Only somebody who is actually ignorant, or lying, would say otherwise.  Blumenauer and Linnman are either liars posing as men of the people, or ignorant fools who mislead their listeners out of rank stupidity.

What is a victory?

If you wish to talk about the whole war in Iraq, then mention the fact that the battlefield portion of it was over in record time with record low casualties.  Mention also that tons of weapons including gas (a WMD) and uranium ore (also for WMD) were found.  Mention also that due to Bush military policies it is safer to be hit in Iraq than in any other war in history.  The survival rate is much higher than ever before, anywhere at any time during any ground action during any conflict on the planet, ever, repeat ever, repeat ever. I would bet that you didn't know that because all you've heard from Linnman and Blumenaur's media is the lack of kevlar jackets and the lack of vehicle armor plating. Plus, the body count. 

Twenty-five hundred dead in a multi-year war and subsequent restructuring (while under repeated attack by terrorists) of an Islamic dictatorship in the heart of the Middle East?  Twenty-five hundred?  More young people than that in America died from drugs, drinking and drive-by shootings last summer, alone.  Hell, I'd like to see the numbers of the kids shot or stabbed by thugs in New York City, Washinton, D.C., Detroit and L.A. last year.  I wouldn't be surprise to find that those four cities whose infrastructures are totally dominated by liberals like Linnman and Blumenauer, killed more young people in 12 months than have died in the whole Iraqi campaign !!!

How many of them gave up their lives while bringing freedom to millions of men, women and children?  Not one.

How, one wonders, do liberals define victory?  Well, it isn't two national elections with a higher turnout than we get in America.  It isn't the marvelous resurgence of the Kurds in the north. It isn't the peace and progress that has presided in the south.  It isn't the hundreds of new schools, the dozens of new newspapers, the proliferation of satellite dishes, the bustling markets, the thousands of volunteers for the new police and military units, the rebuilt hospitals or the plethora of new freedoms for women.

You would think they would at least define victory as the end of the former regime's internal policies which caused the death of a reported 30,000 civilians -- many of them stuffed into mass graves -- each year.  Or as the end of the regime's torture policies which included the recreational hobbies of Hussein's sons -- namely stuffing prisoners feet first into large machines designed to shred plastic garbage.  But, these, apparently, do not meet the liberal's definition of the term.  Victory to them, is neither the sudden release of good or the sudden end of bad.  About all that is left is that victory, to American liberals, means anything that places them in a position of power.

The world, according to liberals

Virtually everything Linnman reports requires inspection.  This is also true of virtually everything Blumenauer says.  I have featured this one item, the carrier landing comment, because the statement was so obviously emblematic of liberal anger and ignorance. Bush, a former National Guard F-102 (a post-Korea, wasp-waisted fighter jet) pilot landed on that carrier in a Top Gun style two-seat Navy fighter jet, wearing the flight gear of a crew member.  This enraged Linnman's old line establishment press, and Blumenauer's congessional democrats. 

I recall the draft-dodger, Bill Clinton, on a carrier flight deck, wearing a leather bomber jacket.  At the time, the American military was draining away.  Re-enlistment numbers were at bottom.  He was so despised by Americans in uniform that Eagle Scouts were sending back their certificates because his signature was at the bottom.  I recall the bodies of Marines dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, and the response of Mr. Clinton -- which was to do what Mr. Broadcast Journalist Linnman and Mr. Military Expert Blumenauer want to do, now.  Cut and run.  I recall the reaction of Osama bin Ladin, who in an interview with ABC's John Miller said that the Clinton retreat from Somalia was when he knew America had lost its will to defend itself.  It was this that convinced him he could pull off what is now known as 911 --  the attack on the towers in New York City that cost some three thousand Americans their lives.

"The only thing Al Queda has going for it is the American Left and the American media," Rush said at 9:39 AM.  His show is also on KEX, and this morning followed the conversation between classic leftie, Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and premier member of the liberal Oregon media, Paul Linnman.

When you think about that statement, it isn't particularly complimentary about our two subjects, here. 

(LL)

© 2005 Oregon Magazine