Bumper Snicker

I spotted this on the rear bumper of a beat-up Ford pickup truck parked at the Jamul Post Office:

Ted Kennedy’s car has killed more people than my gun!

As James Taranto might say: Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

Congressional Lunacy

Most of the time, the antics of Congress leave me uncertain whether to laugh or cry. This, though, just makes me mad:

An amendment to the defense authorization bill, introduced by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), a member of the armed services panel, failed Wednesday night by a vote of 216-202 with six Republicans voting in favor of the amendment together with 196 Democrats.

Andrews’ amendment, which had strong support from House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), would have prevented funds authorized in the bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from being used to plan a contingency operation in Iran.

The one area where I expect some actual performance from our Federal government is on defense. When I look around the world today for threats (current or potential) to my country, it’s not hard to find them. Certainly Iran would appear on anybody’s list of such threats. Who could think that a country run by the mad mullahs, with a certifiably wacko president, daily threatening to wipe Israel and the United States “off the map", and actively working on nuclear weapons — was not a threat?

So what does Congress do?

They try — and damned near succeed! — to prevent our armed forces from spending any money at all in making contingency plans concerning Iran. Had they succeeded, one could imagine the day when Iran drops a nuke on Tel Aviv, Baghdad, or (via missile) Washington — and our military would be completely hamstrung by the absence of any well-thought out planning. They’d have to respond in a hurried, ill-informed, completely ad hoc fashion. None of the usual preparatory work (especially for logistics chains) would have been done. This is not how we became the world’s greatest military power.

There were 418 House votes on the Andrews amendment. Of those votes, 202 were for the amendment (and 97% of those were Democrats). Could there really be 202 Representatives who are so moronic, so clueless, so suicidal as to vote to cripple this country’s potential response to a belligerent, nuclear-armed Iran?

Apparently, the answer is “yes”.

This vote is actually pretty frightening if you consider that the Democrats are edging closer and closer to an active policy of appeasement and denial of the threat of fundamentalist Islamic fascism. This vote, seen through that lens, looks a lot like preemptive surrender. The word “Islam” means “submission” — and that sure looks like what the Democrats are trying hard to do…

Major Douglas A. Zembiec

A tribute to a fallen warrior.

Now there’s something you just don’t see every day — much to the shame of the American lamestream media. Kudos to the writer (Dan Morse) and his employer (the Washingon Post).

The lead:

The turnout seemed entirely fitting for a Marine who was described — with little apparent hyperbole — as the toughest guy in the house. More than 1,000 mourners, from generals to civilians, packed the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis yesterday to honor Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, who was killed last week outside Baghdad.

Five hours later, after the sound of taps had faded over his coffin at Arlington National Cemetery, came what Zembiec, 34, might have considered the finest tribute of all.

About 40 enlisted men gathered under a tree, telling stories about their former commander. Some had flown in from as far away as California, prompting one officer to observe: Your men have to follow your orders; they don’t have to go to your funeral.

The men knew firsthand how Zembiec, who lived outside Annapolis, had come to be known as the Lion of Fallujah.

This story, read aloud by a close friend (Eric L. Kapitulik), says it all:

While Zembiec was stationed at Camp Pendleton after the Fallujah campaign, his parents visited. Zembiec and his father, Don, drove onto the base to shoot skeet and were stopped at the gate by a young Marine. Are you Captain Zembiec’s father? the Marine asked. Yes, his father said.

"I was with your son in Fallujah,” the Marine said. “He was my company commander. If we had to go back in there, I would follow him with a spoon."

"I would follow him with a spoon."

Sounds like a great epitaph for an American hero.

Don’t you wish we saw more of this in our lamestream media? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to read more stories like this, and read less mindless adoration of Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Byrd, etc. — and less equally mindless bashing of Bush?