Cigar Weekend

Our sincere thanks to CAO and Rocky Patel for a great weekend.

Inspiring

'Bravo' to the man in black!

Who will meet us at the next rally?

White Flag #18

Found at Townhall.com:

Karl's Weekend Reading

Watch for another cigar posting this weekend, as we'll be celebrating the open seat on "The View" and re-reading these great articles:

Charles Krauthamer in his Townhall article: "How Yeltsin Brought Down the Soviet Union.

Victor Davis Hanson reminds us why we're at war in his NRO article: "Is There Still a War on Terror?"

A germ, some spent nuclear fuel or a vial of nerve gas could cause as much mayhem and calamity as an armored division in Hitler’s army. The Soviets were considered rational enemies who accepted the bleak laws of nuclear deterrence. But the jihadists claim that they welcome death if their martyrdom results in thousands of dead Americans.

James Taranto reviews the victim mentality of the other side with their latest whine about Giuliani saying "If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001." The problem is, he never said that. But the whine drives the MSM, and the MSM drives the whine!

This is just the latest example of one of the oddest rituals of American politics: Democrats try to smear Republicans as mean and dirty by falsely accusing them of saying terrible things about Democrats. The classic example, to which we devoted a 2004 essay, is the plaint: Stop questioning my patriotism! As we wrote then:

Democrats themselves raised the issue of patriotism by defensively denying that they lacked it. A cardinal rule of political communication is never to repeat an accusation in the course of denying it ("I am not a crook"). These candidates "repeated" a charge no one had even made.

Reid in Baghdad

Another white flag found at Townhall.com:

Elena Tregubova

It appears another Russian journalist is the target of Putin's thugs. Elena Tregubova has asked the UK for asylum. The author of a 2003 book critical of Putin & Co. was recently the interest of Russian investigators. When Russians investigate radioactive poisoning... of Kremlin critics... by Russian thugs... who were working on orders of Russian leaders... and they ask about your whereabouts... it is time to leave.

Our hopes and prayers are with Ms. Tregubova.

UT: Alan Cullison, WSJ, "Putin Critic Seeks Safety" [$$]

It is official - the Democratic Party Banner

Three more from Townhall.com. Jeepers.

WhiteFlag.com?

This is getting ridiculous. Obviously everyone can draw a white flag, and everyone has in the past couple weeks. Lucky for the commies the election is far off. They can pass their symbolic bill now, and spend the next 18 months asking "What appeasement?" enough times to trick the voters. UT: Townhall.com.

Our white flag-to-content ratio is quite high these days. Here is an editorial from today's Wall Street Journal to give some more balance to Ushanka.us, titled "Harry's War".

So far, the surge is meeting that test, even before the additional troops Mr. Bush ordered have been fully deployed. Between February and March sectarian violence declined by 26%, according to Gen. William Caldwell. Security in Baghdad has improved sufficiently to allow the government to shorten its nightly curfew. Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has been politically marginalized, which explains his apparent departure from Iraq and the resignation of his minions from Mr. Maliki's parliamentary coalition--a sign that moderate Shiites are gaining strength at his expense.

Another Flag

UT: Michelle Malkin

Tuesday Night Cigar